Public hearing in South Huntsville regarding Housing Authority
2009 April 1
| April 6, 2009 | ||
| 6:30 pm | to | 8:30 pm |
If you live in South Huntsville you need to make plans to attend a public hearing on April 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the Chaffee Elementary School cafeteria. The subject of the meeting is the recent acquisition of apartment complexes in South Huntsville by the Huntsville Housing Authority (HHA) intended for public housing residents. Some purchases have been made and the HHA has plans to continue distributing public housing around the city.
Attendees at the meeting include: Councilwoman Sandra Moon and CEO of HHA Michael Lundy. I’m pretty sure a designee of the mayor will be there is Battle doesn’t make it himself.
Also, in what may be a hint at Lundy’s remarks, the HHA has added a list of “myths” about public housing on their website.
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A quick look at the sources used to refute the Property Value “Myth” reveals: ’social justice’ groups, leftist think tanks, and contributors to Democratic candidates. These groups have also gotten their social justice agenda into business journals. For example, social justice = sub-prime mortgage.
These types of studies use qualifying language like:
“…federally subsidized developments have not typically led to reductions in property values and have in fact led to increases in many cases. Impacts are highly sensitive to scale…”
Which means of course, that if the researchers were careful with language, up to half of the developments have led to decreases in property values; plus, scalability matters – placing the projects (or too many units) in an “at risk” / “tipping point” neighborhood probably triggers a property value decrease.
More qualifiers:
“Evidence suggest that the neighborhood impacts of subsidized, rental housing will differ depending on where it is built, the scale of the development, the characteristics of its tenants, and the nature of ownership and management.”
I’ll try to translate – smallish well kept old folks homes don’t hurt property values. BTW the nature of ownership and management of the HHA appears to me to be an unaccountable arrogant agenda-driven bureaucracy.
http://www.realtor.org/library/library/fg504
I like Bill Kling, but this statement he made in support of the plan actually argues against it: “I think it will be better instead of having a concentration in one area of the city. I think spreading it out will help to diffuse neighborhood problems.”
“Diffuse neighborhood problems” means spreading the crime and drugs and poor test scores and discipline problems around. Hey, Share the wealth…
Bill Kling’s statement is interesting because it is at odds with what HHA is saying. HHA is saying there’s no cause for alarm; there will be no increase in crime or decreases in test scores and property values. Kling is stating that the current HHA situation has “problems” and that he wants to spread them around (i.e. get some of them out of his district). So which is it? Problem free as HHA suggests or problem rich as Kling indicates?
Brian – I think we all know the answer to that. It’s almost like the Police statement that the projects have low crime rates but the surrounding areas are high crime (chicken / egg). I wonder if homeowners insurance rates will increase.
More:
Drug dealers like to visit projects. In Bham guards kept them out and the projects were relative low in crime. I doubt these apts will have guards.
Don’t forget your pitchforks!
As a SW HSV native and graduate of HHS and with HHS bound children, I have a different perspective. The main reason the HHS SAT scores are somewhat lower than Grissom’s is about to change:-) HHS had the most over-privileged and the most under-privileged of any HS in the city. My property values just went up because HHS’s SAT scores just went up. The Section 8 housing folks will undoubtedly be on food stamps, WIC, Medicaid, etc. The “actual” income will be similar, if not actually higher, than those who did not qualify and/or were evicted at the complexes. Apparently, the downtown folks wanted a nicer view from the hotel verandas.
I looked at Blossomewoods scores a while back and they were lower than Mt. Gap as a whole but when you compared whites v. whites, Blossomwoods were a bit higher. Mt. Gap just had very few black students. I assume that many of Blossomwoods were from COuncill COurt
THIS IS AN UPDATE ABOUT THE MEETING AT CHAFFEE SCHOOL. THE MEETING STARTS AT 6:00 PM NOT 6:30 ON MONDAY, APRIL 6.
PLEASE ATTEND THIS MEETING.
