Miami Dade County Commissioner Javier Souto actually made sense for once! Hit on read more.
Souto, as quoted in the Miami Herald today in a story about the HUD takeover of Miami Dade Housing, Feds give Dade an ultimatum on housing takeover actually said something intelligent! Really! According to reporter Pinzur, as the commissioners discussed a legal challenge against HUD:
Commissioner Javier Souto said the commission's reputation is too tarnished to justify a fight for control.
''There's a perception out there that there's corruption here,'' he said.
Truer words have never been spoken! In fact, we have a Pulitzer Prize award to the Miami Herald for shining a light on just how grotesque the housing issue has been. No wonder HUD wants the oversight! They would be crazy not to. And, taking Souto’s place for saying stupid things is Commissioner Pepe Diaz:
'This is a major tug of war,'' said Commissioner José ''Pepe'' Diaz. ``At the middle of this are citizens who are suffering for lack of housing.''
The reason the citizens are suffering from lack of housing is because of your (and your fellow commissioners) incompetence. You want the “home rule” and then you don’t govern. The buck stops with you Pepe! Even - of all people - Javier Souto knows it.
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10 comments:
Souto is always good for a laugh...but this is a surprise: He is making sense too.
What is the old saying about giving a million monkeys typewriters and eventually one will write a Shakespeare play? Kind of the same thing with good old Senator S.
The thing is that the Latin Builders cant wait to get their hands on our HUD. And given the team put in place to run HUD after the federal takeover (all former LBA lawyers and officials) they will. In a falling housing market this is a great way to keep your business running untill market demand resumes. Remember, affordable housing is where Jorge Perez got his start.
LBA will only reap some of the benefits of HUD takeover. Seems a certain pro-LBA County Commissioner and immediate past Chair strongly encouraged HUD (i.e. Orlando Cabrera) to come perform a real coup de tait with MDHA last August. But HUD (Orlando Cabrera) really wants MDHA's local and state-generated monies.
The coup de tait probably won't happen because the feds can't get all the monies they really want and the will back out in the end because the prize is not the golden egg they really wanted.....State SHIP funds and local surtax!
But the ensuing drama will be great...Mayor Alvarez really will get a chance to prove his moxie!
When over 60,000 Section 8 applications are conveniently located in the annex by Cynthia Curry and the MDHA staff, and 30,000 of them are conveniently destroyed and another 3,000 have conviently shown erasers by some mysterious MDHA staff and tossed out as noneligible applications, you can believe it is time for "Mayor Carlos Alverez to show his moxie" before the cannons are fired at the County by US HUD.
I find it revealing that The Miami Herald published an article today on determining that there will be an expanded audit of MDHA. US HUD has determined the reason for their decision is due to finding dozens of problems that resulted in incorrect payments to landlords. David Vargas, national director of the voucher programand his staff of inspectors found payments on behalf of 13 dead people, but seven had adjult survivors who might hav been eligible to inheriit the rental voucher. Landlors - who receive Section 8 money directly from the housing agency - "are suppose to report the death of a voucher recipient", the new Housing Director Kris Warren stated. "If he doesn't, he's accepting money and it's fraudulent". Also found by HUD were 13 files in which housing employees incorrectly calculated a tenant's income or utility allowance, possibly resulting in over or under payments. Interesting that this report reflects Commissioners and County officials who have been dead on the affordable housing issue for decades. It's time for US HUD to use parental control and take control from the "undertakers" at the County.
How is it that the County Manager, George Burgess has Ron Book one of the County's top lobbyist as a business partner for a corporation called "Partnership For Recovery" which can be viewed on Sunbiz with the State of Florida. The address is at County Hall. Did George Burgess assist Ron Book in gaining funding for his "blue tarp" program and how is it that the homeowners have to take out loans to repair their homes after the hurricanes, when they qualify for SHIP, HOME and other government subsidies. Let's ask the County Manager how much advise he is getting from the top lobbyist in Florida, Ron Book on affordable housing issues.
Genius of Despair said...
unfortunately the county and just about everybody turns to lobbyists for DO GOODER stuff. they are often on very prestigious boards.
Because they can raise money.
I believe this non profit you speak of probably did some good. But it stinks to see them cleaning their names in our tax dollars. Ron Book has a big ball field named after him in North Miami. Someday in the future a kid will read glowing things about Ron Book in wikipedia and the kid will say he was a great man and maybe write a report about him. Ick.
I think Ron Book is the past chair of the Homeless Trust, which is in the process of selling it's US grant funded "transitional housing landsite" to a developer. Book was key in lobbying the political change for the grant over in Federal arena (After the Trust almost lost the granted land parcel for non-performance).
Tell me: What serves more homeless over a ten year period? A transitional community that stablizes a homeless family with educational and social services support and then moves them into main stream housing (on a scheduled move) OR a regular RETAIL market value community (Century??) that has a percentage set-aside for the "formerly homeless" that returns to market value when they leave or lose the mortage.
Also, if the Trust has their hands on land that is zoned for public services, why are they giving it up? All of the social worker types in the county will tell you that land with that type of zoning is very hard to find, and that it is even harder to get a parcel zoned that way if it is not already zoned for that use. I thought the Trust was supposed to hold things in Trust, not give them away.
Over my head.....
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