AMHA grapples with funding ‘crisis’
By Stephanie Kist
DOWNTOWN AKRON — Public housing agencies across the nation are facing a 24 percent reduction in federal funding if Congress approves the cut, according to Tony O’Leary, executive director of the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA).
For the AMHA, that boils down to a $4.5 million reduction in its typical $19 million operating budget.
O’Leary appeared at city hall during Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic’s weekly press conference Jan. 10. He said all housing authorities were participating in a public information effort that day regarding the dire situation.
AMHA has reduced services, eliminated 25 positions out of 270, increased the cost of health insurance to employees and implemented a partial hiring freeze.
O’Leary explained that a budget is determined based on federal funding requested of Congress by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in addition to rent collected from tenants. He said the federal government since 1937 has provided funding for public housing.
“We aren’t out here
just whistling in the wind saying we want more money,”
he said. “We’re saying
we have a contract with the federal government to provide
these services. They’ve agreed since 1937 to provide
the money to do it.
“Basically HUD and the
Congress are not keeping their end of the bargain,”
he said.
He added that funding since 1990
has typically been in the 92 percent to 96 percent range,
which is why this year’s reduction down to 76
percent is unprecedented.
“This is, without question,
the lowest level of funding
that HUD has actually requested from Congress in 70
years of the program,” O’Leary said. “That’s
why we’re calling it a crisis, because it is,
in fact, exactly that.”
Public housing has typically
been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, but
O’Leary said support has waned under the current
administration.
“This administration is
clearly not supportive of this program,” he said.
“To be honest, there’s many people in Congress
on both sides that aren’t
supportive. ... It’s not a popular time to be
poor in this country.”
In response to a question from
the press regarding the timing of O’Leary’s
statements on the same day President George W. Bush
was expected to announce a surge in the number of troops
in Iraq, O’Leary said it was a coincidence, but
he added funding for troops in Iraq tends to be one
of the excuses given when federal funding for domestic
programs such as public housing is cut.
“My position is, we need
to do both, and I don’t
know that one’s more important than the other,”
O’Leary said. “Certainly both are important
issues, but there has been a tremendous investment made
in public housing in this country. I know one thing:
It’s very expensive to try to rebuild it once
it goes down the tubes, so to speak, so I certainly
think they need to at least honor obligations and at
least meet historic levels.”
Plusquellic’s reaction
to Bush’s plan in relation to the funding cuts
was less charitable.
“Horse manure,” he
said. “Horse manure that we ought to be spending
more money to help Iraq right now than we are to help
citizens of our own country.”
Eyes blazing, Plusquellic had
a message for Bush and those who stand up for him because
of his Christian beliefs — a message he said he
wished he would have spoken as strongly when he was
president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
“To have a president talk
about his religious beliefs
at the same time he cuts support for poor people is
absolutely a lie, and there’s no other way to
describe it,” Plusquellic said. “It’s
an absolute lie. It’s the biggest hypocrisy that
I’ve probably witnessed in my lifetime.”
Plusquellic and other representatives
of the U.S. Conference of Mayors traveled to Washington,
D.C., last week to meet with new House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-California). [See
related story on Page
4.] He said one of the issues
they would take up with her is the proposed public housing
cut.
“Cutting this program is
absolutely ridiculous,” Plusquellic said. “It’s
just beyond belief.”
|