LIZ
Thanks Liz, updated the time.
Actually Liz, I’ve seen it multiple places (and announced on the radio) that the time is 6:30.
I am so upset about this. I grew up in Birmingham, the Roebuck area. Roebuck was a wonderful area in the ’80’s. Now it is not. I don’t want to see the same thing happen to South Huntsville. I have never seen a city government more determined to destroy such a beautiful area. South Memorial Parkway has been under horrible construction for about 8 years. Many businesses have shut down because of it. And the city makes it up to us by moving low income housing here! This is outrageous. I could deal with one low income housing area, but four is way too many. I am going to to that meeting and I want this nipped in the bud right now.
It seems that ignorance is bliss. What most people don’t even know is that there are kids from Council Court going to Blossomwood. Wow, that really impacted test scores didn’t it. Someone call Mo Brooks and let him know. Heck, tell him we’d like to test him.
And what’s really funny about this is that people in South Huntsville act like they don’t have crime. News flash for you folks – we’ve got crime. In fact, I’m guessing there’s a lot in South Huntsville. Remember Jeff Franklin? The 17 year old lived in South Huntsville. He killed his parents as they came home from work and then attempted to murder his 12-year-old sister and two brothers aged 9 and 6. One of the worst crimes in our city and it happened in South Huntsville. Crime happens everywhere.
And here’s another one for you. There are people with Section 8 vouchers living all throughout our city – North, South, East & West. You probably have a family living on your street and didn’t know it. You probably don’t even know what a Section 8 voucher is. Do some research. Because according to some of the statements above, you haven’t a clue.
And if your from places like Montgomery, Birmingham or Mobile – how can you compare those cities to Huntsville? I’ve lived in Montgomery and Mobile. It’s not the same. We don’t have it that bad in Huntsville.
What happened to giving people a chance? And what kind of message are we sending to our kids? For goodness sake, we’re talking about less than 50 people going to Stone Manor out of how many that live in South Huntsville? It’s amazing with everything that’s happening in our economy right now that we’ve got to all go up in arms over a small group of folks.
You’d think that as a community we would come together for the greater good. Instead, we’re showing the rest of the state how un-progresive we really are. I seem to recall a city slogan – One Huntsville. That doesn’t mean One Huntsville except if you live in public housing.
It’s time to think about what we’re saying, do some research and realize that the panic stricken folks of our city are misinformed.
Stone Manor is a roughly 50 unit apartment (can’t remember the exact number). That means NO LESS THAN 50 people. Is the HHA planning on filling each unit with one person? I don’t think so. I would guess the actual number will be at least 100.
We don’t know if this strategy the HHA has unilaterally adopted will result in any “greater good” (a phrase I don’t much care for anyway). Maybe you’re willing to risk causing substantial harm to the city on the hope that it will work out, but I’d rather see substantive empirical evidence that this strategy works along with detailed plans from both the HHA and the city about how they plan on assuring success.
To Lisa: I have lived the dream. Two miles from a public housing complex. A few blocks from several Section 8 complexes – so yes I am totally aware of what Section 8 is. The experience was a nightmare. We finally decided to move when the Bloods moved in and started leaving graffiti everywhere. We heard gunshots at night. Robberies were common. Yes, it might take 10 years for the neighborhoods to deteriorate but it will happen. One police officer put it best: If you can localize cancer then you may survive. Once it metasticizes (spreads) then you die. So put down the Kool Aid.
To Lisa: Yes, i can compare Birmingham to Huntsville. Roebuck was an area very much like South Huntsville is now in the ’80’s. Heck, it was a luxury area in the ’60’s and ’70’s. Then the city started busing to Roebuck schools from inner city areas. First, whites chose Christian schools. Then they left. So, I’ve seen how a city can impact an area forever with its decisions.
People in South Huntsville were not told about this. Something that can have a huge negative impact on our area was sneaked in. We did not vote for this. It is not fair.
