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I have become increasingly disturbed about the lack of accountability and responsibility required by HUD from the landlords who participate in the Section 8 program. Their level of accountability and active participation in the program needs to be increased exponentially to match those of the participants. Including but not limited to, background checks, filling out annual reports, periodic surveys,and an annual face to face interview. The landlords should give you feedback on how the program is or isn't working for them and give you insights into the needs of the tenants.
I am having such a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that participants in the program are thoroughly vetted, and have to provide all kinds of personal information and bank statements, yet these landlords are the ones actually receiving the federal dollars.
How is it that some housing authorities prevent people with felonies from participating in the program, yet these landlords are not subjected to any kind of criminal background investigation. I am upset that the owner of my building is listed as an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) but I cannot get any information on the officers or board members, nor can I track down a copy of my rental file.
The man who says he represents the LLC is not the name that's listed with the Secretary of State. When I rented in the private sector, before being in the section 8 program, I never had any problems finding out who owned my building, who the corporate officers were, and who the employees were and their responsibilities.
My landlord has fired and rehired an apartment manager that has a criminal history. Last spring my landlord asked us to fll out a paper he said his bank required. The form asked me for very personal information like my bank account numbers. I have continually asked for my landlord to provide proof to me as to where that information went, and insure me that my information, including my social security number is under lock and key. To date I have not received no response.
Mr. Obama put out a call for accountability for fathers, yet a large portion of those fathers have felonies on their records, and therefore can't go and live with their children who are on section 8. This could be looked at as a form of housing descrimination, where the ones getting the housing have to adhere to a certain moral standard, but none of the landlords do and are considered worthy of taxpayer money simply because they have a space for rent.
In summary landlords need a vigourus vetting system, they should have to do more than just sit back and collect federal dollars, they should have to actively participate in the program. If you had landlords who were pleased with the section 8 program, and you got that feedback in writing, wouldn't that take away some of the stigma of section 8, and the people on section 8 and encourage more property owners to participate in the program?
If you had the landlords actively participate wouldn't that give you more insight into how your clients actually conduct themselves as tenants? This has to be a partnership on ALL LEVELS. Tenant, Landlord, and HUD.
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TELL PRESIDENT OBAMA IF HE TRANSFORMS AND ELEVATES LOW INCOME HOUSING STANDARDS, HE WILL TRANSFORM HEALTH CARE AT A DEEPER AND EVEN MORE SIGNIFICANT LEVEL, SAVE TAXPAYER MONEY, AND BRING DOWN THE DEFICIT EVEN LOWER THAN WHAT THE CBO PROJECTED!
Below I have provided a link to a recent article in the L.A Times, that goes into great depth about how substandard housing for low income families contributes to the health care crisis.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-clinic13-2010mar13,0,479347.story
The vicious cycle goes something like this, low income people reside in housing that makes them sick, they then become a burden on the health care system, which in turn causes them to become a burden on the social services system. If people are stressed out by their living conditions, and can't stay healthy mentally or physically for any length of time because their homes make them ill, how on earth do you expect them to become productive citizens and contribute to the workforce, become entreprenuers or pursue an education?
I know for a fact that my living conditions are making me sick, I have had a horrible cough and weezing fits for months. However, I went to Texas in November and just spent a week at my son's bedside in the hospital,and both times my coughing and weezing went away. The minute I am back in my apartment, however, the weezing and coughing start back up. I even have developed a gagging reflex whenever I see the roaches, especially around my toothbrush. Spending days weezing, and trying not to vomit is really not a productive use of my time and talent. Roaches cause respiratory infections, yet there are endless stories about how roaches are a common complaint in low income housing.
Surely the Unites States Government has the resources to consult with professional exterminators and develop a uniform mandate for fumigating properties. I was told that as of now, all HUD can do is ask the landlord to SPRAY and the landlord knows that if he can demonstrate that he SPRAYED he will still get his HUD funding so usually he does the bear minimum, instead of really addressing the issue.
I've had my apartment sprayed twice in the year and a half that I have lived here and each time, the roaches got worse. All the roaches do is run and hide in another apartment. So HUD's policiy should be that if there is evidence of an infestation and if the landlord has beeen sited for roaches more than once, then they should be required to take a more intense approach to getting rid of the infestation. ROACHES CAUSE HEALTH PROBLEMS AND CARRY DISEASE, therefore it should be MANDATORY that HUD standards for dealing with vermin, and infestations be implemented immediately. HOUSING AND HEALTH ARE ONE IN THE SAME!
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Application of New Information Technology to the Transparency Objective
of the Open Government Directive
While the Open Government Directive offers an unprecedented challenge to Federal Agencies, information technology is now available to assist Agencies in achieving the Transparency objective of the Directive in a rapid, cost-effective manner. Throughout the Directive, the need to proactively provide easy to use, effective, and comprehensive, yet controlled access to Agency information is emphasized. Various references from the Directive emphasizing this theme include:
• 1.b. To the extent practicable and subject to valid restrictions, agencies should publish information on-line in an open format that can be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched by commonly used web search applications. An open format is one that is platform independent, machine readable, and
made available to the public without restrictions that would impede the re-use of that information.
