NC Newsline – The Durham Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners has announced that interim CEO Anthony Snell has retired after just 14 months on the job to spend more time with his family.
Snell joined the agency in 2020 as director of real estate. He was named interim CEO in December 2024 following the departure of Anthony Scott, who stepped down after he and the housing authority’s board reached the decision “through a collaborative process.” Scott served as CEO for 8 ½ years.
Mayme Webb-Bledsoe, chair of the housing authority’s Board of Commissioners, told NC Newsline that Snell’s retirement was a “shock to us all.”
“Things happen and things change and sometimes they’re in our control and sometimes they’re not,” Bledsoe said.
Ashanti Brown, the housing authority’s chief operating officer, replaces Snell as the agency’s interim CEO. She is the housing authority’s third leader since December 2024.
The board announced that it will begin a national search for the agency’s next permanent CEO.
Webb-Bledsoe believed Snell planned to apply for the permanent CEO post.
“There still would have been a national search,” she said. “It wasn’t like we were going to appoint someone into that role.”
Webb-Bledsoe said the search for a permanent CEO could take as long as 18 months.
“We’re hoping that it doesn’t take that long, but judging by how long it took to hire Anthony [Scott], it took at least that,” Bledsoe said.
She said the housing authority is looking for someone to change the agency’s culture and to move it to “another level” so that it “functions successfully.”
“With all of the work that we have on our plate, you can’t do that without having the right people in place,” Webb-Bledsoe said.
The turnover in leadership comes amid challenging times at the housing authority. In June, the City of Durham approved an agency request for a $1.5 million loan to help cover a revenue shortfall. At the time, more than 1,200 households were behind on rent and more than 100 faced eviction.
Tenants stopped paying rent after the federal Dept. of Housing and Urban Development gave the agency permission to pause evictions during the pandemic. The agency also depleted its reserves after units in the McDougald Terrace public housing community experienced carbon monoxide leaks in 2020. Ordinarily, the reserve fund would be used to cover a shortfall.
Late last year, residents complained that the housing authority did not make repairs in a timely manner. WRAL reported the agency had nearly 2,500 open work orders in November, which was nine times more than the Raleigh Housing Authority.
A press release announcing Snell’s departure focused on his accomplishments, including his oversight of several high-profile affordable housing projects and his ability to forge private-public partnerships to build and preserve affordable housing.
“I am confident that the progress made under my leadership will serve the Durham community well into the future,” Snell said in the press release.
As interim CEO, Snell strengthened operational and financial stability at the agency, commissioners said in the press release.
The new CEO will face many challenges overseeing an agency that has 1,000 units of public housing, more than 500 units of affordable housing and administers more than 2,700 Housing Choice Vouchers (formerly Section 8 vouchers) for area landlords.
“It’s almost critical that anyone that we bring in understands that we have been under the gun for a long time, and that creates the type of culture in an organization that might force people to feel like, ‘Oh God, will I ever get from under this cloud?’” Webb-Bledsoe said.