I can agree there is crime at SE Huntsville, but each time you watch the news channel more than 3/4 of the crime comes from NE, NW and SW (not SE).
Some time last year there was a fire in some apartments of Mahogany Row(section 8)
Huntsville Fire Department ask to HPD to stay there untill the job is done. Because was not safe. Some of the apartments of Mahogany Row are owned by HHA.
Also when HHA put a person with a kid in a house, HHA don’t go back there to see if the number in that house will increase.
FOLKS, THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE. PLEASE ATTEND THE MEETING MONDAY NIGHT AT 6:30 PM AT CHAFFEE. SCHOOL, APR 6. SORRY ABOUT THE ALL CAPS, BUT SOMEONE ONCE TOLD ME THAT WHEN YOU TYPE IN ALL CAPS IT’S LIKE YELLING. I AM TRYING TO MAKE A POINT. FOR INSTANCE: I ONCE OWNED A HOME SURROUNDED BY PUBLIC HOUSING AND I DO REMEMBER THE FOLLOWING: HUNTSVILLE TIMES ARTICLES, MAY 21, 1991; BY JILL RHODES. “HOUSING (HHA) UNDER FIRE: HARASSMENT CHARGES CALLED PART OF POWER STRUGGLE.” JULY 26, 1992-BY MARIAN ACCARDI: “APARTMENTS UNDERGING TRANSFORMATION.”..FANTASIA APTS. GET NEW LOOK LOCATED IN A HIGH CRIME AREA LOCATED IN SW HSV. WILL NOW BE A SAFE COMMUNITY…$7MILLION WAS SPENT ON THE 229 UNIT COMPLEX AND NAME CHANGED TO”WESTLAND APTS.” JULY 2, 1992-BY MARIAN ACCARDI NEW APTS. LOCATED AT SEMINOLE AND BINFORD DRIVES..110 NEW APTS BUILT CONSIDERED NOW TO BE SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD…ONE MORE FOLKS…6/27/1998..BY DAVID HOLDEN..”NEIGHBORS WANT COMPLEX CLEAN..LEADER UPSET AT APATHY IN FIGHTING DRUG DEALERS, VIOLENCE”..TENTANTS WANT TO RID L.R. PATTON APTS OF THE DRUG DEALERS, CRACK COCAINE ADDICTS.
BOTTOM LINE..DOES HHA TALK OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF THEIR MOUTHS??
I am moving out of HSV before it’s too late to sell my house. I just found out about Stone Manor – which is less than 1.5 miles from my house. Ouch! I wonder why HHA didn’t purchase apts in North HSV? HHA probably got them for less $. Something is fishy!
The meeting was a joke, no questions were answered. It was a lot of poorly worded evasive manuvering.
I was hoping to find out if Stone Manor and Timberbrook the only properties bought for use as Public Housing. Does anyone know of any others? Lundy wouldn’t answer; he only gave the non-answer “we have no plans to buy any more property in S. Hsv”…not saying if anything else had already been purchased. People were saying at the meeting that Brittany Point was already owned by the HHA.
I agree with Khatlin – the meeting was a joke. The room full of angry people (rightfully so) because they had no saying in what is coming to their backyards which is idle, careless people who contribute nothing positive to the society. The meeting was sad. It will get only worse though – they are taking over… Welcome to “One Huntsville”. By the way, who came up with that slogan? Tommy Battle?
Read an article called “American Murder Mystery” in The Atlantic and it will scare you. It says the rise in crime in mid-size American cities is because the projects are coming down and moving to other neighborhoods. The crime goes where section-8 housing goes. I don’t understand why they picked SE Huntsville. We are not a moderately poor neighborhood.
WTF is Lundy smoking?