• 1.c. To the extent practical and subject to valid restrictions, agencies should proactively use modern technology to disseminate useful information, rather than waiting for specific requests under FOIA.
• 1.e.ii. In cases where the agency provides public information maintained in electronic format, a plan for timely publication of the underlying data. This underlying data should be in an open format and as granular as possible, consistent with statutory responsibilities and subject to valid privacy,
confidentiality, security, or other restrictions. Your agency should also identify key audiences for its information and their needs, and endeavor to publish high-value information for each of those audiences in the most accessible forms and formats.
• 3.a.i. A strategic action plan for transparency that ... (3) identifies high value information not yet available and establishes a reasonable time-line for publication online in open formats ...
Communicating the nature of the extraordinary impact upon the Transparency challenge offered by the new technology is best achieved with presentation of the problem, the opportunity, and the solution...
The Problem
For decades the information technology industry has refined our ability to house and retrieve information that is stored on computers in a clearly formatted manner that is generally referred to as structured data. Structured data has ample context associated with its format to allow the computer to present, manipulate, and retrieve it in virtually any manner we have
imagined. We even have tools that permit us to retrieve our structured data in ways not preimagined nor pre-defined, but in an ad hoc manner.
Although the amount of structured information housed within our computer systems continues to increase, it is proportionately decreasing as a subset of the total universe of computer housed information. Certainly there are advantages to housing this ever increasing volume of unstructured information. However, information, like memory, is only of value if it can be
retrieved when needed. Historically, the only way we have been able to retrieve unstructured data is by directly associating it with structured metadata that is created solely for the purpose of more easily locating unstructured data objects. The cost of producing this metadata is high
and it is not a comprehensive solution to the problem of finding our unstructured data. Thus we are left with a situation that allows us to properly manage and expose only a relatively small amount of the information we have collected on our computer systems, as we are not
able to manage unstructured information as handily as we would like.
The Opportunity
Recent advances in separate areas of information technology are enabling an extraordinary convergence of technological innovation that is of significant relevance to the Transparency challenge of the Open Government Directive. Automated text recognition within images and within speech has significantly improved in its ability to discern language from otherwise unstructured media, from standard sheets of paper, to voice recordings, and to multimedia, in general. Meanwhile the explosion of the internet has brought with it the ability to crawl, index, and search through enormous volumes of search-able text.
Unfortunately, not all text is inherently search-able. For text to be search-able on a computer, it must be encoded in a form that is discernible by the computer, such as ASCII, EBCDIC, etc. However, much of our burgeoning information is stored in bit-mapped formats that can be rendered as imagetext and readable to humans, but alas, is not understandable as text to a
computer, and thus is not search-able. As with an iceberg, we can clearly see the tip of the enterprise's universe of information in the form of structured data. But, as the largest volume of the iceberg residing below the water
line is not clearly visible, so too, is our transparency unstructured data limited. Thanks to the advances in search engine technology that can be applied to any search-able data, i.e. encoded text, we are able to readily peer below the water line and have transparency to a large portion of the information iceberg.
However, there is still a very large portion of the iceberg that is not transparent. Enormous volumes of information are buried in computer files such as images, sound, and video. While the information in these files is render-able to a sighted or non-hearing impaired human, we cannot readily apply our new tools such as search and analytic engines to this vast
information resource. With the convergence of advances in automated recognition and text based tools, the potential exists to tap into vast reservoirs of knowledge and make use of the entire information iceberg. If only we had the remaining pieces to bring to bear these incredible
technologies to our unstructured data repositories.
The Solution
Applying these convergent technologies to our Transparency challenge still requires certain incremental advances...
• Automatic recognition of key words needs to be just a little better to get that last percentage of recognition,
• Automated recognition is extremely computer processor intensive, and thus cannot be done in real time. In fact, its application to large volumes is a challenge in scalability.
• The quantum leap in available information that is theoretically possible is incredibly powerful and for that reason must be done in the context of important privacy and security considerations,
• For universal applicability, open standards and formats are required.
Using our decades of experience managing unstructured data and some recent patent pending innovations we, at SYSCOM, Inc., have developed a complete solution to addressing all of the above issues. SYSCOM's Imagetext Business Intelligence Gateway (IBIG) can produce comprehensive Transparency to all of the information within the “information iceberg”, in a manner that is secure, open, and scalable.
SYSCOM's IBIG solution directly addresses the President's Open Government Directive by using modern technology to expose and disseminate useful information to the general public and other federal agencies. As the demand for more government transparency grows SYSCOM's IBIG solution can lead the way. Please consider the use of IBIG to support your Open Government Initiative.
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WHAT
Urge governments to publish granular permalinks for all documents on their websites.
WHY
* Enable citizens to reliably cite government websites on their personal blogs, on public sites like Wikipedia, or elsewhere.
* Provide unique identifiers that enable aggregation of citations.
* Make the civic discourse surrounding government websites more discoverable.
