HUD Should Watch the County
— Not Punish the Needy

Cuts alone are not the answer. All they will do is punish the most innocent and needy in this equation: poor individuals and families.

Apparently officials once affiliated with the Miami-Dade Housing Agency were so busy making sure certain individuals received land and money that they didn’t keep their books in order.

That is our impression after reading news that the county’s Section 8 housing budget, meant to provide subsidized housing for poor families and individuals, will be receiving $10 million less from the federal government — meaning the budget will be slashed from $121 million to $111 million. Kris Warren, the county’s latest housing director, told the Miami Herald last Saturday that the cuts will slash the number of new enrollments into the program by 800 families.

The reason for the budget cuts can’t entirely be blamed on Congressional politics. Instead the finger is being pointed at poor record-keeping. One set of records, the one Congress paid attention to, showed that the county didn’t spend $17.5 million in past years. Another showed that the county spent more than it had. “They made errors and did not put correct numbers,” the housing agency’s finance director, Glenda Blasko, said, and she pointed the finger directly at the program’s past directors.

Those directors include Rene Rodriguez, housing director in 2004, whose legacy will be creating a system that spent $22 million with the intent of building new housing but, according to the Herald, only three houses were constructed. Included in that amount was $12 million funneled to developers who never built promised housing nor returned the money. Rodriguez would later become a consultant, advising developers through the process.

Last Friday the Miami-Dade grand jury announced that the housing agency had been asleep at the switch, and urged that “those who committed criminal acts and stole taxpayers’ money … be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Now County Manager George Burgess, and his new boss, Mayor Carlos Alvarez, will have to convince the feds that the agency has changed. That means not only showing that the county housing program is not riddled with corruption, but incompetence as well.

It will be an uphill battle. As HUD Assistant Secretary Orlando Cabrera told the Herald: “One of the things that’s made this whole exercise very difficult for me is the fact that discrepancies like this keep coming up.”

Miami-Dade is not alone in facing such cuts. Hundreds of housing entities all over the United States will confront similar cuts for being inefficient with HUD money meant to provide shelter for impoverished families.But cuts alone are not the answer. All they will do is punish the most innocent and needy in this equation: poor individuals and families.

On Tuesday, when county officials tried to convince Cabrera they are fixing the Housing Agency, Cabrera replied that HUD should play a larger role — even going so far as to suggest the county department be put in “receivership,” or under the federal government’s direct control.

Yet if it means providing a viable alternative to Congress cutting the affordable housing budget for the county (which is still among the poorest communities in the United States), HUD should continue to insist on having some form of temporary control. Yes, the county is enacting reforms. But will they be truly meaningful? After the public’s attention to the housing scandal has lapsed, will it be back to business as usual?

At least one impartial observer from HUD, someone who has no ties to Miami-Dade County, should be sent by Washington to make sure the agency accomplishes its mission of providing shelter for those in need. (This will disqualify Cabrera himself from the overseer role as he was once the director of the Latin Builders Association, an advocacy group for South Florida developers.)

And if this insults the powers that be in Miami-Dade County, well, so what? Put the local government on notice. Make sure it gets its priorities straight. But don’t hurt those who need help most.