Wednesday, May 23, 2007
BHA Fires All 22 Staffers
Politics Lauren Gard — Wed, May 23, 2007 at 4:55 PM
Not only did Berkeley's Housing Authority pay rent to landlords on behalf of dead tenants, as we reported earlier this month , they also allegedly knowingly committed numerous other acts of fraud as well. As a result, the entire staff has been canned, according to a story in today's Oakland Tribune. Well, in theory, at least. Officially, because fourteen of the 22 are protected by union contracts, they'll be shown the door... and then given directions for their new desks in other departments. (Transfer employees responsible for destroying one department to work in another? Pure genius!)
The Housing Authority's brazen thrashing of the affordable housing system apparently came to light when a new manager took over last summer and noted "two to four alarming claims of staff wrongdoing each day," Berkeley's city attorney told the Trib. For the list - and it's a doozy - check out the article. Still dying to know more? Watch the video of last night's very heated, very long special City Council meeting.
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Trying To Find Balance Seems that the more we move forward, the more were moving backwards. Only lately have I really become aware that poor latinos and poor whites have been left behind in the struggle to house low-income communities of color in the Bay Area. Somehow we need to find the resources to house everyone in need... Lynda Carson
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Time To Look At The East Bay's Nonprofit Housing Organizations May 28, 2007 Perhaps It's Time For The East Bay Express To Do An Indepth Report On The So-Called East Bay's Nonprofit Affordable Housing Programs! You think the Berkeley Housing Authority has a few problems? What about the nonprofit housing organizations in the East Bay? Among other things, in part through the years, the Berkeley Housing Authority got into trouble with Housing and Urban Development (HUD), for not being able to maintain it's waiting list for their housing programs. Nonprofit housing organizations are also subsidized by local and federal tax dollars, including grants and donations, but theres very little scrutiny regarding many of their activities. In the East Bay, the nonprofit housing organizations are competing with the Bay Area's public housing programs, but many of the nonprofit organizations also have waiting lists that are wide open to abuse, and the poorest of the poor face homelessness and outright discrimination because of minimum income requirements needed to get into the nonprofit's low-income housing! Theres little to no over sight as to how some nonprofits' manage the waiting lists in their buildings, or maintain the demographics or racial makeup of their buildings, including the resident manager requirements that require a live-in resident manager for residential buildings with 16 units or more. Theres so much going on thats wide open to abuse. In the East Bay, some waiting lists of the nonprofit housing orgs' are so open to abuse, that a manager in some of their residential buildings can fill the buildings up with their friends and relatives, and there is no oversight to keep track of what is going on, or to stop the corruption thats taking place. Institutional Racism In Nonprofit Housing Organizations? Some nonprofits proudly point out that they focus their efforts/resources on Asian Communities or diverse low-income communities in the Bay Area. As an example, one of Oakland's largest nonprofit housing organizations is called the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC). One of EBALDC's older documents has a graph (pie chart) to show the demographics in their buildings. It proudly shows that whites and latinos each, only make up 5% of the tenancies in all of their properties. Little to nothing has changed in EBALDC's properties since that demographic chart was released. One can only wonder, where do poor whites and latinos go in the East Bay when they need housing, in a world of nonprofits that brag about filling their buildings up with non whites, or non latinos? Keep in mind that these nonprofit properties are being funded by local and federal subsidies... Some of these local nonprofit housing organizations have been involved in Hope Vl projects that end up displacing whole communities of low-income renters, for higher income renters in so-called mixed use developments! I hate to see a nonprofit brag about helping the poor, when in reality they are actually displacing the poor from Oakland's low-income communities by way of a Hope Vl project! I have spoken out about the corruption taking place in these nonprofit housing organizations for years, and will continue to do so until there is proper oversight going on in these programs. Lynda Carson 510/763-1085 (Nonprofit Housing Organizations) A List of East Bay Nonprofit Housing Developers http://www.ebho.org/developers.htm ********************** (Discrimination against the poorest of the poor? Click here for Berkeley's Affordable Housing Associates Minimum Income Requirements http://www.ahainc.org/aha.php?page=residency ********************** (Institutional Racism? From EBALDC's Website.) EBALDC is a community development corporation that develops affordable housing and community facilities with integrated services focused on tenants and neighborhood residents, with emphasis on Asian and Pacific Islanders communities and the diverse low income populations of the East Bay. http://www.ebaldc.org/mission.html ************ Use Guide Star's search engine to look at the nonprofit housing organizations 990 tax releases, for an indepth peek into their operations... http://www.guidestar.org/
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