HOW
* An easy-to-deploy archival server that can take page snapshots
o Hosts all permalinks
o Could be hosted by the agency or a third party
o Uses a software version-control tool as the primary database
o Allows other parties to replicate the data
o Likely an easy install of a Linux server distribution with the archival tools included
* Quick and easy integration solution
o Include Javascript on each page that ensures the archival server takes snapshots as each page changes
o The Javascript also walks through the HTML DOM to add permalinks to each paragraph
o The "easy integration" method works with even static HTML
* Long-term integration solution
o Option one
+ CMS pushes changes directly to the archival server
+ CMS integrates the archival server's permalinks directly into HTML
+ Most streamlined option
o Option two
+ A proxy server (base on Squid/Varnish?) that pushes changed content to the archival server
+ The proxy server modifies the content passing through it to add permalinks to the HTML
+ Works with any CMS and even static HTML
o More accessible
o No Javascript required
o Broadly applicable integration model (text filtering/formatting plugin) that works with even basic blog and CMS tools
* Mark up documents using paragraph/sectional anchor tags to create nice anchors that go directly to the correct paragraph
* Permalinks are human-readable URLs with timestamps, document ID, and an an anchor to the section/paragraph
o Example: Http://archive.house.gov/HR1586IH/20030318233035#S1b1Bii
o The example would point to section 1, subsection b, chapter 1, paragraph B, clause ii in SB 1234 on May 2, 2009 at 8:26:16 am UTC
WHEN
* We are fund-raising to both hire programmers to write the tools and to have codeathons where programmers donate their time to write Open Source tools they believe in.
* We are recruiting different levels of government implementation one agency at a time. Your support on http://citability.org will illustrate the demand.
* We are asking various proprietary software vendors to implement this standard in their software products.
WHERE
* Http://citability.org - sign up and show your support
* http://citability.pbworks.com - to help promote or to feedback on the internal standards we are suggesting. We are talking various implementations in different software to backups and server failover settings.
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WHAT
Urge governments to publish granular permalinks for all documents on their websites.
WHY
* Enable citizens to reliably cite government websites on their personal blogs, on public sites like Wikipedia, or elsewhere.
* Provide unique identifiers that enable aggregation of citations.
* Make the civic discourse surrounding government websites more discoverable.
HOW
* An easy-to-deploy archival server that can take page snapshots
o Hosts all permalinks
o Could be hosted by the agency or a third party
o Uses a software version-control tool as the primary database
o Allows other parties to replicate the data
o Likely an easy install of a Linux server distribution with the archival tools included
* Quick and easy integration solution
o Include Javascript on each page that ensures the archival server takes snapshots as each page changes
o The Javascript also walks through the HTML DOM to add permalinks to each paragraph
o The "easy integration" method works with even static HTML
* Long-term integration solution
o Option one
+ CMS pushes changes directly to the archival server
+ CMS integrates the archival server's permalinks directly into HTML
+ Most streamlined option
o Option two
+ A proxy server (base on Squid/Varnish?) that pushes changed content to the archival server
+ The proxy server modifies the content passing through it to add permalinks to the HTML
+ Works with any CMS and even static HTML
o More accessible
o No Javascript required
o Broadly applicable integration model (text filtering/formatting plugin) that works with even basic blog and CMS tools
* Mark up documents using paragraph/sectional anchor tags to create nice anchors that go directly to the correct paragraph
* Permalinks are human-readable URLs with timestamps, document ID, and an an anchor to the section/paragraph
o Example: Http://archive.house.gov/HR1586IH/20030318233035#S1b1Bii
o The example would point to section 1, subsection b, chapter 1, paragraph B, clause ii in SB 1234 on May 2, 2009 at 8:26:16 am UTC
WHEN
* We are fund-raising to both hire programmers to write the tools and to have codeathons where programmers donate their time to write Open Source tools they believe in.
* We are recruiting different levels of government implementation one agency at a time. Your support on http://citability.org will illustrate the demand.
* We are asking various proprietary software vendors to implement this standard in their software products.
WHERE
* Http://citability.org - sign up and show your support
* http://citability.pbworks.com - to help promote or to feedback on the internal standards we are suggesting. We are talking various implementations in different software to backups and server failover settings.
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Ok, I tried to buy a condo in vegas and help no less than five vets in town each at different times. None of them had ever used their down assistance and all of them were in a bad mental state. None of them wanted to use the tax credit available. I tried also, although not a vet and realized that I couldn't afford the total cost of the condo. The price was just too much. Even for a poor area. So why is this the case. To me I've lived with paying almost and sometimes 3 to 4 times over what some owners mortgage was. This last time was no different. So even when I've had 50%down for a low cost house I was turned down because of bad credit. I don't understand. Many times I could have owned a house with a mortgage if only the banks that all got government help were willing to give me a loan. That was with a steady job, a down payment and easy recognizable credit like student loans. But no, they won't even bother to look at you if you dont' meet there minimum loan amount usually over 50k. Ok, news flash, I'm poor. I'll probably always be poor. So what do they think is going to happen to the country if they do this to even one of its citizens? Sincerely, Disappointed.
p.s. Why is information still discrimant?
