Berkeley's Housing Dept was recently cited for especially poor performance and the entire staff dismissed. The head of Berkeley's City Dept of Housing was also dismissed. It seems a HUD audit had finally pointed out that the local housing job was not being done right.
The waiting list was over 5 years old. It was a mess so that no one could tell the order of selection, and had to be discarded. It seemed that no one was ever selected from the list anyway. The funds were set aside to be allocated to new buildings as a sort of subsidy. What many people don't know is that there are cheap vacant units available that no one is taking. Legitimate candidates were ignored.
The waiting list was over 5 years old. It was a mess so that no one could tell the order of selection, and had to be discarded. It seemed that no one was ever selected from the list anyway. The funds were set aside to be allocated to new buildings as a sort of subsidy. What many people don't know is that there are cheap vacant units available that no one is taking. Legitimate candidates were ignored.
Section 8 Vouchers are meant for needy people as they come available but the head of the housing dept just held them aside and dubbed them "Project Based Section 8 Centificates.'
' (The City in general provides higher than fair market rents to the developer which in turn provides fewer vouchers for those who truly need housing. The developers are provided Market or above market rents for inclusionary units--this results in the Double dipping (developer gets higher rent for an inclusionary unit and gets to claim that he is providing affordable housing) and the City gets less affordable housing.
This guarantees rental income for the developer, even on vacant units.
The city had to board up and set aside City built subsidized housing as not affordable for the city to keep under repair. The contractor responsible for managing the units was collecting extremely high fees and doing little or no work. The City leverage funds for ten years to repair these properties and in a couple of years they were inhabitable.
The Mayor and others had been ignoring this mess for years because the HUD subsidies were being funneled to new developments that the Mayor wanted.
The city had to board up and set aside City built subsidized housing as not affordable for the city to keep under repair. The contractor responsible for managing the units was collecting extremely high fees and doing little or no work. The City leverage funds for ten years to repair these properties and in a couple of years they were inhabitable.
The Mayor and others had been ignoring this mess for years because the HUD subsidies were being funneled to new developments that the Mayor wanted.
