His work has impacted thousands in Green Bay.

His departure will leave a hole felt for years.

No, it’s not Brett Favre.

Keith Pamperin

Keith Pamperin, the Housing Administrator for the Green Bay and Brown County Housing Authorities, spent 37 years helping residents secure decent and appropriate affordable housing. Like many veteran housing authority professionals, Pamperin can retire in January knowing he made a difference.

“I am proud of what we’ve accomplished,” Pamperin says. “But I’ve always enjoyed the opportunity to be creative and develop programs to help people meet their housing needs as well as to get their neighborhoods improved.”

Oh, how the neighborhoods in Green Bay have improved. Formerly blighted rows of houses were restored, allowing lower- and middle-income families to find the home of their dreams. And seniors – in an age where Social Security income isn’t enough, prescription co-pays are a daunting challenge, and pensions are a thing of the past – now have a decent, affordable place to live once upkeep of their homes becomes too much. Pamperin guided the development of over 1,200 privately owned federally assisted housing units for seniors and another 1,600 family units through the use of revenue bonds, tax credits, HOME and CDBG funding, and other partnerships.

This effort received two awards from the local neighborhood associations, and was recognized by receiving the HUD United Nations award.

“These properties were seriously deteriorated properties that were acquired and substantially rehabilitated by the Green Bay Housing Authority (GBHA) and put in service as public housing units in 1990,” Pamperin said. “These properties along with our Mason Manor Retirement Community, a 154-unit eight-story hi-rise complex for seniors, make up the GBHA public housing holdings.”

Many hands make light work

Pamperin’s tale mirrors that of the Green Bay Housing Authority and its staff: hard-working people who’ve brainstormed, planned, and toiled to improve their community.

The job requires all this and more. Working at a housing authority is not just painting shutters and mowing lawns. It’s responding to resident needs, be they handicapped ramps or navigation help with an ever-changing list of government programs.

The Green Bay and Brown County Housing Authorities initiated a great array of difference-making programs through the years. In 1973, HUD invited the BCHA to administer the 10-year Experimental Housing Allowance Program (EHAP) Supply Experiment. The program goal was determining how a community could provide monthly housing assistance payments to income-eligible households, allowing those households to afford safe and sanitary housing.

The program, which entailed inventing client intake and income certification processes and housing quality inspection standards and processes, later became the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program – HUD’s largest national housing assistance program. The BCHA, through its family self-sufficiency program and a Housing Choice Voucher Home Ownership Program, has helped 111 households achieve homeownership.

Innovations galore

These programs require funding-levels well beyond what’s available through HUD. As a result, the GBHA and BCHA developed several non-profit partners to assist in achieving its housing and neighborhood development goals. Integrated Community Services Inc. was set up as contract administrator of the HCV program. The Mutual Housing Association of Brown County, Inc. administers CDBG and HOME programs under contract with the BCHA. NeighborWorks Green Bay provides counseling and homebuyer education, down payment and closing cost loans, home improvement loans as well as acquisition, rehab, resale, and first-time homebuyer programs. And the Community Housing Resources Board provides guidance and community education on Fair Housing Issues.

From this long list of GBHA and BCHA achievements, the two that make Pamperin most proud come on the financial side.

“I’m specifically proud of how we developed our experimental housing allowance program in the early 1970’s,” he said. “That required a non-profit administrative agency to administer the program and it has continued today. We service 3,200 with monthly housing choice vouchers.

“Also, back in 1982, I developed an independent not-for-profit called Neighborhood Housing Services. Neighborhoods Green Bay serves as a partner to the housing authorities in revitalizing neighborhoods and providing a substantial array of housing counseling services. That has grown to an agency that has over $7 million in assets.”

Unique situation

Clearly there’s a lot of teamwork going on in Green Bay and around Brown County. Pamperin has a theory as to why.

“There’s an inherent community spirit in Green Bay and a good part of that happens because of the Green Bay Packers,” he said. “I find that this community is very easy to motivate because of that team spirit. We partner extremely well.”

It’s been Pamperin’s experience that when individuals need help, the community answers.

“In 2005, I had the idea of creating a housing choice voucher home ownership program,” he said. “We submitted it for legislative authorization. Literally, within a matter of three weeks, we had assembled an agency for counseling, one to administer the home ownership effort, several local lenders, realtors that would help market the program, and another to counsel persons with disabilities.

“That type of community spirit and willingness to jump behind things that are good for the community is a spinoff of our Packers spirit and fan enthusiasm.”

About the only thing people can’t agree upon is whether it was right for Favre to retire, un-retire, and be traded to the New York Jets.

“Everybody here loves Brett Favre,” Pamperin said. “There are divided views on who’s right and wrong in this situation. It does create some very interesting conversations. There’s always someone willing to say ‘We needed Brett back,’ and someone to say, ‘Yeah, but for the last three years...”

One thing everyone can agree upon: Residents of Green Bay and those throughout Brown County are better off because Keith Pamperin was their advocate.