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The National Fair Housing Alliance and MoveSmart.org, in conjunction with the Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance and based on the feedback of a wide number of fair housing organizations around the country, has put together a list of 10 technical recommendations for HUD in general and FHEO in particular. While some of these recommendations have been adopted in part since this list was first released in early January the majority have yet to be addressed. We strongly urge HUD to adopt all of the below recommendations.
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1. HUD should require that all Analyses of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, Fair Housing Action Plans, and other fair housing-related documents required by CDBG recipients be posted online for public review and comment before jurisdictions adopt them. All comments provided online should be placed in the public record, as well as all final versions of the Analyses and Plans.
Congress requires CDBG recipients to identify impediments, develop effective strategies to overcome impediments to fair housing and implement these strategies as a condition of receiving funding. The public must have a legitimate opportunity to comment on the sufficiency of these vital but often ignored documents. To guarantee this opportunity for review and comment, HUD should require that entitlement jurisdictions make these documents available in a public forum, such as the Apps.gov-approved UserVoice.com. Following the comment period, all comments should be archived online in a publicly available, non-proprietary, machine readable format. Although HUD should not necessarily host each and every document, it should create and maintain a centralized listing of all documents in a standardized, non-proprietary format (GeoRSS, RSS, Atom, or XML) that includes the name of the entitlement jurisdiction, a descriptive narrative of the geographic region the document covers, the date the document was posted, and the location at which comments can be submitted.
This approach will afford HUD monitors and the public the ability to identify deficiencies in Analyses of Impediments, and allow HUD to assess how responsive municipalities are to the comments submitted. Requiring that these documents be posted online in participatory forums will increase transparency, accountability, and public participation in the development of these plans for CDBG recipients.
2. All HUD fair housing-related regulations should be posted online. HUD should provide a transparent forum for receiving and archiving comments on those regulations.
The federal government can use technology to increase public participation surrounding proposed regulations beyond commenting on items posted in the Federal Register. Although we applaud the recent decision to publish the Federal Register online in a machine readable format, posting fair housing-related regulations online will empower individuals and organizations to offer comments on proposed regulations through multiple avenues.
The White House has taken the lead on this effort through its innovative "Open for Questions" feature, and the aforementioned UserVoice.com is specifically designed to receive and organize these types of comments. Additionally, HUD should use all of its various web and social media outlets to encourage public participation in this process. Rather than simply adding a link to its website, HUD should promote participation on websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.
3. HUD should create an electronic data collection system for Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) and Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) recipients so performance data can be aggregated and reported to Congress and be available to others.
Currently, HUD requires fair housing grantees to submit paper copies of spreadsheets detailing enforcement activities and progress towards program goals. This process has left HUD unable to respond to Congressional demands for detailed statistics about the work these programs fund. Electronic submission of reports would provide HUD with easily accessible data that support funding the important work of these programs.
This system should be developed in conjunction with current and past grantees and the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) to ensure that it is both responsive to their needs and captures appropriate information. HUD should work with private fair housing organizations to make available appropriate aggregate information that can be gleaned from these reports. Additionally, HUD should clearly designate that all information related to ongoing investigations and fair housing investigative techniques be designated as confidential, be treated as they are currently treated as part of Final Investigative Reports, and not provided online nor in response to FOIA requests.
4. HUD should accept fair housing complaints online and provide both complainants and Fair Housing Organizations with access to its specific complaint filing(s) using a tracking API (application programming interface).
Currently, housing seekers can file fair housing inquiries with HUD online but are required to complete multiple additional steps that create a paper trail in order to have a complaint officially filed. Research repeatedly identifies housing discrimination as being dramatically underreported. The ability to file and track a complaint online will encourage both the increased reporting of fair housing violations and follow through on complaints. This complaint process should be streamlined and the entire process - completing the HUD 903 form and attaching documents - should be available through www.HUD.gov. Complainants should have the ability to track their complaint status through a public-facing HUD webpage, much like they can track their banking online. In addition, Fair Housing Organizations should be able to synchronize their internal databases with HUD's complaint tracking system to receive automatic updates on the status of complaints they have filed on behalf of their clients.
5. HUD should require that affirmative marketing plans and efforts to affirmatively further fair housing include online components.
According to the National Association of Realtors and the National Multi Housing Council, the overwhelming majority of both renters and buyers begin their housing search online. In this new marketing environment, HUD must focus its fair housing resources where they will be most useful. HUD needs to increase the amount of fair housing information available on the web. Specifically, HUD should:
-Require that affirmative marketing plans for HUD-funded properties include an online marketing component. Far too many projects “affirmatively market” by simply placing one print ad in a newspaper that serves a diverse community. Some project simply place a “For Rent” sign in front of the building, which completely fails to reach people “least likely to apply,” as the advertising limits knowledge of availability to those people living in the neighborhood or driving by it. This approach does not attract a truly diverse set of buyers or renters. Rather, recipients of HUD funds should be compelled to market available properties via the web to those demographics least likely to buy or rent them. In addition, many low and moderate income people do not have access to the Internet on a daily basis, but do read local newspapers. HUD funded developments should be required to run a series of print advertisement in media that reaches those people defined as “least likely to apply.”
