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Despite growing evidence that lack of sufficient funding from HUD is the root cause of public housing deficiencies, the City Council continues to blame everyone else, including itself, for conditions at the Hacienda that require a $19 million capital infusion to bring the building up to acceptable standards. Not only that, but they are prepared to spend nearly a million dollars of general fund money to relocate tenants while giving HUD a complete pass if HUD doesn’t provided the money. HUD owns the public housing in Richmond and has a responsibility to provide adequate funding to maintain it, yet the City Council refuses to hold HUD accountable.
Richmond to relocate Hacienda tenants, seeks federal funding to cover costs
By Robert Rogers
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 04/02/2014 06:34:56 AM PDT0 Comments | Updated: 4 days ago
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A man walks a dog at the Hacienda public housing apartment complex in Richmond, Calif. on...
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RICHMOND -- The City Council moved forward with a plan to relocate 130 tenants from the dilapidated Hacienda housing project -- an operation that could cost nearly $700,000 but one city leaders hope will be paid for with federal money.
"One option (for relocation) is HUD-supported, and one is paid for by the (city's) General Fund," City Manager Bill Lindsay said. "Those are the only sources we have."
The council vote Tuesday directs staff to prepare a plan to relocate residents within 30 days while putting in an application with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to be reimbursed for that relocation, including the issuance of new vouchers to provide the residents housing alternatives. A 30-day public review process would follow. If the plan is approved, Hacienda residents could get 90-day move-out notices soon after, along with help from staff in finding new places to live.
"We hope to have people relocating during the period between 61 and 150 days from today," Lindsay said in a phone interview Wednesday.
The city's 550 public housing units are more than 90 percent occupied, Housing Director Tim Jones said, meaning the system can't absorb Hacienda tenants into other housing projects.
Troubles at the Hacienda and other structures managed by the Richmond Housing Authority came to light in February, when news reports characterized the housing authority as among the most troubled in the nation, beset by mounting debt, sloppy procurement practices, misuse of public funds and poor staff performance. The agency has been on HUD's list of the most "troubled" housing agencies in the country since 2009.
Jones was described by HUD as "ineffective."
On Tuesday, Jones said restoration of the building and relocation of the tenants may be the option more likely to draw new funds from HUD, including money for relocation of current residents.
The roof of the six-floor building leaks so badly -- despite several contracts being awarded in recent years to fix it -- that the top floor is vacant, costing the authority tens of thousands of dollars in lost rent in recent years and leaving needy residents without housing. An independent contractor told the council Tuesday that recent inspections revealed that five of 28 inspected units needed significant mold remediation, including replacing moldy walls.
Jones said interviews with tenants would begin this month to better assess where they want to go.
Jones added that if HUD doesn't pick up the tab, the cash-strapped city may have to reduce its allotment of Section 8 housing vouchers. The city's General Fund reserves are at $7 million and dwindling because tax receipts were lower than expected in the past year, and relocation from Hacienda could burn 10 percent of those reserves.
Councilman Tom Butt, who has questioned the validity of reports claiming that the Hacienda is unliveable, said the blame lies with HUD for insufficient funding.
"(HUD) wants us to run a Champagne project on a light beer budget," Butt said.
Butt added a friendly amendment, accepted by Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, to direct staff to prepare a report on the consequences of ceding control of public housing systems in the city to HUD. Officials from HUD have said they want the city to administer the program and do a better job.
"Make it their problem and not ours," Butt said.
Lindsay said local control is desirable, but his staff would prepare a report.
"HUD has confirmed we can basically walk away from the building -- it's still owned by HUD," Lindsay said. "But while our performance needs to be better, I think local control is important for better services."
