Reidblog [The Reid Report blog]

In this case, all of the above agree, as do I, and many observers in South Florida, that the Bush Department of Housing and Urban Development's move to take over the Miami-Dade Housing Agency is both precipitous and unnecessary.

How is it that, two years after the scandals detailed in the Miami Herald's "House of Lies" series occurred, the agency charged with overseeing the spending of federal housing funds by the county-supervised agency, only now decides its time to take over? Where was HUD when these scandals -- many of which involved federal, meaning HUD, funds, were taking place? Where was their oversight? It's clear that the county agency was a playground for scandal, fraud and abuse. It's true that the agency squandered tens of millions of dollars giving sweetheart deals to insider contractors and developers who never intended to build a single unit of low income housing -- and who in many cases simply flipped the properties for personal gain, while never repaying the loans. It's true that the agency was a disgrace, which should become the target of multiple prosecutions. And its true that the county commission did little, or nothing, to stop or catch the abuses. You might even say they deserve a healthy share of the blame, and shame.

However, the House of Lies scandals are the agency's recent past. It's currently under new management, and from all that I hear from housing advocates who are on the ground, working with the very people bilked by MDHA, making progress. And for HUD to now move in, citing of all things, the possibility that poor people were getting too much Section 8 money, is outrageous.

Further, the man pushing the takeover, Orlando Cabrera, a crony of both Jeb and George Bush, and the Latin Builders Association, cannot, and will not, promise that he will not pursue the tried and true Bushian policy of privatization. Look for him to do exactly that, with some of the last arable, unoccupied land in South Florida. And who stands to benefit? The aforementioned LBA and Jebbie's development firm, the Codina Group. 

Sound cynical?

It should. Especially since the man who runs the agency that is purporting to save Miami-Dade from itself, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, has been caught red-handed, using a partisan litmus test for the awarding of federal contracts. He plays by the Bush rules, and there's no reason to assume he'll stop doing so now. And among those rules is the following: thou shalt pursue public policy with as little basic competence as possible, for as long as you can get away with it. Ring up some friends in New Orleans, Philly or Detroit, and ask how their HUD-run public housing agencies are doing. For that matter, ring up Riviera Beach.

You'll forgive me if I take a dim view of the Bush administration's latest land and power grab in the 27 electoral vote state of Florida. I've had seven years to become this cynical.

Meanwhile, Mayor Alvarez is vowing to fight the HUD takeover in court, as he stated in a defiant press conference yesterday. His argument: the agency cannot prove that Miami-Dade is still in a state of default -- it's allegations are true, but they're past history. And as for the boogeyman of Section 8 certifications? Alvarez expects them to be completed, in their entirety, next month. In fact, the newfangled MDHA is already working closely with the community most affected by the House of Lies scandals: Liberty City, a mostly black enclave where poverty and want outrun hope and possibility far too often. Bringing HUD in as the big stick will likely sideline those community workers, placing the Bushies and their cronies firmly in charge.  And as for the financial scandals -- with a strong mayor now in place, and the direct accountability that he has mandated to all department heads, including the new head of MDHA, Kris Warren, the buck actually stops somewhere today, something that wasn't true when the Herald was earning that Pulitzer. 

By the way, the Miami Herald -- the agency who informed a credulous HUD that its $275 million was being flushed down the toilet (and without whom apparently Mr. Cabrera would have been none the wiser...?) Their editorial board agrees with me.

Previous:

The Department of Housing and Urban Development moved today to take over Miami-Dade County's troubled housing agency, following months of scandal uncovered in a Pulitzer Prize winning Miami Herald series:

The federal government seized control of the Miami-Dade Housing Authority Tuesday morning, fulfilling a months-old threat and ending months of attempts to negotiate an amicable settlement.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development notified county leaders about 9 a.m.

Top agency leaders have been determined to take over since at least February, citing the vast mismanagement of housing programs exposed last year in The Miami Herald's House of Lies series.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez pledged earlier this year to fight HUD in court, and the county's lawyers went before a judge in May when the department took its first steps toward a takeover.

HUD's press release on the takeover can be found here. It reads in part:

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today that it will take possession of the Miami-Dade Housing Agency (MDHA) in 10 business days, saying the agency had demonstrated a pattern of financial irresponsibility and mismanagement of its Section 8 rental housing voucher and public housing programs.