First of all, I am a minority so no one can say it’s racial. I just don’t want trash (black, white or whatever color) moving to my nice clean neighborhood. By the way, answering Debby, I think that Lundy guy was smoking his own EGO. How cocky was he at the meeting? And that Tommy Battle – don’t get me started! He becomes a mayor and moves the trash out of his neighborhood and dumping them on us. If he believes what he preaches “ONE HUNTSVILLE” – he needs to have HHA buy an apt complex near his home (there are few) and let’s see how many of his neighbors would knock on his front door with pitchforks. But for now, I am sure the Bloomswood residents are happy that the trash is moving out and their property value is going up. I think that the south residents need to protest before it really gets out of hand. By the way, if I am the one who moves into Stone Manor – I would be concerned - I don’t want to live around hundreds of angry white people. Where does Lundy live?
Lisa, thanks for your comments. Good to know at least one person realizes how crazy this is becoming. I’m getting out fast too….. not because of the “trash”, but because to the entrenched racism in this city. What a bunch of hypocrites. Everyone is so proud of how religious they are yet I have never experienced such unabashed intolerance.
shocked – why should people ‘tolerate’ a failed social engineering experiment being imposed on them secretly by an unaccountable bureaucracy – when it impacts their homes, schools, and safety?
BTW, way to be tolerant of religion – slurring people whose religious beliefs you cannot even pretend to know, for what YOU presume to be in their hearts.
I have never seen so many so-called Christians who have never read the thousands of verses on poverty that JESUS addresses—funny how that issue is ignored by a city with so many ‘glass’ churches. What a disgrace. Read your bible—NO, dont MEMORIZE lofty verses….just check an index on POVERTY and the POOR and see what Jesus says. Nothing worse than “holier than thou” hypocritical christians who truly dont understand the message of Jesus Christ.
Jesus commanded, “Love your neighbor.” When asked to define “neighbor,” Jesus expanded the traditional meaning of the word–defining our neighbor as anyone who is in need, including social outcasts: “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.” (Luke 14:13)
Funny how everyone is forgetting where the last police officer was shot and killed this past year….Bailey Cove & Weatherly, right? And, consequently, by a white man.
my brother works at Wal-mart and he can’t afford to live in the neighborhoods where the low income housing is moving. You can’t tell me that Chaffee is a mixed income neighborhood.
People were unfairly evicted during a recession. A major change to our neighborhood was sneaked past us. We have every right to be angry.
Gina- you have presented only completely irrelevant (e.g. red herring) arguments in an attempt to divert from a valid solution. People have actually been damaged by this by being up-rooted from their housing. Could one infer from your proposal that you don’t believe in property rights? (I don’t have that answer.)
Tommy Battle doesn’t even care and even spoke (last night) about how he tried to make a dime off these deals with the HHA before he was mayor. To an outsider, this certainly looks like a conflict of interests. Battle also failed to answer the question about “who won the bid” which he eloquently walked away from. I (and many others) lost a lot of respect for Battle last night with the way he insulted that woman by saying “well I know why you are not a lawyer.” His condescending, smug tone erupted in complete booing from the audience.
This fight is not over with although the HHA and Battle want you to think it is. Under law ‘Code of AL 1975′ , (S. 18-4-12) they have to provide these people with ’suitable comps’ which is interpreted as “comparable to what they currently exist in.” From the sounds of the Stone Manor residents last night, the HHA currently has been unable to provide anything close to this. I am not a lawyer but I would be glad to contribute to a fund for the existing residents to fight this through the system.
http://www.legislature.state.al.us/CodeofAlabama/1975/coatoc.htm
To Gina: it’s easier to love a neighbor who is poor but honest and decent. From my extensive experience with living near public housing, I can say that enough of these people are criminals or associate with them, that it will bring the neighborhood down. Why should people be forced to support those who won”t support themselves? Most of these long term public housing tenants are never-married women with multiple children. Let them clean up their act and I’ll be willing to help.