-Require FHIP, FHAP, and CDBG recipients to provide fair housing information online. While HUD should encourage innovation and creativity in this requirement, potential activities could include offering neighborhood search tools that encourage people to consider housing in diverse neighborhood by describing the benefits of residential integration, streaming fair housing training and education sessions online, advertising housing listing websites, and/or creating online complaint submission forms and self-help guides.
6. HUD should build a database and API of affordable and accessible housing locations and availability of units.
Currently, families searching for affordable and accessible housing, counselors working with eligible families, and those advocating for the creation of new affordable housing developments are frustrated with the lack of information on the availability and accessibility of existing units and units under development.
HUD should create a single database of all affordable housing developments that details their accessibility and compel managers to keep availability information current as a condition of receiving funding. Local advocates, housing counselors and home seekers could use this database to efficiently locate available affordable housing throughout the regions in which they work and assist their clients in making moves that may not have previously seemed possible.
7. HUD should create a national transit data API as part of the Sustainable Communities Initiative.
The two goals of the Fair Housing Act are to eliminate housing discrimination and promote residential integration. One of the primary goals of the Sustainable Communities Initiative is to encourage housing seekers to consider the cost of transportation as they make decisions about where to live. Yet, housing seekers, counselors, and advocates are unable to compare the relative cost and time of commuting to and from neighborhoods because public transit data is not shared in a uniform format and is not available in a common location.
To remedy this problem, HUD should collaborate with the Department of Transportation to create a national API for public transit cost and routing data, which would in turn encourage families to consider neighborhoods that they may otherwise overlook. For example, in Chicago if a family wished to live within a 30 minute commute via public transit of a job downtown (the Loop), there are a wide variety of diverse neighborhoods for them to choose from – but right now there is no way to search for these options based on this factor. Chicago has multiple public transportation networks, including PACE buses, the Chicago Transit Authority’s trains and buses, and Metra’s regional commuter trains. A national transit API would share transportation data from each of these disparate systems in a common format and empower this family to enter its work address and desired commute time, and then get back a list of all of the diverse communities that fall within these parameters.
8. HUD should provide funding to FHIP recipients to increase their technology skills and capabilities by ensuring that every employee has access to an Internet-connected computer and that all agencies have a presence on the web.
The FHIP program funds many of the QFHOs that process fair housing complaints. In 2008, the 100 QFHOs in the country processed 20,173 complaints, or 66% of all fair housing complaints. These groups provide vital enforcement and education services to their communities. They provide the first critical review of a fair housing alleging through client intake, testing and investigation. They weed frivolous claims and determine which complaints require further investigation, conciliation, or litigation. In order to increase private groups' efficiency and enable them to harness technology to become better partners, HUD should include technological funding in FHIP funds to those grantees that need to increase their capacity to work online. These grants should empower QFHOs with the flexibility to provide additional training for current staff, hire IT subcontractors, participate in the VISTA Transmission Project, or otherwise address their technical needs.
9. HUD should publish all Administrative Law Judge decisions and all HUD charges in a non-proprietary, machine-readable format.
QFHOs investigating individuals and companies for potential fair housing violations must learn whether or not a respondent has a history of fair housing violations. This history is catalogued in legal decisions, ALJ decisions, and HUD/FHAP complaints and charges. Unfortunately, these sources of invaluable information are not as readily available as they ought to be. Some HUD regional offices are currently publishing decisions on the web in .pdf formats, electronically scanning hard copies of documents. The resulting PDFs do not have searchable text, making it impossible for interested parties to search a database of these decisions or cut-and-paste pertinent sections of decisions or charges into their own documents. This needlessly results in many recipients of HUD funds having to manually search the entirety of the text of important ALJ decisions and HUD charges and to re-type the content, wasting their valuable time and resources.
10. HUD should publish quarterly data on the number of complaints filed both with the agency and through grantees, broken down by HUD region, protected class, type of violation, zip code, and census tract.
This data should be posted online in a non-proprietary, consistent, and machine-readable format and publicized via all HUD's web outlets. Currently, HUD is publishing data long after it is collected, making it difficult to spot emerging trends and impossible for fair housing organizations to quickly respond to new forms and concentrations of discrimination. While this data should be published online, it is critical that HUD designate any and all information related to ongoing investigations and investigative strategies as private, neither publishing it to the web nor providing it in response to FOIA requests.
11. HUD should put all of its HUDUser.gov data into Data.gov and standardize the metadata.
Data.gov is increasingly becoming a useful, one-stop shop for those seeking government data, but in the nine months since it was launched, HUD has not posted a single data set to this repository. HUD must take advantage of this forum in order to make it easier for researchers, advocates, and innovators to access and use HUD data effectively and efficiently.
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Disruptive Technologies: A Holistic, Pragmatic Approach
New technologies are emerging at a faster pace than Agencies can swallow. The rate of obsolescence outpaces the pace of change.
Despite the new technology flood, Agencies lack a strategy to on-board these disruptions. As a result, they often react, flounder, or simply ignore them.
We can solve these problems in four major areas of practice:
Leadership and Management: How must leaders change with new technologies? How will this transform Agencies from the inside out?