“For several months, we at the federal level have reached out to local leaders to work in partnership to get the agency back on track,” said HUD Assistant Secretary of Public and Indian Housing Orlando Cabrera. “HUD tried without success to get Miami officials to enter into what is known as a cooperative endeavor agreement that would have allowed us to work together as partners to restore the Miami community’s faith in its housing agency. Local official have rebuffed us, claiming they are making progress. Notwithstanding these claims of progress, HUD has verified that the problems identified by HUD are getting worse, not better,”

“A takeover has always been our last resort,” he added. “We, like the people of Miami, continue to hear about MDHA’s plans to improve, but plans on paper are meaningless to families and communities waiting for decent housing and action. It would be irresponsible to wait any longer.”

In implementing the takeover, HUD faults Miami-Dade County for the following major failures:

Failure to annually re-certify Section 8 tenants. Failing to do annual re-certifications can cause truly needy families not get the assistance they need because some tenants may be receiving more housing subsidy than they are eligible to receive, or there may be tenants who may no longer qualify for the program.

• Numerous and gross accounting errors in annual financial statements from 2002-2006 -- in the tens of millions of dollars.

Back up a taste: the county agency's principle failure was that it might have allowed tenants to get too much Section 8 money? Come again? The problem, as we've found out through the painstaking work of the Miami Herald though its House of Lies series, is that the agency failed to build housing for needy families, including those who were moved out of housing that was then demolished, and nothing built in its place. Not to mention the developers who were given county land for the purposes of building low income housing, but who instead flipped the land for the development of high priced condos ... The problem in Miami-Dade is not "welfare queens," it's an abject failure on the part of the housing agency to give them adequate assistance. Meanwhile, the county gifted friendly, connected developers with millions of dollars in no-look loans for which they built absolutely nothing. But typical of the GOP, they start by asserting that too much was being done for the poor. All of that scandal -- which filled more than a dozen isses of the Herald -- is boiled down to "gross accounting errors." Not a good start.

HUD is already in control of seven of the nation's 4,100 public housing authorities. The list won't give you much hope: Riviera Beach and Sarasota, Florida, Detroit, MI, East St. Louis, Ill., New Orleans, La., and Wellston, Mo., as well as the Virgin Islands Housing Authority. Quick: close your eyes and picture the public housing projects in Detroit, St. Louis and New Orleans! Feeling better yet?

And then there are the men who will now be in charge...

As at least one commenter on the Herald points out, the takeover places the Bush administration -- of Hurricane Katrina fame -- in charge of the scandal-ridden Miami-Dade housing authority, where no-bid contracts, sweetheart deals to contractors who built no housing (except for themselves) and failed to repay millions of dollars in loans. Anyone who has perused HUD's history in New Orleans, even before Katrina devastated Louisiana, won't have much confidence in the Bushies' ability to turn things around. Another commenter, calling themselves "Bigfoot," smells a nasty portent of things to come:

The same guy (Asst Sec. of HUD, Orlando Cabrera) who was the General Counsel for the Latin Builders Assn. is the orchestrator of this entire takeover.

The South Florida developers (LBA) will be rewarded for there efforts again....They will undoubtedly get federal contracts from the same agency that is screwing up so bad in New Orleans. These contracts will displace current public housing residents and of course build brand new facilities with the federal contracts.

Displaced residents and developers getting paid....sounds so familiar! Anybody that cheers for this Federal Administration, whether it?s for the war, the environment, the US Attorney firings or Katrina, has got it head stuck up in the clouds of disillusionment.

In fact, Mr. Cabrera, a crony of former governor and big-time developer Jeb Bush, and who served as Jebbie's housing administrator during the good old days of politicized FEMA payments to help ensure big brother George's re-election, and who also is a friend of the LBA, will now have discretion to steer millions of dollars in contracts to build affordable housing in the county to whomever he wishes, and one would have to assume that he will wish to bless the Latin Builders Association, which maintains close ties to Jeb -- Jeb of the long track record of cozy ties to Big Real Estate, and who is now himself a full-time, big-time real estate developer in Miami, in a position to grab some of that booty as well ... We all know how business is done in Bushworld...

As for the man who will now administer the agency, his name is Donald J. LaVoy: a Marine Corps veteran and former head of HUD's E-government organization, called the REAC, or "Real Estate Assessment Center," which does affordable housing assessments, among other things. Nothing negative stands out in his background, but he's not really the main concern. That honor goes to Cabrera.

At the end of the day, the county deserves a mugging, given its governance of the housing agency. But this is no step up. We've had seven years of experience with the Bush way of doing business, and that doesn't bode well for Miami-Dade. Some people are about to get very rich -- or richer -- from this deal. And the poor, already accused by HUD of getting too much, can look forward to getting little if anything at all.