For those that missed the meeting, here is Sandra Moon’s speech (via FoxNews). Wonder why the other news stations missed this? (Kudos for this bl0g!)
http://tinyurl.com/cwsp8w
Thanks russ! I watched the video – go Sandra! It’s sad! I lived in SE of HSV for 30 years and it has been going down since 2000 because of the road problem, businesses are closing and moving out and all those big new houses on the market outside of SE/SW. Now with this HHA mess – it will go down even further for sure. Let’s say these projects are not a big problem for the neighborhoods but who would want to pay top dollars for those old house knowing projects are near it. There goes Wal-Mart, Kroger, then Target and the restaurants and the schools. Have you ever been to Wal-Mart in northside of HSV? What a mess! I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I am lucky that I can pack up and move anywhere I desire. So if you can afford to move out of SE/SW- do it now before no one wants to buy your house (other than low income families). It will be a big ghetto in next 10 years as more and more people become poorer and supported by Federal Gov.
Living in SE HSV for years I will be moving out of this area. Call it what you want, if I wanted to live near projects I would have bought near them. No amount of liberal obfuscation can hide the facts that housing is high crime and lowers property values. That the city of Huntsville has a middle finger attitude is beyond pale. I voted for Battle but not again. I am going to make getting outta this city a priority. I suspect Madison wants businesses, do they also care about the voters?
Has anyone else wondered why a mid-size/smallish city like Huntsville has 13 section-8 communities? That’s a lot of people! I am from Birmingham and I was never really aware of where the projects were. Birmingham is easily twice the size of Huntsville. Why don’t they work on creating jobs instead of building ghettos?
ReallyMad, I will be happy to be your next door neighbor in Madison, if not Madison, there’s many little places surrounding HSV. I just can’t take any more of HSV’s BS. For Debby, you are right about creating jobs instead of building ghettos. I used to live on Fairacre road off Bob Wallace as a child – it was a wonderful community in the 70’s but now you can’t drive fast enough to go through that community. It’s very sad. By 2015 – the south HSV will be Da HOOD. I feel bad for those good decent taxing paying people with growing kids and living in big houses on SE – they have so much more to lose.
Eddie/ReallyMad– I totally agree. I don’t see the HHA/Mayor’s solution as beneficial to any of the parties involved. One of the items that struck me as odd was a quote from Michael Lundy stating 16 of the Stone Manor residents qualified for HHA vouchers. From my understanding, this means that they are currently self-sufficient earning somewhat less than the quoted limit of ~ $53k, but now can qualify to climb aboard a government program at the expense of the taxpayer. This is the part of Lundy’s selling points I take issue with– which seems to be aimed at migrating people away from self-sufficiency and does not provide a consistent message (aligned with his website vision). He talked about how some people in public housing had excelled beyond the program, but the map on their website tells another story. Again, I could be reading between the lines but I don’t think I am far off base here. Lundy stated that his organization was a “super performer” with HUD but did not give an exact definition of what that means. However, this article provides a somewhat enlightening viewpoint:
http://tinyurl.com/c7gvat
Lundy: Oh, my! I just realized there’s too many middle-class white folks living in the city limits! We can’t have that. What will Birmingham and Atlanta think?
I think Lundy probably wants to make HSV – Da Hood like Atlanta and Birmingham too. Tommy Battle is too scare to say anything since he wants the black votes. And he is from Birmingham. Where will HSV’s high paying white engineers to go – Madison? I don’t think even hard working, well-educated blacks want to be around some of these people from the projects. I lived in Atlanta among many well to do blacks and they don’t go near these troubled blacks. I don’t get it – why is that?
The media is being unfair to South Huntsville. I object to the use of the phrase “not in my backyard.” I have emailed WAFF twice, once to Challen what’s his name, and only once to Elizabeth Gentle. Here is the evil email I received from her:
Hello Debby,
Thanks for your email. I realize you have a lot of emotions concerning Stone Manor as this is not the first email we’ve received from you. While we always appreciate the feedback, the criticism towards US—the media– is not necessary. I understand you want to put the blame somewhere. We are not the bad guys. We had nothing to do with HHA’s purchase. Our job is to fairly and accurately report the details. I think we’ve tried to be as fair to both sides as possible.
