COMMUNITY
Participate in your Community
We strive to make life better for our residents by providing an all-inclusive community for our residents filled with with fun, laughter, and love. Please see below for news updates, scheduled events and activities, and educational resources available for all of our outstanding tenants in the communities we serve.
Events & Activities
Tenant of the Quarter
Congratulations to Chris Sykes from LeRay Street Apartments.
Chris was nominated by several of his neighbors. Chris's neighbors describe him as always helpful to all tenants and Watertown Housing Authority Staff.
Chris takes pride in his home and it spill over into his community. Chris cleans the LeRay community room kitchen after tenant events, sweeps and mops and cleans cars of snow during the winter for tenants who need a hand.
Chris is an asset to the LeRay Street Apartments Community. Watertown Housing Authority thanks you for all your hard work in your community.
Congratulations Chris, Tenant of the 1st Quarter 2023!
Tenant Associations
A tenant association is made up of the residents that live at a housing site who come together to work toward the betterment of their community – which includes the site where they live and the community as a whole.
HUD regulations make it very clear that “HUD promotes resident participation and the active involvement of residents in all aspects of a housing authority’s mission and operation. Residents have a right to organize and elect a resident council to represent their interests. As long as proper procedures are followed, the Housing Authority shall recognize the duly elected resident council to participate fully through a working relationship with the Housing Authority. HUD encourages Housing Authorities and residents to work together to determine the most appropriate ways to foster constructive relationships, particularly through duly-elected resident councils.”
By joining with your neighbors in a tenant association, you have a chance to meet new friends, attend various functions such as dinners, card playing, dances, cookouts, movies, etc., and also to keep informed as to what may be happening with WHA or HUD which could affect you as a WHA tenant. Give your tenant association a try – dues are small, meetings are few and the work involved can be very beneficial and satisfying!
Becoming a member is up to each individual tenant, but they must be in good standing with the WHA (rent paid up for example) in order to run for and hold an office within the association.
Tenant Resources
A free education-focused site that provides over 500 accredited online college classes from universities such as MIT, Harvard, Yale, and Oxford. This site is designed to help bridge the education gap for students, especially those from low income backgrounds who strive to pursue higher education.
The GCFLearnFree.org offers a wide variety of courses such as technology, reading, math and software tutorials, GCFLearnFree.org offers more than 180 topics, including more than 2,000 lessons, 800+ videos, and 55+ interactives and games, completely free.
State University of New York ATTAIN (Advanced Technology Training And Information Networking) center is a community-based center offering an assortment of academic, occupational, and employability courses to those seeking educational and vocational training opportunities.