Below is message forwarded from Catherine Austin Fitts who was the assistant
secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Bush administration who
went on to build and loose a $100million dollar company contracting with HUD
for community economic development, lost because she found out through her
data processing the patterns by which HUD is systematically ripping poor
people off to the benefit of the rich, especially by use of the drugwar to
target inner city black populations for arrest, imprisonment, and property
forfeiture including HUD housing as part of an "urban gentrification
program". More recently she has been collaborating with writers and
activists bringing out the ciadrug issue as to the real economic engine
behind why the drug war is a covert action, not a failed government policy.
The policy is working but its hidden design has by today manifest a
situation where 80-90% of all illegal drugs coming into the US are with the
involvement of this unholy CIA-Mafia-Corrupt Officials alliance whose annual
illegal laundered drug profits of approx $200-250billion per year are
multiplied by the banking system in offshore banks (mostly, see recent BONY
scandal) to multiples of that amount which fund Wall Street low cost capital
and most major political campaigns, according to Fitts. More info on
ciadrug and poverty-drugwar connection are at http://www.copvcia.com and
http://www.suppressedwriters.com . Fitts has figured out a plan to end this
corruption by "flipping the economic model" according to a community safety
index she calls the "popsicle index".
Below is Fitt's memo and offer to help at Shadow Conventions along with
recent Washinton Post article on HUD urban gentrification program.
----------------begin forwarded article-------------
From: "Catherine Austin Fitts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "ARIANNA ONLINE" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Gentrification
Date: Tuesday, July 25, 2000 9:56 AM
Arianna:
Nice to meet you. David has spoken highly of what you are accomplishing with
the Shadow Convention. If I can help on line, let me know. My focus in on
community economic development....while useful to understand what is wrong
on the titanic, the answer for most people busy with family and kids is to
help them to build arks....jobs, businesses, equity.
You and your efforts are in my prayers. Good luck.
David:
Something on HUD Gentrification from the Washington Post this am.
Blessings,
Catherine Austin Fitts
Solari http://www.solari.com
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2000 8:48 AM
You have been sent this message as a courtesy of the Washington Post
(http://www.washingtonpost.com).
To view the entire article, go to
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36455-2000Jul24.html
Boom Times a Bust For Housing Subsidy
She loved her old apartment: outdoor fountains at the building's entrance, a
view from a spacious sixth-floor balcony, a laundry room on every floor. A
child of Detroit's ghetto, Cynthia Evans thought living at London Park
Towers in Alexandria "was one of the few times in my life where I felt like
a normal person."
Then her landlord broke the news. London Park was raising rents and, more
important, no longer would accept the federal voucher that had allowed her
to live there for six years. Evans either had to pay the higher rent without
the federal help &#150; an impossibility &#150; or move out in 60
days. Her once-crippling depression returned; she again felt suicidal. "When
I got that notice, it just &#150; I almost OD'd," she said.
Now a cockroach-laden building with poor security is her home.
Hundreds of the working poor locally &#150; and thousands across the
country &#150; are being squeezed out of their apartments into less
desirable ones or onto waiting lists as many private landlords opt out of a
huge federal rent subsidy program.
With the rental market sizzling, the landlords have discovered they can
easily find unsubsidized clients willing to pay escalating rents and no
longer need to fill out their buildings by accepting poorer tenants paying
below-market rates through the program, called Section 8.
The owner of a Prince George's County apartment complex, for example, just
told 300 tenants who use Section 8 that they had to be out by the end of
September.
"It's definitely a business decision," said Dave Thomas, director of
property management for Allen and Rocks, which oversees the Washington
Heights Apartments. The owner, Nalbel Limited Partnership, believes it can
"get better rents and not have to deal with the bureaucracy of the federal
government."
As a result of the Section 8 crunch, officials say, homeless rolls are
rising &#150; up 12 percent in Fairfax County, for example &#150;
and qualified Section 8 families are waiting longer for a slot in a shrunken
universe of landlords still willing to participate in the program.
