City of Santa Cruz violates Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity laws : Indybay

When cities receive HUD grants, they must spend them in accordance with Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity laws or potentially lose their HUD funding. The City of Santa Cruz was warned by Regional Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) Director Charles Hauptman that they had to stop locating their HUD block grant financed housing in low income neighborhoods with unequal opportunities — they could not segregate minority residents in pockets of poverty.

I just received a copy of this letter from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to HUD. Yet Santa Cruz Custodian of Records Nydia Patiño denies this letter exists, although she originally provided me a copy of it in response to a California Public Records Act (CPRA) request about Santa Cruz HUD grants. Regional FHEO Director Hauptman and HUD Regional Community Planning and Development (CPD) Director Maria Cremer addressed this letter to then Mayor Cynthia Mathews. Why hasn't anything changed?

Why would Nydia Patiño deny this letter's existence? Why won't Santa Cruz City Clerk Bren Lehr answer my sister Patricia Colby's question about the existence of this letter? Now I have smoking gun proof the City of Santa Cruz lied about this letter. What are they trying to hide?

I have asked the federal government to investigate this. Santa Cruz will be held responsible for segregating minorities into low income neighborhoods of unequal opportunity.

ms._patino_saying_that_regional_fheo_director_s_letter_my_brother_received_from_santa_cruz_not_responsive_to_my_request_1_1.pdf
download PDF (107.0 KB)

Here are some links about cities who are/were being sanctioned for misusing their HUD grants in violation of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity laws.

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/gross-county-must-hold-up-its-end-of-hud-deal-1.3718723

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2011/HUDNo.11-002

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/06/subsidizing_segregation_locked.html

Here is a training guide about Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity for HUD block grants like the HOME and CDBG grants Santa Cruz gets from HUD — I recommend the Santa Cruz City Council and Santa Cruz housing officials study it. Why hasn't the Santa Cruz planning commission warned Santa Cruz officials they have been violating Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity laws?

http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/images/fhpg.pdf

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§I see her denial of the letter. I don't see any letter.

by Where is this letter?

Saturday Jun 9th, 2012 5:18 PM

With all due respect, your postings are becoming more and more circuitous, and your posting of evidence/proof more and more scant.

You say a letter exists, she says it doesn't. You say here's the letter. But I see no such letter. What are you talking about then? You have not shown that his letter exists.

Similarly, you have twisted the facts of the statement by HUD. They don't say, in the letter your show, that Santa Cruz is guilty of /Warned by HUD t ostop segregating minority residents. What they say is that if your unsubstantiated claim that they are doing this is true, then they would be guilty.

You are throwing up a lot of smoke sir, but not much evidence. Please post the letter that you claim exists. Barring that, I"ll call you deluded and lying.

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§Make your own FOIA request to HUD for the letter

by John E. Colby

Monday Jun 11th, 2012 6:15 AM

I did not post the letter because it will soon be the subject of federal investigations. If you want to see the letter then I suggest that you submit a FOIA request to HUD for it like I did.

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