The Beaumont Housing Authority Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to appoint Allison Landrum as the new Executive Director, effective December 3, 2018.
Landrum is a native of Dayton, Texas and a 1998 graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University, earning her B.A. in Communications.
Landrum began her career in 1999 at the Houston Housing Authority. Robert L. Reyna, current BHA Executive Director who was with the Houston Housing Authority at that time, hired her as a Communications and Grant Development Specialist. During her tenure with the Houston Housing Authority she developed the agency’s first website; she wrote all grant applications in support of housing development and social and supportive services for residents and she served as a community liaison between the public housing residents and the housing authority.
In 2003, Reyna was selected to lead the beleaguered Beaumont Housing Authority, which was in HUD receivership after years of misdeeds and corruption. Reyna saw the need to bring in someone who could work to restore the community’s trust in the agency, and hired Landrum as the Communications & Grants Administrator.
“Ms. Landrum played a vital role in repairing the reputation of the agency which was under intense negative scrutiny,” Reyna said. “She worked diligently in restoring relationships not just with the community, but with partners, vendors and local, state and federal governmental officials.”
Her grant development and management experience has resulted in over $70 million dollars in funding to build affordable housing in Beaumont. She has secured over $3 million dollars in public and private grants to fund social and supportive services programs, and she handles all oversight and reporting on grants totaling more than $1 million dollars each year.
In the Social & Supportive Services area, Landrum developed and supervised a nationally recognized Client Services program that provides social and supportive services to over 3,000 families each year, utilizing a partner network of 70 local agencies.
In 2013, she was named one of Southeast Texas’ “40 Best Professionals Under 40” by the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce and the Southeast Texas Young Professionals organization. Landrum is a member of the American Association of Service Coordinators (AASC) and holds industry certifications in Project Based Budgeting, PHA Budgeting and Accounting, and Family Self Sufficiency.
BHA has an annual budget of over $16 million, and provides affordable housing to over 3,000 families.
“It has been my greatest honor to serve beside a fantastic group of professionals to bring the agency to the well-regarded position it is in today,” Landrum said. “I am excited to continue the legacy that Mr. Reyna has left for the agency and take it to even greater heights.”
“We could not be more pleased with our selection,” Board Chairman Doug Landry said. “I have watched her grow for fifteen years under the mentorship of Mr. Reyna, and she has truly developed into a consummate professional. We look forward to having her at the helm for many years to come and see her take BHA to even higher levels of success.”