Fix the HUD program
City Hall failing to meet duty to solve some long-standing problems
Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown continues to take heat over the handling, or mishandling, of federal anti-poverty funds. He has inherited many of the problems, which date back through earlier administrations — but he also has inherited the duty to fix them, and it's about time somebody got that job done.
Long-standing or not, the problems with the way federal Housing and Urban Development funds have been dispensed continue on Brown's watch. A recent critical report covered a five-year period, the start of which involved the Masiello administration. But the flaws remain just as troubling in the Brown administration.
What's frustrating is that a full seven months after federal officials criticized City Hall for what they determined was a mismanagement of the anti-poverty funds, the problems linger.
News staff reporter James Heaney's recent investigation into the matter found that more than 50 agencies have been cut off from funding for months because of unapproved contracts, when those contracts were supposed to be handled by May. The cash-flow problems for the agencies have slowed service delivery to the point that some people needing help have threatened suicide.
The delay may be explainable by the poorest of excuses — politics. The city's block grant program of roughly $22 million a year — totaling $670 million since the program began in 1974 — combats poverty and blight and helps fund housing and human services. And it has been a favorite political football among some elected officials, contributing to the slowness along with HUD's own complicated process, for which City Hall offers assistance.
The federal Housing and Urban Development office here issued a report in March finding 19 serious problems with the city's management of block grants. The city has cleared 13 of those "findings" with solutions, so far, but six remain. Frankly, what HUD giveth HUD could taketh away — and, with that hammer in hand, HUD can demand greater accountability and results.
The Brown administration is no different than any other in that personnel changes occur over time. The firing of a key official in the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency (BURA), which approves agency contracts, may be part and parcel of that kind of change, but it does raise more questions. So, too, does the current status of Brian A. Reilly, whose job, in part, was to oversee BURA, until he was reassigned.
The Brown administration rightly has targeted poverty as a priority problem, and the mayor and his team should be credited for anti-flipping initiatives to halt the spread of neighborhood blight, for foreclosure assistance to help individuals, and for summer reading programs as a step toward using education as a way out of poverty. Those are good approaches, but the HUD-related programs also need concentrated work.
For now, with politics and personnel policy factored in, the HUD block grant program's administration at City Hall seems more tilted toward chaos than focused on strong, substantive solutions.
Meanwhile, non-government help agencies have found themselves having to jump through new city-erected hoops, including disclosing the racial composition of their staffs. That may be a fair question in a city with a considerable minority population, but when those agencies and vendors serving the city provide valid proof of minority hiring practices, they should be given the green light — and the rules shouldn't be changing deep into the program or funding year. The same holds for new budgeting-method requirements. Making eleventh-hour changes to the rules and requirements, after agencies relying on allocations already have spent money, is unacceptable. It's also up to agencies to respond in a timely manner.
The Brown administration didn't create this sad situation. But it should be doing a lot more to fix it.
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