PHAR’s Mission
To Educate and Empower Low-Income Residents to Protect and Improve Our Own Communities through Collective Action.
PHAR’s Primary Functions
- Duly recognized federal mandate to represent residents in all aspects of CRHA operations.
- Community Organizing to make policy changes that benefit residents
- PHAR Internship Program to develop community leadership, educate residents, add to PHAR’s capacity for organizing, and contribute to economic empowerment of individuals.
- Assistance to individual residents in conflict with CRHA
(ex. Grievances, Reasonable Accommodation requests etc.) - Engage fully on Redevelopment by supporting the Resident’s Bill of Rights for Redevelopment and developing and implementing the Positive Vision for Resident Directed Redevelopment.
PHAR’s Structure
PHAR is entirely governed by public housing residents and one Section 8 resident. An advisory board assists PHAR with strategy, fundraising, and community support. PHAR has a small staff of an Executive Director, 3 Organizers and a Bookkeeper. The Executive Director carries out day to day operations, implements PHAR’s strategic plan; the Lead Organizer organizes campaigns, and focuses specifically on redevelopment; the Internship Coordinator oversees our intern program for public housing residents who earn a stipend for 6 months of experiential learning and community organizing; a community organizer who focuses sharing information with the greater community and Bookkeeper who manages the PHAR finances and books.
PHAR’s Current Campaigns
- Redevelopment and the Positive Vision
- Maintenance and Vacancies
- Section 3 Programming and Job Training in Partnership with CRHA
- Reviving the Nursing Clinics
- $50 million Bond Financing for Public Housing Redevelopment and Modernization
PHAR’s Major Successes
- Residents’ Bill of Rights for Redevelopment
- Excess Utilities Lawsuit
- Positive Vision for Resident Directed Redevelopment
- Among the many, many policies brought forward by PHAR two stand out: Eviction Prevention and De-Barment
- Stopping RAD!!!
- And many, many, many more (PHAR issues an annual list of accomplishments)
