Living the American Dream -- on the taxpayers' dime

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | August 16, 2010 | CHRIS FUSCO

[KeyLargo]

Living the American Dream -- on the taxpayers' dime

Now, HUD is reviewing housing grants to Cook County workers

August 16, 2010

BY CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporter with the BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION

Anntoinette R. Brown got the American Dream -- twice. And, though it appears to have been improper to do so, the taxpayers helped pay for it, a Chicago Sun-Times/Better Government Association investigation has found.

Brown, a Cook County government employee, was one of the county's first residents to qualify for the "American Dream Downpayment Initiative," a federally funded housing-assistance effort.

Terry M. Gowder Sr. (inset) got a grant in 2009 to help him buy the house above, even though records show he owned another home until late 2007. (Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)

Annoinette Brown bought the house on top shortly before using grant money to buy the house on the bottom, records show. (Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)

The program's aim: Give first-time home buyers who might not otherwise be able to afford a home a little extra cash -- typically $5,000 to $7,000 -- to help them make the down payment on a house or condo.

But there was one problem: Brown wasn't a first-time home buyer at the time she bought her house in Calumet Park with the help of $10,000 in taxpayer money given to her through the American Dream program.

She had bought another home just a couple of weeks earlier, records show -- which, under the housing program's rules, would appear to have made her ineligible for the grant.

Now, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development says that, as a result of questions raised by the Sun-Times and BGA, it's looking into the American Dream grants awarded to Brown and a handful of others in Cook County.

"We are now reviewing the county's ADDI expenditures," HUD spokesman Jereon M. Brown, who is no relation to Anntoinette Brown, says in an e-mail. "If fraud has been committed, we will make every effort to recoup the money."

Anntoinette Brown is one of five current or former Cook County employees approved for American Dream grants through the county's housing department. In all, federal housing officials passed along $1.2 million in American Dream money to Cook County's housing agency between 2004 and 2007.

[KeyLargo]

[Opinionated Blowhard]

And in other news, the Pope is Catholic. Does this surprise anyone? Government programs that dole out cash are always corrupt and mismanaged. People scam them all the time. Even when Republicans run them. Just look at Bush's Katrina spending blowout, where millions simply disappeared. They cannot be fixed. The only solution is to shut them down.

[KeyLargo]

I Want Your Money Trailer (2010) HD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wty7974IKg&feature=player_embedded

[ronnyquest]

Riots to follow.

[WayneS]

Hmmmm. Cook County... Cook County... Cook County...

That seems SO familiar... Cook County... ...that’s somewhere near Chicago, isn’t it?

I’d be SHOCKED to learn of fraud being perpetrated there using federal tax-payers’ money. After all, Obama is from Chicago; and we ALL know how honest HE is...

;-)

[vaudine]

This is exactly what happens to money given to the "poor victims" of various impoverished nations. Most of it goes into the pocket of dictators and govt. employees.

Notice they are "going to try" to recoup the money if determined it was fraudulently obtained. Translation--not a d@#n thing will happen. These people ought to have to turn over all their assets for reimbursement and fines before they spend a little jail time. Never happen!

vaudine

[dalebert]

Its the same all over..

[SMARTY]

Accountability is a truly foreign concept

[lowbridge]

bump