All this comes at a time when other options for the poor, such as public
housing, are diminishing as well. Pam Michell, who runs New Hope Housing in
Fairfax County, a private group, said the Section 8 situation has never been
worse in her 16-year career.
"It used to be if someone got a Section 8, we could sort of breathe a sigh
of relief and say, 'Oh, these folks are going to be okay,' " Michell said.
"Now I see them get one and I think, 'Oh God, they got a Section 8.',"
Under the program, which is administered through local housing officials,
the low-income participants pay a portion of an apartment's rent and the
federal government covers the rest, up to a fixed maximum. But in many
cases, that maximum is now below the rent the apartment could command in the
open market. According to Delta Associates, the vacancy rate in the region
is less than 1 percent. Rents have increased 15 percent in some cases since
last year.
Translation: Section 8 renters are no longer enticing to many landlords, esp
ecially given the program's paperwork requirements. They can make more
profit without it.
"I guess a lot of the landlords that may have needed us before don't need us
anymore," said Peggy Pimenthal, Arlington County's housing director.
No one knows how many Section 8-related units in the region have evaporated
&#150; there used to be 32,000 &#150; in part because of how the
program works.
In some cases, landlords agree to designate all or some of the units in a
building as available for Section 8 tenants, and housing officials then
direct them to those buildings. So when a participating landlord takes a
building off the list, the units lost are readily known to officials. To
date, landlords of such designated buildings have withdrawn about 1,000
apartments from the pool.
In other cases, tenants are not directed to buildings available to Section 8
applicants but are given a voucher, good for a limited period, that they can
give to any landlord willing to take it as partial payment of the rent.
Because this type of Section 8 is decentralized, it is difficult to quantify
how many landlords who used to say yes to vouchers are now saying no.
But a survey of 200 local landlords and housing offices by The Washington
Post suggests that about half the landlords in Fairfax and Prince George's
counties who used to accept vouchers no longer do. Twelve of the 31
landlords in Alexandria who did have stopped doing so. Many prospective
tenants describe fruitlessly calling 100 or more landlords.
Ernette Starks, 33, who lives with her three children at the Washington
Heights complex in Prince George's, is scrambling to find a new place before
the Sept. 30 deadline. But, she said, landlords have told her either that
they won't take a Section 8 voucher or that the waiting list for the few
units they devote to the program is long. So long, Starks said, that "you'll
be on the street before they have a place for you." And if a voucher expires
before being used, its holder must return to the waiting list and start
over.
Kay Management, which operates Cynthia Evans's former building, decided it
would no longer participate in Section 8 there and at two other Alexandria
locations because of government paperwork and because the subsidies left
rents too far below market rates, a spokeswoman said.
Banners at London Park Towers now tout "our new look" and "fantastic
designer kitchens," and the rent on Evans's former unit is now $865, up from
$810. The building's rents will soon climb even higher, said Suzanne Higgs,
Kay Management's regional property manager.
"We're moving it from a Class B property to a Class A property," Higgs said,
adding that the effect on Section 8 residents was sad. "When they say, 'This
is my home,' we feel it, because we're human, too, but we have a
responsibility to the owners, too."
In her search for new accommodations, Evans, 30, had two options. One was
the homeless shelter where she works as a mental health counselor, giving
seminars on how to survive mental illness. The other was the bug-infested
building she ultimately chose. She didn't think living among clients at the
shelter would send the right message.
"It's kind of hard to set yourself up as a person who's coping when you've
just been evicted," Evans said, only half-joking.
Signs of the crisis abound across the country. Homeless shelters in Boston
have overflowed for 24 consecutive months, a record. In San Francisco, the
federal Department of Housing and Urban Development raised its subsidy
ceiling by 50 percent, trying to keep pace with high rents. In a trial
program, Seattle's Housing Authority allowed Section 8 recipients to use as
much income for rent as they felt they could afford &#150; rather than
holding them to 30 percent &#150; in the hope they could hang on to
units. Many tenants in the trial program found they had to pay half their
income, even with Uncle Sam's help, to have their own roof.
To complaints that they are not adapting to the rising rental market, HUD
officials reply that new laws are in place to help and that local
governments need to be creative and aggressive in marketing the program.
