(2) Study: Housing The Homeless Cheaper Than Jail, Health Care
(3) Bernardi Calls On Localities To Reduce Regulatory Barriers
(4) The High Cost Of Housing
(4a) Migrant Housing Shortage Impacts Sardine Harvest
(4b) School Official Leaves, Can't Find Housing On $100,000 Salary
(5) Vacancy Rate Rises For Colorado's Affordable Rentals
(6) Developer Works To Overcome Opposition To HOPE VI Project
(7) Greenwich, Conn., HA Seeks To Improve Relations With City
(8) Church Sues Michigan HC After Eviction From Community Center
(9) HUD Says Omaha Councilman Can't Also Be HA Director
(10) Failed Attempt To Rob 100-Year-Old Tenant
(11) Miscommunication Leaves Elevators Offline For Months
(12) After $30,000, Bedbugs Still Trouble Pennsylvania HA
(13) Cisneros, Kemp Call For New Urban Housing Strategies
(1) Hundreds Rally In DC, Demand PH Funding Be Restored
Lacking in numbers but exuding passion for their cause, several hundred public-housing residents from around the country rallied at the U.S. Capitol, demanding restoration of funding cuts that they assert are crippling maintenance and other services, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
"Today is about speaking up for yourselves," said Philadelphia Housing Authority Director Carl R. Greene, who addressed an audience that included 20 busloads of residents from Philadelphia.
Asia Coney, a PHA contract employee and director of the National Coalition to Preserve Public and Assisted Housing, which organized the demonstration, said she would organize a letter-writing campaign, a petition drive and a phone bank to persuade lawmakers to restore funding as soon as possible for federal public-housing programs.
"The federal government seems to be getting out of the housing business," she said.
Demonstrators traveled by bus from as far away as Cincinnati and New Orleans. They wore T-shirts identifying their housing authorities and many carried signs.
Rep. Robert A. Brady (D-PA) announced that he is forming a Public Housing Caucus in the House of Representatives, seeking like-minded lawmakers who will work to restore what Brady described as "13 years of cuts to the most vulnerable Americans."
(2) Study: Housing The Homeless Cheaper Than Jail, Health Care
A study by researchers at Indiana University found that 96 homeless people tracked over 3 1/2 years had racked up $1.7 million in costs associated with emergency room visits, other health care and incarcerations at the Marion County Jail, according to an article distributed via Associated Press.
The figure did not include food, temporary shelter or any other services provided by various agencies.
The study led by public health expert Eric Wright found that most homeless health care costs were incurred by those with mental illnesses including substance abuse, at an average annual cost of $3,628.
The 96 people, mostly men, averaged 20 encounters with the local criminal justice system a year at an average annual cost of $1,784.
The findings might anger some people, Wright said.
"The bottom line is they'll get some care, regardless how we feel about them," Wright said. "And if we're going to help them in a cost-effective way, what's the best strategy?"
Mayor Bart Peterson and homeless advocates say the key to curbing such costs is to build more subsidized housing. Such apartments, supported mostly with federal money, come with onsite counselors to help residents, teaching job skills, money management, nutrition and other topics.
(3) Bernardi Calls On Localities To Reduce Regulatory Barriers
Speaking in Louisville, Ky., HUD Deputy Secretary Roy Bernardi called on local governments to end regulations that he said often strangle the development of affordable housing, reads an article in the Courier-Journal.
The country's No. 2 housing official said local rules can make homes unaffordable to middle-class and working people.
Some unnecessary regulations can drive up the cost of a home by tens of thousands of dollars, he said. And the rules can drag out the development process for years in some communities, he said.
Bernardi said a HUD goal is for as many people as possible to live close to where they work in homes that they can afford.
But he said many communities have development rules that are "choking the life out of housing that's affordable to working families."
And he said affordable housing "gets a bum rap" and should not be confused with public or subsidized housing. Rather, affordable housing are residences that working-class Americans have the ability to buy, he said.
Bernardi, former mayor of Syracuse, N.Y., spoke during a luncheon address at a housing conference attended by more than 100 local and state officials, including several mayors from the Southeast and numerous housing managers.
(4) The High Cost Of Housing
(4a) Migrant Housing Shortage Impacts Sardine Harvest
Sardines are crowding the ocean waters off Oregon, but fish processors are unable to find enough laborers to fill vacancies because seasonal workers don't have any place to live, according to the June 19th Daily Astorian.
Business owner Jay Bornstein attributes the labor shortage to a simple problem: "There are more jobs available than people to fill them."
In one case, 40 people are coming to Astoria from California, "but there is nowhere for them to live," said Voleen Toten, who manages an apartment complex.
It's really tough for them right now," she said. "We see people with children living in vans in parking lots. It just breaks my heart."
Similar views were heard at low-income complexes up the coastline.
While it's the first time the problem has posed such a hard hit to the area's migrant workforce, a lack of affordable housing is nothing new in Clatsop County, said Kathy Lucas, executive director of Clatsop County Housing Authority.
