Senator Casey and Specter Urge HUD to Extend Housing Program One Year in Philly

Letter sent to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

March 14, 2008 - U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) today sent a letter to Alphonso Jackson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) urging him to extend Philadelphia’s Moving-To-Work (MTW) agreement for one year. Moving-To-Work has allowed innovative approaches to provide housing to low-income families. The current program is set to expire on March 31, 2008.

“We are writing to ask you once again to grant the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) a one-year extension of its Moving-To-Work (MTW) agreement under the current terms and conditions with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),” the Senators wrote.

The Senators went on to write, “If Philadelphia loses its status as a MTW city, its housing authority will lose tens of millions of federal housing dollars, and the flexibility to spend those funds creatively, leveraging public and private investments, to best serve the low-income residents of Philadelphia.”

Moving-To-Work gives public housing agencies the flexibility to test innovative approaches for providing housing assistance to low-income families. Participating agencies are allowed to combine funds from different public housing programs and are permitted to seek exemption from most existing public housing program rules allowing them to develop alternate rent structures, implement self-sufficiency programs or design other housing solutions to meet the individual needs of their cities.

Earlier this week, Senators Casey and Specter questioned Secretary Jackson at hearings held in Washington, DC. Last night, the U.S. Senate included a resolution introduced by Senators Specter and Casey to the 2009 Budget urging HUD to extend the Moving-To-Work agreement between the Philadelphia Housing Authority and HUD for an additional year.

Full text of the letter is below:

Dear Secretary Jackson:

We are writing to ask you once again to grant the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) a one-year extension of its Moving-To-Work (MTW) agreement under the current terms and conditions with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

We understand that HUD has offered to extend Philadelphia’s MTW program, but under a new contract that will require significant changes in current program operations. If Philadelphia loses its status as a MTW city, its housing authority will lose tens of millions of federal housing dollars, and the flexibility to spend those funds creatively, leveraging public and private investments, to best serve the low-income residents of Philadelphia.

We are also aware that HUD has found that PHA is noncompliant with Section 504 requirements mandating that 5% of public housing be accessible to persons with disabilities. That issue is being litigated in federal district court, and we await the arbiter’s factual determination on this matter. We believe it is time for both sides to agree, however, that this issue should not be conflated with the discussion regarding the MTW program. There is little if any chance that the litigation surrounding the compliance issue will be settled before PHA’s MTW agreement expires. In the event that PHA has not violated Section 504, Philadelphia low-income residents will have been unfairly deprived of federal funding for its programs. If, conversely, the court rules that PHA is not in compliance, that finding makes the city’s need to retain its current level of federal funding - and the spending flexibility to remodel its properties so that they are in line with Section 504’s requirements – all the more urgent.

Furthermore, a recent e-mail exchange between two high-level staffers at HUD suggests that HUD’s actions may have been motivated by a desire to retaliate against PHA Executive Director Carl Greene. The United States Senate is on record in agreement, having resolved that PHA’s allegation of retaliation appears to be substantiated by these newly discovered e-mails. Since you have stated that you are still investigating this development and have not responded to our questions to date, this matter also remains unsettled. We strongly believe that the 84,000 low-income residents of Philadelphia should not suffer as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the ongoing dispute between PHA and HUD. For this reason, we ask that you extend the MTW agreement for one year under the same terms and conditions and work diligently with PHA and our offices to settle any other disagreements in a fair and equitable manner.

We appreciate your willingness to meet with us personally, and we look forward to your cooperation in resolving these issues.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA)

Source. Senator Arlen Specter

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