Gilbert Walker’s 50-year public housing career ends after Allen Benedict Court deaths
The leader of the Columbia Housing Authority announced the end of his almost two-decade tenure this week.
Thursday night, Gilbert Walker, director of the public housing agency since 2000, told the authority’s board that he will retire in June 2019.
“In ending my over 50 years of employment with the Columbia Housing Authority, I regret that current events will overshadow the multiple outstanding achievements of the Columbia Housing Authority during my tenure,” Walker wrote in a letter to the board.
His announcement comes about a month after authorities found 61-year-old Calvin Witherspoon Jr. and Derrick Caldwell Roper, 30, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in their apartments at Allen Benedict Court, a public housing complex owned by the authority near Harden Street.
Their deaths prompted an immediate inspection of the complex, which found heightened hazardous gas levels in multiple buildings. Authorities evacuated and condemned Allen Benedict Court, leaving more than 400 people in transitional homes for a time. Some former residents are still in hotels and temporary housing, while others have been placed in permanent homes by the authority.
The Columbia Housing Authority will begin the process of finding and appointing an acting or interim director, according to the agency’s lawyer, Bob Coble.
“Certainly, there will be a lot of institutional knowledge over the last 40 years that we’ll hope to get,” Coble said of Walker’s leaving.
The outgoing director pledged to pass on that knowledge, Coble said.
Since the 1960s Walker has worked with the Columbia Housing Authority, becoming the interim and later full-time director in 2000.
In Walker’s retirement letter, he touted accomplishments such as demolishing and renovating more than 700 units of “aged and obsolete public housing” and adding to the stock of affordable housing in Columbia and Richland County.
With Walker as director, the authority demolished two decades-old, outdated complexes and rebuilt them into the Rosewood Hills and Celia Saxon neighborhoods. In 2017, Walker also oversaw the razing of Gonzales Gardens, another near 80-year-old public housing site that had outlived its usefulness. Plans to rebuild a new community at the site are still in the works.
“The Columbia Housing Authority has made a positive difference in the quality of life for thousands of citizens of Columbia,” Walker wrote.
Following the deaths at Allen Benedict Court, Walker became embattled. A city councilman called for his resignation, another sought a police investigation into the agency he led and multiple lawsuits piled up. Public housing residents were divided between support and disdain for the soon-to-be-former director at one tense authority board meeting.
At the same time as Walker’s announcement, the authority’s board also voted to make dramatic changes to the agency it oversees. Pushed by commissioner E.W. Cromartie II, the board passed resolutions “looking at a reorganization and the structure of the Columbia Housing Authority,” Coble said.
Already, the board voted to have an independent investigation of Allen Benedict Court and the circumstances surrounding the deaths and injuries from gas leaks.
In the first week of February, two of the seven board members left their positions, one saying in a letter that the board was “not being given the information it has needed to carry out its governance duties.” With another two vacancies coming up, the board of commissioners wants to have new members at the table for the proposed changes to the authority, according to Coble.
Columbia City Councilman Moe Baddourah pressed Walker to step down after the evacuation of Allen Benedict Court. Baddourah called Walker’s retirement “a positive development.”
“Given the numerous, serious failings of the Housing Authority, new leadership is badly needed,” Baddourah said. “Moving forward, the Housing Authority must get serious about making sure adequate accountability is in place to avoid future crises and make sure the concerns of residents are being heard. And that must be City Council’s priority during the process of selecting new commissioners.”
Despite the deaths and the controversy surrounding his leadership, Walker ended his letter by saying that he “shall remain dedicated to the Columbia Housing Authority during this transition period.”
“I shall always treasure the opportunity I have had to be of service to thousands of residents,” Walker wrote.
This story was originally published February 22, 2019 at 11:05 AM.