Under the leadership of Ophelia B. Basgal, HUD Region IX Regional Administrator, the HUD San Francisco Field Office submitted their review of the Tenant Protection Vouchers application to HUD Headquarters on the evening of January 22, a full day ahead of their previous commitment.

Administrator Basgal  will follow-up next week to see if there are any questions and when they anticipate completing their review.

With assistance from Congressman DeSaulnier's Office and the City's Federal lobbyist, Holland & Knight, we will continue to track the progress of the voucher application through HUD and inform HUD officials of the importance of getting this done.

We really appreciate HUD's renewed attention to this as well as the continuing attention of Director Tim Jones and the Richmond Housing Authority and anticipate a timely and successful outcome.

However, HUD warns that when Hacienda residents vacate the building will be dependent on their finding another rental unit. The Richmond Housing Authority will try to move at least some of the residents to other Richmond Housing Authority properties depending on unit availability.  Otherwise, the residents  will have to find units in the private rental market, arrange for security deposits and  physically move, so it may take a while to completely vacate the building.