The people who live and work in South Huntsville have been heard from several times. I know that because I’ve done a number of stories on this issue since the meeting on Monday. I completely understand you don’t want HUD in your neighborhood. Your concerns are more than validated. However, the taxpayers living in North West Huntsville didn’t ask for a rescue mission either.
I agree the purchase of Stone Manor seems shady. However, it was a business transaction. The fault of what happened doesn’t necessarily lay on the city’s shoulders. The federal government has a majority of the say in where low-income housing is placed.
We will continue to follow this story and future developments. As always we appreciate you watching WAFF-48 News.
Elizabeth
I don’t think I deserved that after one email, do you?
I say, people of South Huntsville send her some more emails! Her address is Gentle, Elizabeth (email address removed – please contact WAFF through their website contact page – Reactionary)
Debby – here at Flashpoint we use the phrase NIMBY. I don’t see anything wrong with the phrase (or the sentiment) – in fact I think it is very precise language.
WAFF48 sent a news crew to cover the Chaffee public hearing.
uhhhh……thanks for your support. Oops, I posted a public email address of a public figure. Shoot me. I think I’m done with this message board
Debby – I appreciate that you posted your email to WAFF – it was interesting to see their response. However, IMO posting an email address violates our policies. No big deal. The rest of your comment is still there.
As for the phrase NIMBY – here is a post that Brian wrote:
http://www.flashpointblog.com/2009/04/02/nimby-and-public-housing-expansion-in-huntsville/
We can’t chide WAFF for using the same term that we’ve used.
Both of these points are simple statements of fact. That’s all.
sorry. just having a bad day
Dear People, please send an email to Sean Hannity about this mess. He is familiar with Huntsville area since he worked here. He will love to hear about our (his too) tax money used for purchasing luxury apts for the Housing, secrecy, bringing in crimes, downgrading schools, etc.
http://www.hannity.com/contactus.asp
You all keep talking about test scores. Well at any time any parent that has a child in the Huntsville City School system can ask for their child to be allowed to attend a school out of district, via the majority/minority rule. So a NW Huntsville parent would be allowed to send their child to SE Huntsville. Thats all it takes. The issue here is not test scores.
It is people who are driven by fear. All the blame is being placed on HHA, but HUD the federal governing body over HHA made the final decision. Just tell me what crime was committed in buying property?
Have any of you ever stopped and thought maybe the residents that are moving may not fit your stereotype? They may be good people who have tried and bad things happened anyway?
concerned – please try to stick with one “handle” (or screen name if you prefer).
Sorry that wasn’t me that was my neighbor who posted the comment.
Hi, I am outraged at the public housing moving to south Huntsville. We work hard to be able to live in the part of town we prefer. Please read below at what Mo Brooks has to say about HHA’s strategic plan they filed. Moving the people from 600+ project units to SE Hsv sounds VERY different from “just a few” mostly elderly that we have been hearing! Please pass on Mo Brook’s response to everyone you know in South Huntsville. What Mo Brooks says about the school systems is exactly right! It doesn’t just take a good teacher to have a good school system, it takes the dedication and discipline of the parents to spend time with their child at home and stress the importance of education. I only see the down grading of our school systems if the housing authority has their way, and this is just ONE of the negative aspects!
In the e-mail that I received this response from Mo Brooks the HHA’s strategic plan was attached. I am not sure how to put that on here for people to read for themselves but maybe you can google it, if you want to read it?
Info from Mo Brooks on HHA:
FYI, attached is HHA’s strategic plan that HHA filed with the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development. Note page 1, paragraph
7. HHA intends to close 600+ more project units (in Butler Terrace,
Lincoln Park, Sparkman Homes) .. and move them to “Southeast
Huntsville”.
HHA’s own documents strongly conflict with their public statements
that South Huntsville is not being dumped on . . . that we are only
going to get a small number of projects.
