The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development took the extraordinary step yesterday of freezing $48 million of federal funds allocated to the City of Houston until the City corrects over two dozen serious problems in its administration of a program to assist low income families to purchase homes.
The City’s administration of HUD funds has been scandalous for as long as I can remember. Rather than encouraging responsible persons in the private sector to become involved in providing quality low income housing to Houston’s citizens, multiple City administrations have traditionally allowed the HUD funds to be misused in lining the pockets of political hacks and flighty businessmen interested only in making a quick buck. It is going to take more than Mayor Bill White‘s platitudes to clean up this mess, which has now become firmly engrained in the fabric of the City of Houston government.
Houston is home to dozens of superb and creative and developers of income-producing residential real estate. Mayor White should tap that civic resource and create an advisory committee to oversee a complete overhaul of this den of corruption. Until that occurs, expect that the federal funds that could be used to subsidize well conceived and constructed low-income housing will continue to be used in Houston to line the pockets of the swindlers who would leach off of those who can least afford it.