Cuts Proposed by HUD Raise Local Concerns

Federal officials have announced plans to cut the operating budgets of hundreds of public housing agencies nationwide by 30%, a move that some say could force layoffs and a decline in services to residents of public housing.

For the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, the cuts mean about a $7.8-million loss from a $26.1-million annual operating budget.

The Los Angeles County Community Development Commission, which serves as the county’s housing agency, could lose $1.8 million from its $6-million budget, said Bobbette Glover, assistant executive director.

News of the cuts, made public last week, has worried housing advocates and sent public housing officials scrambling to rework their budgets.

“The impact is very serious,” said Donald J. Smith, executive director of the Los Angeles city housing authority, which operates 15 public housing developments where more than 24,000 people live. “I’ve already frozen vacancies, cut out travel and we’re looking at freezing all nonessential purchases in the short term.”

Officials with the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington called the move a short-term measure.

“The department has taken this necessary action to avoid a funding shortfall,” HUD Assistant Secretary Michael Liu said in a statement. “In the short term this will require belt-tightening on all of our behalf, but in the long term we will all gain a better system to meet the funding requirements of public housing agencies.”

Funding for local housing authorities will be reevaluated when HUD’s budget is finalized and after housing agencies across the nation have submitted more information to HUD.

Although some housing authority officials hold out hope that funding will be restored after the budget is resolved, others are planning for the worst.

“What we’ll find out, in my estimation ... is whether the 30% cut is permanent or if it’s more,” Smith said.

The operating subsidy represents the difference between the rents the agencies collect and the amount needed to operate public housing. The operating budget is used for utilities, insurance, maintenance, security and social programs.

The budget cuts stem from HUD’s system of determining the subsidy amount local agencies receive.

“Unfortunately we are saddled with a process ... which obligates HUD to provide money to housing authorities without the benefit of their current year’s projected budget,” Liu said in an interview.

“We have to use our best guess, based on rather old data, to provide them with some money moving forward,” he added.

In the past, when those guesses were wrong, officials went into the next year’s budget to make up the shortfall, a process Liu called “quite astounding.”

“Clearly that is an imprudent and irresponsible way to handle federal dollars,” he said.

Christine Siksa, policy analyst for the National Assn. of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, said years of this practice have caught up with the agency.

Housing authority officials express little hope that city or county governments would make up the loss of HUD funds. Siksa’s group and others are already lobbying Congress to allocate more funding.

The cuts affect 775 public housing agencies nationwide.

“We just have to spend our money prudently and try to mitigate the negative impact on our residents as best we can under the circumstances,” Glover said.

Residents of Los Angeles County-operated public housing could also see the loss of counselors for substance abuse, domestic violence and truancy, as well as summer recreational programs for youth.

“The proposed budget cuts would diminish our ability to move people to better lives,” Glover said.

The city’s housing authority has already been hit hard by cuts in the operating budget and the elimination of money for anti-drug programs, which had funded the agency’s police force. Those cuts have reduced the police force from 75 to 34 officers. The force will be phased out by the end of this year, Smith said.

“We know we have to be serious about these cuts, but we’re doing everything we can not to impact our public residents’ quality of life,” Smith said. There will be no immediate layoffs.

The Oakland Housing Authority, which operates 3,300 public housing apartments, home to 10,000 people, said the cuts will mean a loss of between $3 million and $3.5 million. Officials have warned staff “we could be faced with a layoff situation,” said Jon Gresley, executive director of the Oakland agency.

In Ventura County, which has 351 units of public housing, “We’re having to look at reserves,” said Douglas Tapking, executive director.

Concern is also starting to spread among residents of housing developments, such as Kanisha Ford, a mother of four who has lived at the Pueblo del Rio housing development in Los Angeles for nearly seven years.

Ford, who volunteers with the residents council and management corporation, has been pleased with the city housing authority’s efforts to modernize units and thankful to those who “fund the money for us to keep our community safe and clean.”

But like others, she worries that less money may eventually mean a slower response to common problems experienced by housing development residents: stopped-up toilets, leaks, graffiti, broken windows, mildew.

“Residents will suffer in extreme hardship if these budget cuts take place,” Ford said.