Enforcements Needed in Housing Programs

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following the House Appropriations Committee’s approval of a measure to fund the nation’s housing programs today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Democrat and Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, blamed Republicans today for undercutting important housing programs that protect our most vulnerable populations.

      The legislation, known as the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies (THUD) Appropriations bill, slashes or provides insufficient funding for a number of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) public and assisted housing programs. These include over $500 million in cuts to important rental assistance and anti-homelessness programs. The measure cuts HUD’s Public Housing Program below the fiscal year 2014 enacted level, while funding HUD’s Public Housing Capital Fund to its lowest level since the 1980s.

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Factually speaking, there is much fraud, waste, abuse, and discrimination allowed in the subsidized housing program.  Unless laws and HUD's Rules and Regulations are enforced, wastefulness and violations will continue. The Fair Housing Act and Discrimination Laws are useless without enforcements in place for legitimate and vulnerable tenants too often abused and denied protections while exercising their Constitutional Rights. Some corporate landlords and managers favor housing friends, relatives, and unusual businesses in place of those most needy.

    This blog recently received more information about some possible conflicts of interests regarding friends and/or relatives of Ms. Hamilton, who allegedly get special privileges other tenants do not.  We're not attorneys, but if true, it would be a violation of The Fair Housing Act and could also be considered a conflict of interest for Ms. Booth to serve on the Corporate Management team and to also share a position on the Tenants' Council at Clarendon Hill Towers (CHTTA).

      We're still attempting to get more information from other residents on this matter and any other.  You can send in some photos too, if you feel safe enough to be seen with a camera.   Do any vulnerable tenants under the Housing Program dare to speak out when the Legal Aid Program may not have an attorney available to defend you during a retaliatory eviction proceeding at the Housing Court?  You can write in anonymously, but then again, Americans lack much privacy nowadays.