Customer Strategy: How is the public behaving differently online? How can I reach them where they are?
Enterprise Strategy: Internal systems are connecting with external - How will I keep up with the dizzying pace? Employees are adopting collaboration and social tools without my control - How should I manage?
Innovation and Design: Experimenting on the general public is a bad idea, so how can I learn in a safe place? What vendors and providers should I lean on?
Here is a great slideshare webinar to get you started:
http://www.slideshare.net/charleneli/developing-a-social-strategy-webinar
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Many of the Local Agency have developed wonderful plans that outline services, some even outline specific goals and outcomes. I think it is important for the three tiers, federal, state and local to be on the same page. This means policies that not only support owners but also support tenants rights. A task force which consists of participants of the section 8 program should be developed on a state level and federal to provide the impacts of local. Additional monitoring and oversight must happen in regards to owners, the problem is that many of the "corporations" are playing the shell game, doing business with mobile PO Box, to where you cant retrieve returned rental deposits , creating blight situations to present a high turnover of tenants so that rents can be increased, and not adhering to ADA requirements.Governmental agencies are not able to keep control due to major budget constraints and staff reductions, Even with owners signing contracts they are not complying with guidelines, policies and law. The task force can assist in policy recommendations to ensure access, equity and accountability.
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I would like for HUD housing to really support the tenants rather than the money-grabbing landlords. Tenants should have a say in "house rules" rather than the landlord arbitrarily forcing rules that do not benefit the tenants. An advisory committee for HUD should be formed consisting of section 8 tenants that stipulate reasonable rules and regulations for housing. Section 8 tenants should be treated as people and have the rights that wealthier tenants do. People should not be discriminated against because they are poor. Landlords and managers need to be required to be nice and polite to tenants or they lose their funding.
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Dear Mr. Donovan:
Below is a letter I wrote to Ron Sims, whom I am acquainted with because of my social justice activism in seattle for many years. I am not one to write letters and go thru bureaucratic red tape when I have direct connections to the people who have the power, especially when it comes to the life of my son.
I have been talking about this issue on facebook and twitter for weeks, so it's only a matter of time before it hits the mainstream, especiallly since the landlord in question is a celebrity, and LA Housing Authority has many accusations of corruption.
So.......I am hoping to hear from you and Ron before the media has a ball with this. I did talk radio in Seattle at AM 1150 KKNW, so the Spin has already begun.... Gary Locke, and Gil Kerlikowski, as well as Mr. Sims know how persuasive and persistent the HIP HOP ACTIVISTS in this country can be.
E. Mandisa Subira March 11 at 3:22pm
Dear Ron:
Not sure if you remember me from my days as a social justice activist in Seattle, but as you know,an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere; Not to mention,it's a pretty volatile election year, with the Obama administation and Congress under a microscope from the media and the US taxpayers. Every federal dollar must be accounted for.
I was on Section 8 for 5 years in Seattle and had a beautiful apartment on the North end. My apartment only failed inspection once, and it was for the plastic thing in my garbage disposal. The HUD agency in Seattle, was efficient and professional, and in full compliance with Federal Housing Quality Standards.
Here in L.A it is not the case, My landlord is actor/comedian Steve White he has been in such black consciousness raising movies as Get on the Bus, Malcolm X, and Do the Right Thing. He is a slumlord and I don't say that lightly.
The building is dirty, unsanitary, unsafe, falling apart, and infested with roaches whose toxins are causing tenants to get sick with respiratory infectons, yet the L.A Housing Authority continues to pass the building and it's apartments, and pad the pockets of my landlord.
Last week, my son fell out on the floor in pain, I called the paramedics. They did not have immediate access to the building because our landlord disabled the call box, luckily a neighbor was home to run down the 4 flights of stairs to let them in.
Then they could not get a standard sized stretcher up the stairs because of they way they are designed, and we have no elevator. They had to carry my son to the ambulance in my kitchen chair, and the 4 paramedics struggled in doing so.
We found out at the hospital that my son was near death because his pancreas was about to fail. This means every precious moment mattered in transporting him to the hospital. Many of my neighbors have health problems, and we have a few elderly here. What happens if my 350 pound neighbor with sleep apnea has an emergency? they will literally have to devise a pulley system and lower him through the parking garage to the first floor. This is unacceptable in an emergency situation.
I am having a hard time understanding how this federal program can be run so dramtically different from state to state, and I have huge issue with it so I am taking this all the way to the top, to you and the administration, especially since stimulus money is involved as he is renting to recently homeless people.
I have not dealt with local HUD people here, because I don't trust them. They lost my transfer paperwork when I first got here from Seattle, so I had to get an extension, then they lost my extension.
When I told my case worker I couldn't afford to keep faxing things, and to ask for everything he needed at once. He told me to go and flirt with someone at a copy store to get a free fax.
My new case worker is on a power trip, tells you to fax her proof of things or else she'll kick you off of the program, but then boldly states on her outgoing message that she won't confirm receipt of faxes..
I feel that many of the inspectors have been paid under the table to pass these buidlings, and from what I hear L.A housing was already in trouble with the Feds because some of their employees were selling vouchers to their friends.
