Katrina Housing Grant Looted

[marmar]

from New America Media:



Katrina Housing Grant Looted

New America Media, Commentary, Michael Datcher, Posted: Feb 05, 2008

Editor’s Note: HUD recently approved a $600 million grant in congressional funds to expand the port in Gulfport, Miss. while tens of thousands of Katrina victims still live in FEMA trailer homes. NAM contributing writer Michael Datcher says that the government is failing at its job to help the poor.

“A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization,” said Samuel Johnson, the great 18th century English author and critic.

The U.S. government has just failed its latest pop quiz.

Last week, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson approved a plan that will divert $600 million in congressional funds specifically earmarked for Hurricane Katrina-related low-income housing relief along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Where’s the loot going? To expand the port at Gulfport, Miss., which state officials say suffered $50 million in damage during the Category 4 storm. An uncivilized move when you consider that according to most estimates more than 30,000 people in the region are still living in FEMA trailers and mobile homes. The Rockefeller Institute of Government, during its study of the Gulf Coast region, found that, “By far, the one issue that dominates the recovery effort is housing -- that is, the lack of it. In all of the hard-hit areas -- even those where economies seem to be mending -- the problem of affordable housing continues.”

If housing is the critical issue, why would the state of Mississippi and the federal government collude to take money out of the pockets of the neediest people? Mississippi officials, led Haley Barbour, a former lobbyist and Republican National Committee Chair and current Republican governor, said that the money wasn’t enough to address the building needs of the approximately 170,000 dwellings that were destroyed, so they thought the one-half billion plus dollars could be best used by giving it away to business developers tied to the port.

A reasonable solution would have been to spend $50 million to cover the repairs of the port then immediately start using the remaining $550 million to help displaced Mississippians transition out of trailers and back into homes. Though a port expansion could eventually create jobs (state officials allege 1300 in the next 10 years), these American citizens need help now.

America is supposed to work like this: citizen pays taxes to support the government and that government provides support to citizens during natural disasters. That’s fair trade. That’s moral. That’s civilized.

An even more unseemly aspect of this situation is that the congressional funds came through the Community Development Block Grant Program, which typically requires that 70 percent of the grant go toward people with low and moderate income. Diverting CDBG funds reserved for the poor to wealthy developers is another reminder of what’s in the room with all of us – a white elephant with a dark tan – and short pockets. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=bf4e40caca9fd3c8f8f1e6dad33a9a3a&from=rss

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

1. And the beat goes on.........

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Alphonso Jackson should be in Jail and he gets a Bush head rub

Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson demanded that the Philadelphia Housing Authority transfer a $2 million public property to a developer at a substantial discount, then retaliated against the housing authority when it refused to do so, a recent court filing alleges.

The authority’s director, Carl Greene, contends in a court affidavit that Jackson called Philadelphia’s mayor in 2006 to demand the transfer to the developer, Kenny Gamble, a former soul-music songwriter who is a business friend of Jackson’s. Jackson’s aides followed up with “menacing” threats about the property and other housing programs in at least a dozen letters and phone calls over an 11-month period, Greene said in an interview.

Greene and his colleagues have alleged in the court filing that Philadelphia is now paying a severe price for disobeying a Bush Cabinet official. The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently vowed to strip the city’s housing authority of its ability to spend some federal funds, a move that the authority said could raise rents for most of its 84,000 low-income tenants and force the layoffs of 250 people. <…>

“The secretary was determined that we turn over this land to this specific developer,” Greene said in an interview. “I refused. . . . He didn’t have the ability to remove me. So he resorted to these extraordinary measures to extract what he wanted.”



http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/02/05/a-republican-hud-scandal-for-a-new-generation/

[Elspeth]

10. "transfer a $2 million public property to a developer" THAT explains it

Yes, he should be in jail

[Thothmes]

14. Why not

The supreme court said that they could.

[Kurovski]

3. K&R. (nt)

[usaftmo]

4. Unfortunately, the voters of MS

re-elected him as Governor this past November. Although I'm stationed here in MS, I'm not a resident.



"I see where you're going...good luck when you get there"

[AzDar]

5. K & R...

:puke:

[debbierlus]

6. K & R

[Dawggie]

7. K&R. Another sad part of the story? I does not shock us.

[Richard Steele]

8. The B*sh administration motto: "Too busy stealing to govern." nm

[RuleOfNah]

9. Has former republican Senator Trent Lott shown up to siphon public funds?

Lott retired at the last minute in 2007, right before new ethics regulations applied.

Any reader of Shock Doctrine knows what comes next...

[redqueen]

11. I wouldn't say it was failing...

calling it "failing" implies that they have made an honest effort to do so.

[Solly Mack]

12. K&R

as an aside, Haley Barbour was born a scum sucking piece of garbage and will die one too.

[happydreams]

13. Who's getting the contract(s) for the rebuilding of the ports?

Just wondering.