bvc_june2017

72 73 THE VIRGIN ISLANDS HOUSING AUTHORITY dynamic, sustainable com- munities so families can evolve economically, and to improve lives and strengthen communities through quality, safe, and affordable housing, and by providing a myriad of services to empower public housing residents” Robert Graham, who Busi- ness View Magazine first spoke with two years ago, is VIHA’s Managing Director. During our first conversation, Graham talked about the agency’s past, pres- ent, and future initiatives: “In the 1950s, the Territory sought to reduce rural slums and, in that process, to build public housing to provide affordable housing for residents and reduce the reliance on slum dwellings. So it began a series of ac- quisitions and development of properties and requested HUD (The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Develop- ment) to designate them as public housing, so that they would be eligible for operat- ing subsidies as well as capi- tal improvement subsidies.” By the early 1970s, Gra- ham said that the number of VIHA units had reached a total of 4,127 apartments in approximately 35 developments across the two islands. “That was the largest number of AT A GLANCE THE VIRGIN ISLANDS HOUSING AUTHORITY WHAT: A public housing cor- poration that is responsible for planning, constructing, and maintaining public housing in the U.S. Virgin Islands WHERE: St. Thomas and St. John, U.S. V.I. WEBSITE: www.vihousing.org www.smartnet.vi Smartnet is the only homegrown Internet Service Provider in the US Virgin Is- lands. We offer high-speed Internet access for businesses, government, and resi- dential customers. With the largest staff of certified engineers in the USVI, we also offer services such as managed network services, video conferencing and custom network in- tegration. We are unique in the industry that we are the only network integrator that owns its own network. Allowing us to constantly evolve and maintain great QoE (Quality of Experience) for our customers. Being engineers first and foremost, we are unique in the industry as the only net- work integrator that owns its own network. This allows us to provide immediate support to our customers and keep our network and services in constant improve- ment and evolution. We are committed to providing responsive answers to your questions and pro- active support in resolving your issues. Our customer service team is comprised of seasoned professionals with extensive experience setting up and supporting broadband service customers. Smartnet has an outstanding track record of delivering the most innovative and cost-effective products, services, and solutions to our customers territory-wide in both government and commercial sectors. THE VIRGIN ISLANDS HOUSING AUTHORITY