By GLYNIS HART
[email protected]
CLAREMONT – Changes in federal Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) rules will affect local recipients of Section 8 vouchers and possibly the way housing subsidies work.
“HUD is pushing to get rid of public housing,” said Michelle Aiken, executive director of the Claremont Housing Authority (CHA) at their monthly meeting Monday. “They’re saying the capital funding is going to run out.”
HUD finances Marion Phillips Senior Housing two ways: in monthly checks to the CHA for operating expenses, and in capital funds disbursed yearly to pay for facilities improvements. However, another federal program, Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) changes the way capital improvements are financed.
Aiken said she doesn’t have all the information on how the changes in HUD rules will be implemented, but she’s planning to get training. “Each apartment would have its own voucher,” she said. “It’s not like now, where you give the voucher to the individual; it stops with the apartment.”
Resident Housing Commissioner Kathleen O’Brien asked if the vouchers would still be calculated so housing costs are 30 percent of the renter’s income.
Aiken said she doesn’t know. “It could be 30 to 40 percent.”
According to the HUD website, “RAD allows public housing agencies to leverage public and private debt and equity in order to reinvest in the public housing stock. This is critical given the $25.6 billion backlog of public housing capital improvements. In RAD, units move to a Section 8 platform with a long-term contract that, by law, must be renewed. This ensures that the units remain permanently affordable to low-income households. Residents continue to pay 30 percent of their income towards the rent and they maintain the same basic rights as they possess in the public housing program. RAD maintains the public stewardship of the converted property through clear rules on ongoing ownership and use. The RAD program is cost-neutral and does not increase HUD’s budget. This program simply shifts units from the Public Housing program to the Section 8 program so that providers may leverage the private capital markets to make capital improvements.”
In other words, publicly owned housing can now be offered as collateral for borrowing money for capital improvements.
Aiken said the CHA owns the Marion Phillips property, but all its funding comes through HUD. Under the new rules, apartment units could be designated for low-income housing vouchers, and the designation would remain after the renter leaves; however, departing renters can also take their vouchers with them.
The expenditure of the capital funds for fiscal year 2018 was questioned. O’Brien asked what the capital funds — $89,140—were spent on.
Aiken said she didn’t have the numbers in front of her and would like to get these questions ahead of time. “We did paving, new elevators, carpeting,” she said.
“I thought the paving and the elevators were in the fiscal year 2018 budget,” said O’Brien. “We did the carpeting this fiscal year, but we did the paving and the elevator the previous fiscal year.”
According to the treasurer’s report (Aiken is the treasurer as well as executive director) all capital funds for 2018 have been spent. “We don’t have any left,” she said.
“How much did we spend on carpeting?” asked O’Brien.
“You need to ask me these questions beforehand,” snapped Aiken.
O’Brien tried again: “What document shows how we spend the capital funding?”
“There’s no paperwork you [the commission] receive,” said Aiken. She said there is no document tallying the whole, but she fills in the spreadsheet on the HUD website as she expends funds.
Aiken said she verbally updates the commission. “I keep the spreadsheet in my HUD folder for auditors. No commissioner has ever asked for that information.”
“So, our reports don’t reflect the capital fund money,” said O’Brien. “What about this [extra money] for high performers?”
“You need to write these questions down and submit them to me before the meeting so we don’t waste time,” said Aiken. “Or ask me in my office.”
O’Brien said in the past, when she asked questions, she’s been badly treated. “I appreciate that you’ve started giving us some bank information, but I’m finding the statements are very incomplete,” she continued. “I would like to request that every month we have monthly bank statements.”
Further, a check for $685 had no number, and no person it was written to. “I don’t know,” said Aiken. “I’ll have to go back and look. It could have been paychecks.”
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