New Tampa housing chef has ‘tremendous task’ ahead
TAMPA — Tampa’s housing and community development program has a new director after nearly two years without one.
She’ll have her work cut out for her, city leaders say.
Vanessa McCleary from Rocky Mount, N.C., took over this week as head of the agency charged with helping Tampa’s low-income residents find new housing or rehab their existing homes.
She arrives just as Buckhorn is pressing ahead with plans to redevelop the west bank of the Hillsborough River and to build new market-rate homes in Sulphur Springs to replace the decrepit ones he is tearing down through his Nehemiah Project. McCleary will be part of both those efforts.
“The work that’s up in Sulphur Springs is going to be very important,” said Tom Snelling, McCleary’s boss in the planning department. “East Tampa still remains a very important neighborhood for the mayor.”