"All the housing agencies in the county are very aware of the lack of workforce and affordable housing," she said.
(4b) School Official Leaves, Can't Find Housing On $100,000 Salary
Local school district official Bev Tarpley will be leaving Aspen, Colo., at the end of the week, another refugee from Aspen's burgeoning housing crisis, the Times reports.
Tarpley has worked the past two years as second in command at the Aspen School District, pulling down a respectable annual salary of $101,000 and living in district-subsidized housing. And still she has been unable to find housing she can afford in a place she feels is comfortable enough and near enough to her job.
"We've got to solve this problem," Tarpley said in a recent interview, noting that she is in the same boat as teachers coming into the district.
"There's nothing affordable for those young families coming in," she declared, in spite of the fact that Aspen has the highest starting teacher starting pay in the state - $40,000 per year.
At least eight teachers, she said, have told her they are similarly "losing ground" and are "not far behind us" in making plans to leave the district.
(5) Vacancy Rate Rises For Colorado's Affordable Rentals
A Colorado Division of Housing report on "affordable" rental units in the state says the vacancy rate increased to 6 percent in the first quarter from 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter, begins an article in the June 22nd Rocky Mountain News.
The report, authored by Denver University business professor Gordon Von Stroh, does not have comparable figures for the first quarter of 2006, because this marks only his third report. The report also was sponsored by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority.
But despite overall rising vacancy rates, there still remains a shortage of affordable housing in many localities, which have the lowest vacancies, said Kathi Williams, executive director of the housing division.
And in the Denver area, especially in the Broomfield-Boulder corridor, there is a shortage of rental units for the poorest people, said Steve Wessler, principal of Red Stone Agency Lending.
And Elizabeth Neufeld, development director of the Aurora Housing Authority, said last week they opened 30 "new construction" affordable units.
The three- and four-bedroom units, aimed at families with very low incomes, "are going like hot cakes," she said. "They cost more to build per unit and you get less rent per square foot, but that is where the need is."
(6) Developer Works To Overcome Opposition To HOPE VI Project
"I don't know why the community is so against this project," Developer Joe Venezia said. "They tried to stop us with caves, now environmental issues ... The [neighbors] can say anything they want, but any reason [against it] they give is rice paper thin."
According to the Gazette, the developer says he is disappointed with all the negative reaction to the HOPE VI housing initiative in Frederick, Md. The mayor and aldermen are slated to discuss giving the Frederick Housing Authority an option to purchase 33,000-square-feet on Site G for 36 homes.
"I don't know what people's motives are to stop this, but we are all in at this site," he said. "I am not dipping my toes in the water here, I'm swimming in this."
The developer also took exception to Aldermen David "Kip" Koontz and Donna Kuzemchak, who were both critical of the HOPE VI project at a recent meeting. Kuzemchack said she "didn't trust" the housing authority and the city should give back the $16 million in federal funds for the project.
"We've made mistakes, so now we come back and fix them if we can," she said. "Site G is a mistake in my opinion."
(7) Greenwich, Conn., HA Seeks To Improve Relations With City
In seeking citizen support for a bold plan to build more than 200 affordable units for seniors and working families, the Greenwich Housing Authority is breaking a long-standing tradition of operating at an arm's distance from town government, the Time reports.
Though the Greenwich Board of Selectmen appoints the housing authority's commissioners, the agency is not a municipal department and receives no municipal taxpayer dollars.
But as officials eye 4 acres of town-owned woods in Byram as a critical piece of a larger development plan, they know that a lease on the property must be approved by the selectmen as well as the Planning and Zoning Commission and Representative Town Meeting.
"The housing authority in the past has stood alone. We make a proposal and then we stand in front of a body, seeking approval," said the agency's executive director, Tony Johnson.
"We're there by ourselves, and the powers that be have not recognized the housing authority as having a constituency of support. We're trying to build that support. So when we do step forward, we'll be like the Verizon telephone guy on the TV commercial, the guy with the phone and everyone is behind him."
(8) Church Sues Michigan HC After Eviction From Community Center
A startup church has hit the River Rouge Housing Commission with a religious discrimination lawsuit after a vote to evict worshippers from a city-operated community center, begins an article in the Detroit News.
The 70-member New Life Family Church had rented the community center since April, but the commission voted June 13th to bar religious services. The move stunned churchgoers because other worship has been allowed in the center, and came after the commission's lawyer recommended against it.
"The commission's attorney gave them an opinion and said, 'No, they can't violate the state and federal Constitution protecting religious worship,' " said Richard Mack, the church's attorney.
"They don't have a problem using it for parties and weddings, but they didn't want to use it for church."
The vote overruled a recommendation from Dennis Luke, who wrote the commission "cannot prohibit the rental and use of the community center for religious services on Sunday mornings."
"There is genuine disagreement between the two parties," Luke said. "Either the commission could resolve it by revisiting the decision or the court can resolve it."
