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March 12, 2013

The Honorable Sandra B. Henriquez

Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

451 Seventh Street, SW

Washington, DC 20410

Dear Sandi,

There REALLY is trouble in River City! I’ve had the pleasure of being around the Public Housing program for over 25 years, and I’ve never known the Industry to be satisfied with its appropriation allocation. I’m sure Congress must feel like the Industry is just a little boy crying “Wolf!”

However, the action taken by the House of Representatives to continue the shortfall created in 2012 throughout the 2013 fiscal year and the Senate proposal to only provide minor relief creates a challenge to the very existence of decent, safe, affordable housing for over three million families. To illegally seize $750 million from financially prudent housing authorities in 2012 and then refuse to consider that this was a one-time offset in 2013 is beyond any sense of fairness. It’s an imprudent attack on America’s most vulnerable population, public housing residents. While the sequester is a problem, the proposed shortfall is an unmitigated disaster!

There is only so much cutting one can do to any organization before the fat is totally removed and bone is being chopped away. If the House action stands, the shelter of all of these deserving families is in true jeopardy.

This is not a time for either hesitancy or timidity. Both HUD and the Industry must go into crisis mode. As a previous occupant of your office, I am strongly urging you to cease all “business as usual” not explicitly, statutorily required and focus the full attention of your team on saving the nation’s assisted housing programs. Nothing less than slashing the micromanaging red tape created over the decades (including during my tenure) will suffice. Be bold! Be creative! We need to end homelessness, not increase it by watching public housing crumble.

Specifically, I urge you to assemble a bi-partisan group of people tasked with the immediate suspension of any and all non-statutorily required provisions within the next thirty days via an emergency Interim Regulation. Even if a program is required, the group should seek alternative streamlined compliance possibilities. This suspension should remain in effect until full funding is restored to the program.

I seriously question whether HUD staff has the temperament or capacity to handle this on its own, so I urge you to assemble, on HUD’s nickel (they can’t afford to do it voluntarily), relevant outside experts (i.e. public housing practioners) to assist you in this effort.

Needless to say, this request will need the Secretary’s, and possibly OMB’s, blessing. Clearly, HUD lawyers will need to be involved in drafting the removal of non-statutorily REQUIRED process requirements that currently bind the Industry and diverts housing authority personnel from serving deserving residents. However, I urge that outside, knowledgeable counsel be recruited to provide a “can do” attitude to the effort.

Sandi, I write this to you in a constructive spirit dictated by circumstances you did not cause. I am writing to you, rather than the Secretary, because your responsibility is totally focused on our small, but critical, arena. We all appreciate your efforts to keep everyone informed of the dire situation, but that is not enough. As the person charged with our country’s Public and Indian Housing programs, you have a unique responsibility and obligation to act before it’s too late. Please take action today in consort with your superiors and colleagues. ACT BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.

While we obviously need to deal with this short-term crisis, the longer-term picture is just as bleak. For the sake of America’s extremely low-income families, the entire morass of federally-assisted housing programs desperately needs to be re-engineered into a results oriented, comprehensive, locally-focused, choice-based holistic program that is consistent with the federal government’s budget problems. Before we focus on the long term, however, let’s stop the gushing blood stemming from the public and assisted housing body today.

Sincerely yours,

Joseph G. Schiff