Miami Housing Activists Criticize Miami-Dade Housing Agency HUD Takeover Deal
Local leaders cannot regain control until HUD agrees that a lengthy work plan has been completed, though the county can seek a judge's intervention if the takeover lasts longer than a year.
"What we need is housing, and this doesn't assure that's going to happen," said Max Rameau, [left,] a top housing activist and founder of Take Back the Land. "We need hard guarantees that we're going to get some housing built."
Commishofficials are going along with the plan:
...County Mayor Carlos Alvarez endorsed the settlement on Monday...Audrey Edmonson, chairwoman of the committee that oversees public housing, said she would grudgingly vote for the settlement.
Source: Matthew I. Pinzur in The Miami Herald, Tue, Oct. 02, 2007:
Activists criticize HUD deal By Matthew I. Pinzur
A tentative deal for a federal takeover of the Miami-Dade Housing Agency disappointed some of the county's most visible affordable-housing advocates, largely because it contains no guarantee of new homes.
The 12-page deal, which goes before the County Commission today, gives the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at least nine months to run the operations, budget and staff of the long-troubled agency.
Local leaders cannot regain control until HUD agrees that a lengthy work plan has been completed, though the county can seek a judge's intervention if the takeover lasts longer than a year.
"What we need is housing, and this doesn't assure that's going to happen," said Max Rameau, a top housing activist and founder of Take Back the Land. "We need hard guarantees that we're going to get some housing built."
But County Mayor Carlos Alvarez endorsed the settlement on Monday, and activists appeared skeptical they could muster enough votes on the commission to defeat it.
"Miami-Dade County is pleased with the outcome of the mediation and intends to carry out the provisions of the joint work plan in a spirit of cooperation and good faith," Alvarez said in a written statement.
Commissioner Audrey Edmonson, chairwoman of the committee that oversees public housing, said she would grudgingly vote for the settlement.
"I don't see there's any need to celebrate -- it's not a good day for the county," she said. "They can either come in and take over by force or we can go in and negotiate, and that's what we did."
The federal government has been moving toward takeover since at least February, arguing the county had violated its contracts to properly manage federal housing funds. Miami-Dade sued to block HUD, and the proposed settlement came out of mediation ordered by the judge in that case.
The proposed settlement says little about how public housing and rental-assistance vouchers will be managed differently by HUD from local managers appointed late last year by County Manager George Burgess.
It focuses instead on internal matters: balancing and monitoring the budget, training staff and reviewing technology. On the more visible tasks -- repairing units, approving tenants and processing evictions -- HUD would generally be required to make sure current procedures conform to federal regulations.
The deal would require HUD to consult with county representatives at least once every three months, and the Alvarez administration said housing advocates could be a part of that group.
"It has always been our intention to continue our partnership with the tenants and the community," said Alvarez spokeswoman Suzy Trutie.
The settlement would also require the county's approval before the demolition or disposal of any county property, such as apartment buildings or offices, and HUD would have to consult with Alvarez and Burgess before ``any proposed significant actions related to contracting, closing of any public housing projects or termination of MDHA's projects and programs.''
Activists were frustrated, however, that HUD would not promise to honor a deal brokered earlier this year with county leaders to increase the number of new homes being built in Liberty City on the site of the old Scott and Carver housing projects.
That deal soothed many of the wounds from confrontational public protests in summer 2006 and brought activists into an alliance with Miami-Dade government against a federal takeover.
Under the takeover settlement, HUD is required only to review the deal "in good faith."
"We want to see more than good faith," said Gihan Perera, executive director of the Miami Workers Center, one of the groups that negotiated the deal for more units in Liberty City.
The massive rebuilding project, HOPE VI, displaced hundreds of families earlier this decade and has been plagued by delays. Edmonson said those residents will have to wait a little longer.
"It has to go on the back burner until after this nine-month period is over with," she said. "I don't see where nine months is such a long time."
The settlement proposal also fails to embrace activists' desire for an independent authority -- rather than the mayor and County Commission -- to run the Housing Agency after HUD leaves. Such authorities run most large public-housing agencies, and earlier this year, HUD appeared eager to explore ways of pushing the county in that direction.
The proposal, however, explicitly calls for programs to be returned to the county.
Rameau also joked about one of the only specific demands the settlement makes on the 13 county commissioners: requiring them to attend a workshop "regarding best practices as a board and their role and responsibility in the oversight" of the Housing Agency.
"Taking a few extra credit classes or staying after school to bang erasers is too little, too late," said Rameau, who helped organize the Umoja Village shantytown that housed squatters before it burned in April. "Let the community take a crack at it -- we certainly won't do any worse than they did."
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