Reports of problems at the Hacienda and in housing authority management have continued to trickle in over recent weeks. Last week, a member of the advisory commission that oversees the system released documents showing that he reported issues. City Council members, who serve as the governing commission for the housing authority, said those reports never got past Jones and Councilman Corky Boozé, who was the liaison between the housing authority and his council colleagues. Boozé blamed Jones for not adequately addressing the complaints and said he did not know the advisory commission reports were supposed to go to the council per local law.
Councilman Jim Rogers said he is "skeptical that having HUD take over would be a good idea," but he supports the relocation and is hopeful that HUD will pick up the tab.
"We dropped the ball," Rogers said. "The buck stops with us."
Contact Robert Rogers at 510-262-2726. Follow him at Twitter.com/SFBaynewsrogers.
Hacienda residents to be relocated; will feds pay bill?
April 2, 2014 by Mike Aldax
Hoping the federal government will pay to relocate 130 residents from the troubled Hacienda public housing complex, the Richmond City Council voted Tuesday to move forward with a plan to find new homes for the tenants within 90 days.
But if the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) chooses not to fund the effort, Richmond will be stuck with a bill of approximately $700,000 that it will struggle to afford. The city is currently grappling with a $7 million budget deficit.
Hacienda, a 150-unit complex built in 1960, gained negative attention earlier this year following a series of news articles by the Center for Investigative Reporting exposing deplorable conditions. Tenants complained of bugs, rodents, mold, plumbing issues, and a leaky roof that has kept the top floor of the six-story building vacant. Many of their complaints were confirmed by independent inspectors.
The Richmond Housing Authority, tasked with overseeing the city’s five public housing properties with 550 units, is accused of ignoring tenant complaints and misusing funds.
To address the concerns, Richmond council voted last month to relocate residents of the Hacienda. On Tuesday, city staff returned to council with a relocation plan that costs $200,000 more than the initial estimate.
While the city awaits word on whether HUD will pay the $700,000 relocation bill, the housing authority will begin interviewing Hacienda tenants about where they would like to move. Residents won’t be able to relocate to the city’s other public housing complexes, which are near capacity. The funding sought from HUD includes housing vouchers that will allow residents to move to other locations.
Tim Jones, the housing authority executive director, has said he believes the Hacienda should be demolished. On Tuesday, however, Jones said the plan most likely to attract federal funding would be to rehabilitate the building after residents are relocated.
Councilman Tom Butt, who believes the reports about Hacienda’s poor condition have been overblown, has asked city staff to look into the possibility of handing over management of the public housing complexes to HUD.
“If they want to, [HUD] can take over the housing authority and run it themselves with contractors,” Butt said.
City Manager Bill Lindsay said while it is possible to “basically walk away from the building or units,” he warned against federal control.
“Before we were to do something like that, I’d want to check HUD’s track record for managing properties,” Lindsay said. “I think just getting inspections done and processes in place, we’ve been able to work a lot faster than the federal government could.”
Swift evacuation won't happen at Richmond, Calif., public housing site
Apr 01, 2014
Amy Julia Harris
Housing and Development Reporter
A private inspector hired by the Richmond Housing Authority said half of the units in Hacienda were infested with roaches.
Credit: Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle
RICHMOND, Calif. – The Richmond City Council decided unanimously tonight to ask the federal government for money to evacuate the city’s most dilapidated public housing project, saying it didn’t have the nearly $700,000 for the move.
The City Council now plans to ask the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees public housing, for vouchers to relocate the roughly 130 senior and disabled residents of Hacienda and then sell the property to a private developer.
This isn’t the speedy evacuation that City Council members envisioned when they voted in March to relocate residents as soon as possible after hearing their desperate stories of mold, bedbugs and cockroach infestations.
It likely will be more than three months before residents could begin being removed from a building that the city housing authority’s executive director has deemed uninhabitable.
“This sounds like the better way to go,” said Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. “We can get more vouchers and get HUD to provide the relocation money. ”
Evacuating residents is expected to cost more than $657,000 in moving fees, storage costs and staff time. The Richmond Housing Authority is currently about $7 million in debt and would have to borrow the money from the cash-strapped city of Richmond, which has a multimillion-dollar deficit.