"HUD does not entirely control conditions and circumstances within the local
market," said Gloria Cousar, a deputy assistant secretary. "Local
communities themselves can offer incentives such as tax deductions or tax
credits."
Indeed, some jurisdictions are finding piecemeal solutions.
Montgomery County, for example, has not lost many Section 8 units because it
helps nonprofit organizations buy complexes that landlords are threatening
to take out of the program. The Housing Initiative Fund was just approved
for another year, to the tune of $7 million.
Beyond that, some local governments are issuing even more Section 8
vouchers, to guarantee that in a diminished market, all the landlords still
willing to accept one are found by apartment seekers, much the way airlines
overbook flights to make sure every seat is filled.
And Arlington, Fairfax and Montgomery counties, as well as Alexandria, just
raised by 10 percent the maximum rent they are willing to help cover, a new
option made possible by HUD and Congress. That means, for example, that
government will help underwrite a $924 apartment instead of an $840 one,
presumably making it more attractive for landlords to participate. The
District is on the verge of taking a similar step.
(There's a trade-off for the higher subsidized rents. Jurisdictions get a
finite pot of Section 8 money from Uncle Sam. Bigger subsidies mean the
money does not underwrite as many apartments overall.)
Even with adjustments, many landlords have little cause other than a good
heart to open their doors to government assistance. Jan Landskroner, a
senior citizen in Alexandria, was fortunate to have that happen.
Landskroner, a former teacher who is now disabled, got word a year ago that
her home of eight years, the Foxchase apartments, might abandon the Section
8 program, possibly forcing 423 tenants to look elsewhere. Then the landlord
agreed to a five-year renewal of its Section 8 participation after
government agreed to do better with subsidies.
Even so, Landskroner said, "It's inhuman, particularly for the disabled and
elderly people, to be put through this." And even with the agreement, the
landlord is falling behind again. Two-bedroom apartments could go for $1,410
a month on the open market now, but under the agreement, the subsidies will
reach only to $1,150.
"I think we could have probably made more money in the long run by opting
out," said Bruce Terwilliger, senior vice president with Aimco, the Foxchase
landlord. "But we want to be good citizens. . .,. We want to be supportive
of the community."
Many landlords, however, just don't like the hassle.
To become a Section 8 landlord, a property owner must fill out three or four
forms and then wait for a government inspection. The lease must contain some
government language, which many landlords say is more restrictive than their
typical lease. Once the Section 8 tenant is in place, a form or two must be
signed each year, and the local housing authority, as well as the tenant,
must be notified of any rent increase or eviction.
It sounds like a lot, said Kim Berry, the property manager for a Fairfax
homeless-prevention program and Section 8 landlord called Good Shepherd
Housing. But, she said, in reality, the paperwork "takes maybe 15 minutes a
year."
Paperwork aside, other landlords complain that government checks sometimes
arrive late. And some acknowledge that they would rather not have Section 8
tenants at all because apartments sometimes wind up damaged.
Marjorie Kennedy Pantaleo, who runs a transitional housing program in Prince
William County, said she understands landlords' reluctance. Just the same,
she said, they could help fix the problem. "They could screen people better,
get good references and really pay attention," Pantaleo said.
Amid all this turbulence and change sits Jelanda Winston, 22, holding a
Section 8 voucher she'd love to use. Her mother died of cancer last year,
leaving Winston, a child care worker, with four dependents in a two-bedroom
apartment in Reston. Her two young brothers sleep on cushions on the living
room floor, and her sister sleeps on a fold-out cushion at the foot of her
daughter's bed. The belongings of four children are stuffed into one closet.
One brother, Ammiel, 12, pines for a room where he and his brother could
display their L.A. Lakers posters. "I would like my own room to relax in and
do my own stuff," he said. "I could do homework in my room."
But Winston can find no landlord willing to accept the Section 8 voucher for
a three-bedroom apartment. It will expire next month.
---------------end forwarded post--------------
David Crockett Williams, C.L.U.
Tehachapi, CA 661-822-3309
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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