My landlord is a celebrity, so many of my activist friends have been publicly calling him out, we are planning country wide protests of his comedy shows. He will be at Harvey's Comedy Club in Portland this weekend.
This is about the life of my child, so there is no backing down or backing off for me until I get Justice, and some accountability is taken on the local, state, and federal level. This is an election year, and people love stories about the federal governement giving away money to unworthy people, especially someone who is in the spotlight like my landlord.
I have not had time to catch my breath since bringing my son home. My landlord and his property managmement company have been bothering me non stop, trying to cover their behinds. They are attempting to repair the building now because it is up for sale for 3.3 million dollars, however this does not excuse the years of neglect his tenants have suffered previously, and his sudden interest in providing habital conditions is purely inspired from self interest.
I am still interviewing attorneys, because I am suing this man, and whomever MPI Group LLC is, as it's the corporation he's hiding behind... but like I said this is going to hit the media big time, and in this political climate it's probably not the best story to get out. So I am reaching out to you to help me get justice for my son and for the tenants and for the american people whose tax money this celebrity slum lord is playing games with.
E. Mandisa Subira Chairwoman White Street Tenants Association
10817 White Street Sun, Valley. CA. 91352
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HUD must have resident initiatives at the cabinet level in order for these initiatives to reach residents of public housing. You put out tremendous amounts of money that your housing authorities(HA)oversee and divy up the way they want to and it never filters down to the residents. It never will, not unless the residents are allowed a seat at HUD's table.
HA's compete with the Resident Leadership (RL) for the same fundings so work very hard to control RL elections as well as their access to funding. Housing Authories should not be allowed to send anyone on behalf of residents oherwise you get the same soup warmed over and the manipulation continues. Your HAs have hundres of consultants and full Board of Commissioners. RL has no such resources.
There are hard working dedicated residents out here who are just frustrated by this process. They can't make it work because your local housing authorities have no intention of allowing it to work. This new leadership has no real technical assistance and no idea of HUD regulation that is intended to empower them. This is the way your local housing authorities want it and they work hard to keep it that way.
Resident Leadership is not empowered the way the old leadership was i.e., our Mothers of Public Housing (Ms. Mildred Haley, Ms. Lena Jackson, Ms. Bertha Gilkey and the late Ms. Kimi Gray). Ms. Lena Jackson and Ms. Bertha Gilkey-Bonds are still active and would love to work with HUD to help empower this new leadership. They created resident owned businesses, jobs, home ownership opportunity.
HUD you must put a stop to the Housing Authority blocks by working with the Resident Leadership otherwise the Resident Leadership will continue to be out foxed by corrupt housing authorities and the development teams they front for. When will the circle be broken?
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In the past it was very hard to get information from HUD, through the internet or any other source. Thanks to the Working Group that focuses on transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration within the Federal Government information is easier to access. However, many people have expressed their concern because of the high rate of homelessness, I am most concerned about HUD's support for people with disability, I just wanted to make sure that no one is overlooked in your efforts to help all individuals.
Thank you.
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Deutsche Bank promised to let me allow me to buy the house I lived in where the owner went into foreclosure, they sent me to Litton Loan Servicing, who has put a value on the house of $400,000 (I guess this was deter me fron receiving the property). Who cares that I put all the renovation work into the property, it still needs works and it does not even have a heater. My whole family is disabled accept for my daughter who lives on her own. I called and wrote the White House, not one single word. Americans deserve the right not to be totally homeless and on skid row, but I guess that is where we are headed two classes rich or poor the latter not receiving the human rights of an animal. I had asked this bank to allow me to buy the house and my house note be $1200 per month for at least one year, they would rather displace a disabled family and give them $5000 what they call money for keys and $5000 would only give you enough for a moving place, and no place to live. More and More people are becoming displaced. The White House operators are not knowledgeable and give you wrong numbers to call.
I am a breast cancer survivor, insulin dependent diabetic because of chemotherapy, congestive heart failure, my son has had 4 back surgeries, my husband is a disabled Vietnam Veteran (who for years has been fighting for his benefits). When you are told you have cancer it becomes almost a death sentence, you expend your savings, you loose jobs, houses, cars, etc. Why is it that when my problems began I had received a letter from someone within the White House F. Kelleher, no phone number, saying special assistant to the President, and that he would get HUD to call me. That never happened.
I am threatended by Litton that if by 3/19/10, If, I cannot get financing for the house at $400,000 or take their $5000, then the Sheriff will come and put me out. We have so many vacant abandonded properties why would the banks want to put good people out who just want to work something out and stay in a neighborhood they have become accustomed to and they have totally carried the burden on the property for going on 3 years and adhering to all of the City of Carson's requirements. There is something wrong with the system that we want all these houses to be vacant while families walk around homeless. It is like we are becoming a third-world country. Do any of you realize how devastating the effect.
Hud, did not contact me to this date to contact me. Is Mr. Kelleher's office just sending out form letters with no care. Nothing should come from the White House and not be followed upon. Why is Hud and the government allowing not just banks, but also foreign along with so-called loan servicing companies to do this to the people.