What is particularly troubling is their avowed reason: that these
project residents will benefit from “high performing schools” when one
of the big reasons why our schools are “high performing” is that we
don’t have the problems created by unruly, undisciplined troublemaker
students that come from public housing projects at higher than normal
rates.
Our teachers in South Huntsville schools do better, in part, because
our kids are more disciplined because our parents stress education and
reinforce what teachers are trying to do.
Martha, my wife, is a teacher (at Whitesburg M.S.). My daughter is a
teacher. My mom retired from Lee High School after 20+ years
teaching. My other daughter is doing student teaching before
graduating in two weeks.
If there is one thing I’ve learned from them it is that it only takes
1-2 students with significant disruption and discipline problems to
destroy a class period (and, hence, the lesson all other students were
supposed to learn that day). Multiple this problem by many disruptive
students and disrupted days and suddenly there is greater
understanding about why schools that now serve project kids perform so
poorly compared to schools elsewhere.
In sum, the relocation of projects in South Huntsville will undermine,
to an unknown degree, our efforts to ensure our schools are “high
performing”.
I hope you will share the foregoing document with anyone and everyone
you know in South Huntsville.
Mo Brooks
concerned- You are correct in that fear is the main component driving these issues. Fear of depreciating property values, the onset of crime spilling out into regions of the city previously not exposed to it– at least from an increased frequency. Clearly, this is the perception– and any good salesman will tell you that perception is everything.
To your second question of “what crime was committed by purchasing these properties”, I will give you my perspective. S. HSV residents feel that these properties were usurped using their tax paying dollars to evict existing residents and convert these properties into public housing. Having no voice in the matter made the residents angry at how their tax paying dollars were being spent. Adding to this problem was the the fact that eminent domain laws were used to supplant the properties made residents even angrier. To make things worse, their goal was to de-concentrate poverty, yet it would appear from the purchase of all the units at Stone Manor that they are just “relocating” it to another part of the city. This in turn does not fix the problem, so it is viewed as wasteful spending. If my tax dollars are paying for some good or service and I see them used in a way I don’t feel is moral/logical, I am going to argue against it. I feel the same way about this issue as I do about other government waste (e.g. the Pentagon spending the ridiculous amount of $600 for every toilet seat). Call me a radical-right-wing but I believe in building solutions as opposed to planning excuses (the latter of which I believe Mayor Battle and Lundy to be working on as I compose this).
Where can I find HHA’s five year plan? I’ve been unable to find it online and I’d really like to see it.
I talked to the HHA on the phone and they said they’ve bought 5 properties in SE Huntsville and don’t have plans to buy anymore. However, I don’t trust them for s***
http://www.theattackmachine.com/upload/HHA%205%20year%20plan%20as%20of%20April%2009.pdf
(e) HHA may wish to use the project-based voucher program for approximately 150 units. HHA is working to de-concentrate poverty in the city of Huntsville and there are a limited number of landlords willing to accept vouchers in the higher income communities. HHA intends to use the voucher program to guarantee affordability in Southeast Huntsville, specifically in the downtown Medical District. Additionally, HHA would like to guarantee affordability of housing in other areas of Southeast Huntsville so that residents may benefit from high-performing schools and other quality of life factors.
Is this going to get bigger than “Stone Manor” in South Huntsville?
Mayor Battle’s response…
Is 50 units to big to deconsentrate poverty?
So I know of 2 properties (3 if they are counting the land adjacent to Stone Manor), bought by HHA. Does anyone know where the others are located? I keep hearing Brittany Point, but surely not….right?
If any more property was purchased by the HHA, it has not shown up in Court Records yet. Case in point..Stone Manor. An agreement was signed between the HHA and owner of Stone Manor in November 2008, but was not recorded in court records until March 2009. Please attend the upcoming City Council Meeting this Thursday.
I’m assuming the other 3 are the units on Mahogany Row (Road?)
Just found out that Hitler lived in a home for poor men