Paying for the evacuation would sap 10 percent of the city’s general fund reserve.
The city’s relocation report also said an immediate move could be negative for residents and further hurt the city’s public housing program.
“In the short term, vacating the project can cause disruption to the lives of the tenants in residence,” according to the report.
City officials said it would be expensive to move residents out one at a time, as maintenance and security issues would still have to be dealt with as long as any residents remained. HUD also could penalize the housing authority for having empty units, since it wouldn’t have approved moving the residents out.
The city is now banking on the federal government. It plans to apply for money with HUD through an application process that takes three months to complete. And there is the chance that federal officials could say no.
The evacuation plans come after The Center for Investigative Reporting exposed neglect and financial abuse within the Richmond Housing Authority. The agency has landed on the federal government’s list of the worst housing agencies in the country since 2009 for breakdowns in its finances and management, according to HUD audits.
Evacuating residents from Hacienda is expected to cost more than $657,000 in moving fees, storage costs and staff time.
Credit: Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle
The most severe problems for residents are at Hacienda, a concrete high-rise built in 1966. Inspections stretching back years show that the building has been wearing down from maintenance problems that weren’t addressed. Cracks snake their way along the walkways and floors. Contractors have been hired to fix the roof since at least 2006, but it is still leaking. Stalactites 2 inches long drip from Hacienda’s sixth floor – 23 units have sat vacant on the top floor for two years.
A private inspector hired by the housing authority after CIR’s stories ran said half of the units in Hacienda were infested with roaches.
Another inspector hired to test for mold spoke tonight and said there was mold in 23 of the 28 units tested at Hacienda. A fourth of those units have to be fully treated.
“We can’t stay in there,” said Geneva Eaton, a longtime Hacienda resident. “But I want to make sure when we get a Section 8 voucher that we have somewhere to go.”
But getting residents out of Hacienda is a complicated process. To get federal funding for the move, the housing authority must prove that it is too expensive to keep up Hacienda.
City Council members blamed HUD for the problems at Hacienda, saying years of budget cuts left them in this situation.
“HUD is simply starving us for funds,” said Councilman Tom Butt. “They want you to run a Champagne project on a light beer budget.”
In 2011, it was estimated that fixing Hacienda would cost $19.4 million, which was just shy of HUD’s threshold for agreeing that it is beyond repair. Richmond plans to get an updated renovation cost.
“It’s a very high threshold,” said Ophelia Basgal, regional administrator for the HUD office that oversees California. There are numerous regulations that force an agency to prove that “if you’re going to demolish or dispose, it’s been determined that it’s cheaper to do that than to try to make repairs.”
Basgal called applications like the one Richmond is submitting “very rare.”
If the request is approved, residents will find housing in one of Richmond’s available public housing sites or on the private market with a Section 8 voucher.
The housing authority already has talked to a nonprofit developer that is “extremely interested” in a renovation project like this, according to the city’s report.
Tim Jones, the housing authority’s executive director, said that putting up the money for the relocation without getting help from HUD would take just as long as asking for HUD’s help and that it threatened to worsen the public housing agency’s rating with HUD.
It also could jeopardize the city’s Section 8 voucher program. The city would have to give Hacienda residents vouchers to help them find housing in the private market. That would leave fewer vouchers for individuals and families who have been on the Section 8 waitlist for months, according to the city’s report.
The city still is leaving open the possibility that it goes it alone, but that still would take at least three months. It would take at least a month for a consultant to prepare the relocation plan and another month for the public to weigh in before the City Council could approve any sort of evacuation. Hacienda residents would then get 90-day notices telling them how to move out and get help with finding alternative housing.
The City Council also voted to explore turning over control of all of its public housing programs directly to the federal government.
This story was edited by Andrew Donohue. It was copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.
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