Posted on 03/12/2025 4:22:14 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The Trump administration is halting a $1 billion program that helps preserve affordable housing, threatening projects that keep tens of thousands of units livable for low-income Americans.
Preserving these units gets less attention than ribbon-cuttings, but it’s a centerpiece of efforts to address the nation’s housing crisis. Hundreds of thousands of low-rent apartments, many of them aging and in need of urgent repair, are at risk of being yanked out from under poor Americans.
On it’s face, the over $1 billion Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, passed by Congress in 2022, is intended for energy-efficiency improvements. It is distributed in grants and loans to owners of affordable housing in need of updating, including replacing or repairing heating and cooling systems, leaky roofs, aging insulation or windows, or undertaking floodproofing.
This money “was essential in order for the project to come together,” said Mike Essian, vice president at American Community Developers, Inc., which received funding for several affordable housing projects. “Projects will fail and these are projects that are already difficult to finance.”
he news has been a jolt to Al Hase and Joan Starr, tenants in an apartment building in Vancouver, Washington, full of other low-income seniors with few or no other options — most of whom live on less than $33,000 a year.
The 170-unit Smith Tower Apartments, built in the 1960s, is in need of updates, including it’s first building-wide sprinkler system. The $10 million award was a financial kickstart for its nearly $100 million project, and is cited in applications for other investments.
“In all honesty,” said Michelle Arevalos, Smith Tower’s administrator, “if this building were not here, a lot of our folks actually probably would be homeless.”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
More likely is that that 1 billion went to faceless bureaucrats instead of actually helping those seniors in that sob story from AP.
Usual AP writing.
All about what the social program is supposed to achieve and nothing about what it does achieve or how much the NGO skims for administrative cost.
What kind of salary does the CEO take home?
The idiotic title of the program passed by an equally idiotic Congress tells me there's a whole lot more to this story. Anything with "green" in it needs to be crushed.
So why is it upon the American Taxpayer to refit, update and climatize block unit apartments owned by somebody else. A corporation that owns 170 units takes in rent, don’t they. Spend some of that cash modernizing and refitting to improve their investment.
A get well program for apartment owner friends of Democrats, not the taxpayer all gussied up under the guise of poor seniors are being deprived of this and that...
The “green” retrofits double the cost of everything—with lots of skimming by Democrats along the way.
Let Blackrock deal with it.
Yep, they’ve got all the REAL money.
I thought habitat for humanity did this. Why are they wanting American taxpayers to do it? Usually when you give a billion dollars to someone to do crap like this, you’re lucky if ONE MILLION makes it to them. Thieves get the rest.
Why bother posting AP crap?
FTA.......the over $1 billion “Green and Resilient Retrofit Program,” passed by Congress in 2022, is intended for energy-efficiency improvements and is distributed in “grants and loans” to owners of affordable housing in need of updating, including replacing or repairing heating and cooling systems, leaky roofs, aging insulation or windows, or undertaking flood-proofing.
This money “was essential in order for the project to come together,” said Mike Essian, vice president at American Community Developers, Inc., which received funding for several affordable housing projects. “Projects will fail and these are projects that are already difficult to finance.”
So they suckered taxpayers .....who repair their
own homes...... into paying for the lazies who dont.
“Preserving these units gets less attention than ribbon-cuttings, but it’s a centerpiece of efforts to address the nation’s housing crisis.”
What might be the causes of a “housing crisis”? Letting in tens of millions of illegals won’t help. Providing endless welfare to endless generations of welfare layabouts won’t help either. Democrats always want to fight, with other people’s money, problems their policies create.
Convert federal buildings into low income apartments. People aren’t going to work there anyway, so might as well use them for apartments.
another deep scam from the get go and again we foot the bill
Show me the results, not the nice title, like “inflation reduction act”.
How many stoves did 20 billion buy us, how many solar panels does solendra produce? Was there ever a comic book, Iraqi SS, or lgbtqxyz play made, or just lined people’s pockets.
What was the “administrative fee” for catholic charities and their illegal alien “project”?
The left runs on money, and that gravy train is being cut, and they are howling anout ELON and the constitution 😂
“Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, passed by Congress in 2022, is intended for energy-efficiency improvements.”
The energy efficiency is best solved by switching to a natural gas boiler. $3 per 1mm BTU (therm) is the current price of natural gas. 1mm BTU is the equivalent of 8 gallons of heating oil. It’s like buying gas for your car at 40 cents a gallon. Later in the article they are complaining about not being able to replace a sprinkler system, but this has nothing to do with “energy efficiency”, so the article is AP propaganda BS.
Unfortunate. There probably are several structures in need of repairs.
If only the cash flow could be trusted.
If only the workers could be trusted.
If only the suppliers could be trusted.
Vacations, cars , homes, jewelry…..
That's over $588,000 per apartment.
You could buy the tenants houses for less.
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