I need help,, and usually when one person asks for help, you can find many more who may need this kind of help. I will be totally surprised if even after this email the White House or Hud contact me.
When the White House correspondence is sent to the people who are also the voters to a particular agency, that agency should follow-up. This one is between the White House F. Kelleher and Hud.
I so totally look forward to being sick and disabled almost died twice within one year to sleeping on the ground and possibly skidrow. We have truly become a for real country.
Disappointed
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Please consider allowing a first time homebuyer to use part of his/her 401k to purchase a primary first home without incurring penalties. This can be as simple as allowing only FHA loans, with income limits and keeping mortgage brokers from adding excess penalties and fees and stopping the owner from getting HELOC or a second mortgage unless the house is payed off or is required to fix a major problem with the home (Roof, Foundation repair)
Owing a home is a major investment and like a 401k will only appriciate in value and gives a good foundation for healthy long term financial picture. This would cost the goverment very little and would help young couples purchase their first home in these hard financial times.
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Many housing developments (public or otherwise) are built with no consideration of the long-term impact of the development on it's surroundings. Each new HUD development should conform to sustainability practices and reduce its footprint by encouraging greater integration to population centers, pedestrian accessibility, and close proximity to mass transit.
It is essential that as we build, we build with the future in mind.
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hi my name is Paul I am a local 188 glaizer..recenty in the past week i return for jail....on a dwi 3rd degree. i spent 15 day for that investgation' and return back the locks were changed.. the person that was living there..said on feb the 11th the roomate..lock me out even though the policer officer told he can't do that.. i had a voicemail that another person saw him thke the bag.. to the other person home i have that voicemail..remember thati was in jail on the first day .. i wonder is that illeagly..to take my things and take it somewhere else and now i have to write a victim thing to get my things even though i did nothing wrong...i use to live in fremont in seattle washington state the address is 201 39th st apt 103.. i paid my rent and got there too in fact to the end on feb..all the month also paid for the roomates late fee..tooo. please e-mail me on what to do?????
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Can you post a longitudinal study showing that HUD programs are effective in moving your clients up in income and education with succeeding generations?
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Rapid transit such as light-rail makes living farther outside of a city practical by allowing those living farther away to still commute to the city for work using affordable transportation.
Work with the DoT and state governments on high-speed and light-rail, to identify routes that provide access to more affordable housing areas.
If HUD has detailed geographic data on the cost of housing and DoT has GIS data on planned high-speed and light-rail routes, a GIS application using freely available maps technology can be used to visualize the housing costs along planned rail routes.
The application would make it possible to identify and alter a route to travel through a more affordable housing area between two points to make living there more practical.
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Why can't the loan modifications from banks include a reduction in principle. I thought this was implemented, but have not heard of it taking place. As long as we cap it at no less than 25% of the original home value. Does it not make more sense for a bank to make this arrangment with the existing home owner instead of short saling it or letting it go into foreclosure. The bank will surely see less than 25% of the original home value. Please reply if you know this is in the considered plan b to help home owners. We are in AZ one of the worst states hit by foreclosure rates
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Construction and related industries have been hit hardest by the recession. Cities are suffering from crumbling infrastructure, and urban decay. Why not bring the two together with a massive HUD jobs program? The cheapest way to fix and improve infrastructure is to hire from the building industries.
This is the perfect win-win: skilled laborers get lower-paying but steady work, and the cities are rebuilt and renewed at bargain prices. The combination of jobs and improved infrastructure should rejuvenate the economy.
The best part: it worked before, and can be called the New Deal 2.0 (or "Newer Deal") to echo that success.
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HUD-funded projects should be required to install security cameras in public areas and make them viewable by the public. In particular properties with a history of crime, drug dealing, gang activity and violence should be required to record activities on their properties for the public record, and make recordings available for legal proceedings.
In the absence of security cameras HUD officials should be relocated to the property to gather evidence firsthand and report what they see.
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I would like to see state laws/local county laws changed to allow all KOA campgrounds, and state run campgrounds to allow people to camp there indefinitely, instead of for two weeks to 28 days at a time. These are so many people without homes now, but who do have trailers or RVs. These are the only places that can accomodate them, and right now families and people without homes need all the help they can get.So why hamper them with onerous rules for length of stay in state campgrounds? KOA campgrounds can use the business too.Fees for camping would help support the national recreation areas and forests and volunteer numbers would skyrocket to enable our national parks to stay open. Right now people can camp for up to 2 weeks and then must leave for a month before returning for another 2 weeks. How ridiculous is that? Just let folks stay.Once this depression is over, then tighten back up on those length of stay rules.
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I think HUD should work to create collaboration networks with their key partners whether other state and local government agencies, non-profit entities, and business owners.
I think business.gov is a good model.
These can range from broad open communities to close-knit private communities.
-Steve Ressler
Founder, GovLoop.com
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Dear sirs and madams,
The Family Self Sufficiency and Home Ownership programs I thought were an excellent idea.
I'd like to see those programs continue despite the economy right now. If anything, maybe we could add a new program for all those who've been laid off.
Thanks for all you do.
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