Posted on 12/24/2004 9:42:05 PM PST by Coleus
Thousands of residents of subsidized housing in New Jersey got a last-minute Christmas gift this week, after federal officials agreed to a complex arrangement that advances 21 housing authorities $80 million to renovate old buildings.
The authorities will repay the money over 20 years, using 30 percent of their annual appropriation for capital maintenance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. And they benefited from a joint borrowing operation overseen by the state.
"It's a good news story for housing authorities for once," said David Gardner, executive director of the Morristown Housing Authority, which helped organize the borrowing effort through the state chapter of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials.
"Thirty years ago, there were no capital funds; you fund it out of your operating budget," Snyder said. "With budgets diminishing, there is no guarantee the program will even exist in the future. We wanted to get the money now."
In Hackensack, roughly $4.2 million will be used to modernize six public housing buildings constructed in the 1950s. Overall, improvements will be made on more than 11,000 subsidized housing units.
John Clarke, executive director of the New Brunswick authority, where officials will use $2.5 million to renovate low-rise garden apartments built more than 50 years ago, said the infusion of cash will allow authorities to make do with aging facilities.
"Because of federal cuts in capital programs and operating budgets, we are unable to keep up with the improvements these properties need," he said. "If you want to keep these buildings in good condition, you have to look to other avenues."
Only 77 of the nation's 3,000 housing authorities have been given approval to borrow against their capital funds, including the 21 New Jersey authorities involved in the current deal.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
If you notice in the comments highlighted in blue, one executive said that NO capital funds were provided and the other said there were CUTS in capital projects. I wish they would get their stories straight.
One thing for sure they never thanked President Bush, the Secretary of HUD and the Republican Congress for appropriating the necessary federal funds to provide much-needed capital projects for their infrastructures.
Do we really need a Department of Housing and Urban Development? Talk about huge appropriations. And I don't see that federally-subsidized housing is a constitutional right. One thing for sure, the federal section 8 program raises housing costs in the inner cities and those who make a little bit more and don't qualify can not afford the high rents in the area.
public housing is a blue state boondoggle. It should all be sold off to the highest bidder. The unconstitutional HUD department are the freaks and idiots who were led by Andy Cuomo, and sued Smith and Wessons. By aboloshing public housing we can thereby abolish HUD and make sure even in the next Dem administration it can not be filled with some leftist idiot.
End income redistribution.
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Whoopdee f'n doo. 80 million more taxpayer dollars down a rat hole.
Don't get me started on the Section 8 Program, which has turned nice private apartment communities into little Newarks and Patersons.
Like every other handout program it doesn't appear that the program is run properly. After the buildings are renevated they look the same if not worse in a few years.
It would be interesting to see who is on the list and how these people who will occupy the buildings are chosen. The ideal screening process should be a background check, they addicts, ever been convicted of a felony, do they have a j.o.b and do they actually go to work.
Do we really need a republican party (democrat lite)?
That's obviously going to rule out most all welfare types. The only right thing to do would be to start slashing the handout programs, let the hard workers keep their money.
And that sounds like the best idea yet!
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