NNO: The curious incident of HUD at the hearing
Last week, as reported by the National Housing Conference’s extremely helpful Washington Wire
On December 8, the Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on “Options in the Aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.” David Garratt, Acting Director of the Recovery Division of FEMA served as the sole witness.
At the hearing, there occurred an extremely curious incident:
HUD declined to participate in the hearing.
I lay back against the cushions, puffing at my cigar, while Holmes, leaning forward, with his long, thin forefinger checking off the points upon the palm of his left hand, gave me a sketch of the events which had led to our blog post.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Silver Blaze, December, 1892
As HUD is the Cabinet branch charged with all Federal housing expenditures, and as the problems in New New Orleans have an enormous housing component, the incident did not go unremarked — indeed, judging from NHC’s report, it was the principal topic of conversation:
During the hearing, various congressmen expressed their disappointment and frustration with the response by FEMA and HUD to the housing needs of Katrina survivors, and particularly the absence of HUD representation at the hearing. Mr. Garratt took personal responsibility for the decision to evict Katrina survivors from hotel rooms with only two weeks’ notice and acknowledged FEMA’s mistakes during the hurricane recovery.
When discussing the plans for survivors still living in hotels in
Congress is not the only group frustrated with HUD. As CNN reported a few days back, a
Judge orders extension of Katrina hotel program
FEMA pays for 41,000 rooms in 47 states and D.C.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval’s temporary restraining order is part of a class-action lawsuit filed in November by advocates for hurricane victims.
Regardless of whether a single district court judge has any legal authority so to rule, and hence whether the ruling will stand, the political inertia is: Do a favor once, and be thanked. Do it twice and it becomes an obligation. Fail to take appropriate steps toward self-sufficiency and you will find yourself carrying a dependent population and unthanked for doing so.
Attorneys pressing the lawsuit said FEMA should not be allowed to end the hotel program because it has failed to provide other housing aid, such as rental assistance checks, to many victims who qualify for it.
Also, information on how to apply for the aid has been slow to reach those who need it most, the attorneys said.
FEMA continues to pay for an estimated 41,000 hotel rooms in 47 states and the
However shielded they may be from the elements, those living in hotel rooms are probably making little progress restarting their lives. Remarkable here is that HUD is not giving out Housing Choice Vouchers, despite the Administration’s continuously expressed support for portable housing assistance, especially given our experience with the 1994 Northridge earthquake (in greater Los Angeles).
Northridge, 1994, collapsed home
There HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros immediately flew to Los Angeles, set up a mobile command post, and over the course of a couple of weeks took charge of a process that put thousands of vouchers swiftly into families’ hands. As Bruce Katz, who was HUD’s Chief of Staff back then, describes it:
The day after the quake, HUD was in
Within a week, the first of 22,000 of the lowest-income displaced families were moving not into trailers and convention centers, but into stable apartments in safer and better neighborhoods than they had left.
And within a month, HUD had conducted a major landlord-recruitment forum to encourage landlords to take in quake victims.
In Northridge, HUD worked, and vouchers worked. In New New Orleans, both HUD and vouchers are nowhere to be seen, despite calls for them from many quarters.
Meanwhile, back at the non-HUD hearing:
Various members of the subcommittee publicly criticized HUD’s absence at the hearing and Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA) and [Maxine] Waters (D-CA) announced a letter written to subcommittee Chairman Bob Ney (R-OH) requesting that HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson be subpoenaed to appear at a hearing on Katrina housing options. At the hearing, Chairman Ney also expressed his frustration with HUD’s absence and stated that he negotiated with Secretary Jackson for a week to testify.
Negotiated for a week for someone’s attendance? I wish my keyboard had an interrobang.
Where was HUD?
Furthermore, while discussing the frustration with HUD’s absence, Chairman Ney stated that he saw no reason why someone from HUD could not attend the hearing.
HUD had a very good excuse for not attending:
According to reports, HUD declined to appear at the hearing to avoid any confusion between the efforts of HUD and FEMA.
“We wouldn’t want you to be confused, now would we?”
The Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee has scheduled another hearing on December 14 entitled, “Housing Options in the Aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.” A representative of HUD will serve as the witness. The hearing will be held at 2:00 p.m. in room 2128 of the
I’ll look for reports of said hearing.
If you see any to which you would wish to draw my attention, please email me at dsmith {at} affordablehousinginstitute {dot} org.
“Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
