Eugene Jones Jr., executive director of the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority, announced Wednesday that he has submitted his resignation, effective April, while testifying before the Legislature’s Committee on Housing, Transportation and Telecommunications.
Jones’s resignation notice comes less than two years after he was appointed to the position, coming to the U.S. Virgin Islands in April 2024 after five years as executive director of the Atlanta Housing Authority. “Throughout my career, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of safe and accessible housing,” he said at the time. “It’s not just about providing shelter; it’s about building communities where people can truly call home, where they can thrive, and create lasting connections.”
Soon after his resignation announcement Wednesday, lawmakers turned to a pressing fiscal deadline: roughly $4.2 million remaining from an $8.5 million federal Homeowner Assistance Fund allocation that VIHFA must use by September.
Senators, including Sen. Kurt Vialet, also pressed Jones on a separate pool of local funding: the Legislature’s $4 million First-Time Homebuyers Act appropriation. “The money is just sitting there,” Vialet said, asking why the local first-time homebuyer funds remained unused. “The Housing Finance Authority had the authorization to develop the requirements. So if you develop requirements that nobody could meet, that’s on the Housing Finance Authority. This body gave moneys outside of federal funds to help local first-time home buyers, and all we needed the Finance Authority to do was to develop those guidelines and utilize the monies.”
“You have not used this money,” Vialet added. “You’re just sitting there with a smug look after you got $4 million five, six years ago. … The Housing Finance Authority is not building. You can’t be upset at senators being frustrated.”
Jones acknowledged that none of the $4 million had reached buyers and said the program’s design had been a barrier. “None of that money has been spent yet,” he told the committee, explaining that VIHFA had considered reallocating the funds “because of the stringent requirement to reach out to those individuals from our regulation.”
Vialet said that if such plans were to be made, they would have to be approved by the Legislature. “You can’t reallocate the money. The First Time Homebuyers Act, only the Legislature could do that,” he said.
Jones also addressed the $4.2 million remaining in the federal Homeowner Assistance Fund and pledged a spending blueprint. “I will submit a plan for the remaining $4.2 million,” Jones said. When Committee Chairman Sen. Marvin A. Blyden asked whether that plan already existed or was still a working document, Jones replied, “Yes, we do have a plan. I’ll just send it to you, and it has a budget for the $4.2 million that’s left.”
Blyden tied the request directly to Jones’ pending departure, asking for the plan “before you leave, so we can actually look at a plan, and because we might have recommendations also and suggestions.” Multiple senators asked Jones for concrete deliverables before his resignation takes effect.
Sen. Novelle E. Francis Jr. framed the clash over unspent housing dollars as a moral test for the government, saying elected officials would be judged by how they treat residents who are suffering. “As leaders, we are ultimately evaluated by how well we are able to care for the most vulnerable among us,” Francis said. “Those individuals that continue to leave our shores and go abroad because they can’t get a house, can’t buy a house, can’t pay for a house … those functional homeless that we have, where individuals are sleeping in their car … those are the ones that should be frustrated here this morning.”
“We hear that $4 million appropriated in 2021 … not a dime has been spent from that,” Francis said. “We hear that there’s $3.3 million for Home ARP, not a dime has been spent from that.”
Francis urged colleagues and agency heads to turn that frustration into coordinated action. “Let’s do everything possible for us to be able to collaborate, communicate and compromise on those things that are necessary to be able to move the needle,” he said. “Numbers are trending in the wrong direction. … They’re our brothers and sisters. They’re family members.”
Vialet said his anger over unspent housing and social service funds is rooted in what he sees on the streets every day. He described passing former students and other residents living outdoors while the system fails to create a serious long-term plan. “We have a number of homeless Virgin Islanders that are on the street, former students that I see on the street every single day,” Vialet said. “We’re to the point where we’re just driving and it’s normal. … These are our children, these are our family members, and they don’t deserve to live that way.”
Vialet blamed a cycle in which people are picked up, taken briefly to hospitals, then sent back out with no long-term plan, and argued that leaving millions unspent year after year while that continues is unacceptable. “Every year we have the same conversation.”
When asked about his biggest achievement as director, Jones highlighted staff development and internal capacity. “The biggest thing is probably my staff capacity,” he said. “They’ve achieved some things that no one thought they could do. We’ve come together as a team. We built morale, and we’re working to support the territory as housing providers.”
Jones closed by emphasizing his staff’s work and promising that the authority would continue to treat housing and homelessness as urgent issues. “I just want to say thank you for this opportunity to present our issues and our concerns and our recommendations,” Jones said. “I have a great staff … [who] continue to make this a matter of urgency to help and assist… to find resources, to find opportunities to eradicate homelessness in the territory.”