(9) HUD Says Omaha Councilman Can't Also Be HA Director
The World-Herald reports HUD has issued an opinion that puts on hold Omaha City Councilman Frank Brown's new job as executive director of the Omaha Housing Authority.
The opinion says that federal rules prohibit Brown from directing the housing agency while serving on the council, calling it a conflict of interest. But the department also told OHA officials that they could apply for a waiver of the rules.
Brown said that he expected the opinion.
"And I welcome it," he said. "It's good to have clarity.... I didn't want to take the position without clarification."
Brown declined to comment on whether he would resign from the City Council. He has said consistently that he thinks he can legally do both, based on an opinion from the City Attorney's Office.
OHA Board Chairman Bill Begley said the HUD opinion wouldn't change the board's desire to have Brown run the agency. Begley said he was optimistic HUD would grant a waiver.
Brown said he didn't know how long it would take HUD to rule on a waiver request.
"It's not an end in the road, it's a bend in the road," he said.
(10) Failed Attempt To Rob 100-Year-Old Tenant
The victim slept as two men scammed their way into her public housing apartment at knifepoint and tied up her son and home care attendant, police tell Newsday.
The victim, Juanita Pena, is homebound, confined to a wheelchair, suffers from Alzheimer's disease and can't speak.
About 11:35 a.m., two men posing as New York City Housing Authority workers tricked her home care attendant into letting them into Pena's apartment, police said.
The suspects left Pena alone - she was sleeping in her wheelchair - but they bound the 41-year-old attendant and put her in the bathroom, before searching the apartment for money and jewelry, police said.
A few minutes later, Raphael Rodriguez, 71, Pena's son, returned home and was similarly confronted, bound and also put into the bathroom.
The suspects fled empty-handed and no one was hurt, but the incident stunned residents. The home invasion startled other older residents and reminded them they are easy targets.
Carmen Quiñones, a Democratic district leader, said the suspects likely had no trouble getting into Pena's Frederick Douglas Houses building because the locks on the front door are constantly broken.
(11) Miscommunication Leaves Elevators Offline For Months
For more than three months, one of two elevators serving residents at the 221-unit Kalakaua Homes, a project of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority in Honolulu, has been out of service because state officials and a private repair company mistakenly believed that a replacement part was unavailable, according to the Advertiser.
A distributor of elevator parts told the newspaper that it has nine of the replacement parts in stock, priced at $500 to $600 apiece.
When Michael Tomihara, head of the company under contract to repair elevators in state-owned public housing projects, was told of the availability of the parts, he contacted the distributor and confirmed the item was in stock.
"I don't know what to say. I verified today that they have nine in stock," Tomihara said.
The delay in repairing the elevator at Kalakaua Homes - even when parts were available - illustrates the frustration many residents of public housing projects have been experiencing.
Nine of 35 elevators in several public housing projects - nearly 25 percent - have been out of service for months, resulting in long waits for elderly and disabled tenants and creating serious health and safety dangers at the facilities.
(12) After $30,000, Bedbugs Still Trouble Pennsylvania HA
A bug problem has residents cringing when they pull back the sheets at a local apartment community - bed bugs are infesting the Berks County complex, begins an article published June 21st on the website of NBC10.
The Reading Housing Authority owns the building and has spent $30,000 trying to get rid of the bloodthirsty critters but the pesticide treatments aren't working.
"The bed bugs aren't staying in one place they are traveling," Dan Luckey of the Reading Housing Authority said.
The Authority has decided to fumigate the entire building, which means residents will have to temporarily move out.
"They're all over the bed," resident, Ron Walker, said. "It freaked me out."
The bugs don't carry disease but they are biting residents and making their lives miserable.
"Someone unknowingly brought it in, in their suitcase or they bought a piece of used furniture, could be anything really," Rick Vivaldi, an exterminator, said.
(13) Cisneros, Kemp Call For New Urban Housing Strategies
Communities seeking permanent solutions to long-term housing problems must adopt a comprehensive approach that encompasses the full spectrum of housing needs and encourages cooperation among the various public and private agencies responsible for housing programs, say former HUD secretaries Jack Kemp and Henry Cisneros.
According to a news release, the two lead a bipartisan group that will soon release a book on the subject, "Our Communities, Our Homes: Pathways to Housing and Homeownership in America's Cities and States." They joined scholars Kent W. Colton and Nicolas P. Retsinas of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies to discuss the forthcoming book in detail at the National Press Club.
The book is based on an examination of successful housing programs in U.S. cities. Among the book's key findings is that the most effective programs look at the housing continuum - supportive housing, public housing, rental housing and for-sale homes - as parts of a whole rather than separate, unrelated programs. Such a holistic approach, the book says, takes into account how shortages in one area can negatively impact other areas.
While each city approached its housing problems differently based on local needs, the book says successful programs should all include:
The book cites specific actions and tools that local and state governments can take toward achieving such important goals as reducing chronic homelessness, preserving affordable rental homes, and boosting sustainable homeownership.
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