HUD Ignored Problems, Suspended Landlord Says

The suspended landlord of nearly 350 federally subsidized housing projects told a congressional panel today that he tried repeatedly to improve conditions at problem developments but was denied help by government officials.

“HUD’s administration and oversight of inner-city problem housing has been abysmal and verges on the criminal,” said A. Bruce Rozet, who was recently suspended from any new Department of Housing and Urban Development work because of questions about past management of a handful of projects.

“They have condemned tenants to live in squalor while pleading the poverty of the government and trying to shift the blame,” Rozet said, accusing HUD of trying to shift the blame for faulty housing programs.

“They have raised the hopes of poor inner-city residents with rhetoric and promises of action and then dashed their hopes on the anvil of purported reform and miserly budgets.”

Rozet is locked in a bitter battle with HUD and Secretary Jack Kemp, who last month suspended Rozet’s Associated Financial Corp. and a web of affiliates from any new department contracts.

Several Kemp aides were on hand for the hearing by the House Banking subcommittee on housing and on occasion scribbled questions on paper and shuttled them to Republican lawmakers.

Subcommittee members had dozens of questions about the suspension and the condition of the nearly 45,000 units at developments owned or partly controlled by the California-based companies. The panel said it planned to call Rozet back after hearing from HUD officials and tenants of some AFC-related properties.

The subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Tex.), said it was clear that inconsistent policies at HUD and high turnover had at least contributed to problems plaguing developments controlled by private groups such as Rozet’s.

He said he wanted to call HUD officials to see to what extent the agency’s “hands were dirtied,” but then added to Rozet: “I’m not too sure about yours.”

Rozet said he welcomed the review. He predicted the panel would agree with his contention that HUD should shoulder most of the blame for poor conditions, a position he supported by referring to several cases in which he said HUD had ignored or rejected renovation plans his company or affiliates presented.