|
Sarasota housing agency to lose federal oversight |
|
|
Written by CATHY ZOLLO
|
|
Saturday, 18 August 2007 |
SARASOTA -- Over the next six months, the federal government will
release its hold on the Sarasota Housing Authority, the city announced
Friday.
The
move by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development comes five
weeks after the city requested that the authority be turned back over
to its control.
"This is a good day. We have been anxiously awaiting this notification," said Mayor Lou Ann Palmer in a written statement.
Deplorable
conditions at the Janie Poe housing complex drove the federal
government to appoint a receiver to take control of the housing
authority in April 2005.
Since then, Carmen Valenti, the HUD
receiver and Bill Russell, director of the authority, have given
residents greater say in authority decisions and made enough
improvements to meet HUD assessment guidelines.
They also
brokered a $109 million arrangement with public and private funding to
redevelop all of Sarasota's public housing complexes. The plan has
private developer Michaels Development, of New Jersey, bringing mixed
use, mixed income projects to the 54 acres now owned by the housing
authority.
Valenti was unavailable for comment Friday, but
Russell said HUD based its decision on improvements in the way the
authority is run and progress with the redevelopment of Sarasota's
public housing.
"They felt that we had made a significant amount
progress and they felt that this was an appropriate time to being the
process of transitioning back to local control," Russell said.
During
the transition from federal to local control, the city will appoint a
five-member housing authority advisory board, one of whom must be a
current resident of public housing.
HUD took control of the housing authority after a July 2004 visit by top officials of the federal agency.
What
they found disturbed them enough to send a team of inspectors to judge
how well local officials were managing the city's five public housing
complexes.
In addition to walls seeping water, leaking air
conditioning units and cockroaches that they saw in the July visit,
federal officials said the authority's finances did not add up and that
accounting procedures made the agency seem financially healthy when it
was losing money.
In April 2005, HUD dismissed the housing authority board and took control, appointing 27-year HUD employee Valenti as receiver.
The
advisory board will be just like a formal board, but it will only have
the power to advise, not vote on matters affecting the authority.
Typically, an advisory board serves for six months prior to the return of local control.
Commissioner
Fredd Atkins said that while he appreciates the efforts of Valenti and
Russell, he thinks the city is ready to take control.
"The
housing authority has shown a tremendous amount of movement in the
right direction based on the community support countywide," Atkins
said.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20070818/NEWS/708180333
|
Local News