LEXINGTON, Ky. — Austin Simms, the longtime executive director of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Housing Authority, announced his retirement last week after leading the agency for nearly five decades, closing a chapter that reshaped the city’s approach to public housing.
Simms made the announcement Thursday, Feb. 19, at the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners’ monthly meeting, citing more than 50 years of service to the agency. His retirement takes effect July 31.
Simms joined the Housing Authority in 1973 and rose to the executive director’s post in 1977. During his tenure, the agency gained national recognition as the first public housing authority in the country to eliminate the red-brick, barrack-style buildings long associated with government-subsidized housing. The authority was also among the first in the nation to install central air conditioning in all of its units.
Board Chairperson Joan Whitman praised Simms for what she described as decades of steady leadership through shifting federal regulations. Simms “maintained his strong focus, inspired positive change and encouraged partnerships,” Whitman said in a statement released by the agency.
Mayor Linda Gorton called Simms “a wonderful partner to our local government” and credited him with housing thousands of families over the course of his career. Gorton drew a contrast between Simms’ track record and what she characterized as empty rhetoric from others on the issue of affordability, saying he delivered results by securing federal dollars and building local partnerships.
Among Simms’ signature achievements were two competitive HOPE VI grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The first, awarded in 1998, brought $19.3 million to revitalize the Charlotte Court public housing development — Lexington was one of just 22 cities selected from 101 applicants. A second $20 million grant followed in 2005 to overhaul Bluegrass-Aspendale, then the city’s largest and most distressed public housing site, where 963 units were demolished and replaced.
Those federal grants also seeded two homeownership developments: the 95-home Arbors Subdivision on the former Charlotte Court site and the 102-home Equestrian View Subdivision in the Bluegrass HOPE VI area. Simms also helped broker a collaboration with Fayette County Public Schools to build William Wells Brown Elementary School in the heart of the East End redevelopment zone.
In 2011, Simms steered the agency into HUD’s Moving to Work demonstration program, which grants participating housing authorities flexibility to test new service-delivery models and redirect federal funds. Lexington was one of 39 agencies nationwide to receive the designation.
Simms said he hopes residents served by the authority recognize the effort behind replacing outdated housing stock with units he described as “indistinguishable from the private market.” He acknowledged the transition will not be easy, saying he has “mixed emotions relinquishing a position I have held for so long and dearly love.”
The Board of Commissioners has named Andrea Wilson, the authority’s deputy director and chief operating officer, as Simms’ successor. Wilson, a 32-year veteran of the agency, will assume the role Aug. 1. Simms said her appointment reflects years of deliberate succession planning and called the board’s choice “the right decision.”
Simms also held leadership roles beyond Lexington, serving as president of the Kentucky Housing Association and president of the Southeastern Regional Council of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, which recognized him as a NAHRO Fellow.
The Lexington Housing Authority is governed by a five-member Board of Commissioners. The board’s current members are Whitman, Vice-Chairperson William H. Wilson, and Commissioners Kimberly Scott and Janet Beard, along with Sally Hamilton, the mayor’s designee.
