Mayor Sends Out Mixed Message Regarding Berkeley Housing Authority

Mayor Sends Out Mixed Message Regarding Troubled Housing Authority

On May 10, the office of Mayor Tom Bates sent out a press release to announce that 7 new board members have been chosen for the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA), as part of the effort to salvage the embattled agency from a HUD takeover, and to keep it under local Berkeley control.

On May 22, the full City Council is expected to approve the Mayors pick for the BHA, which includes many well respected members of the community.

The 7 new board members are to replace the old BHA board members which included the Mayor, the full City Council, and 2 tenant board members receiving housing assistance from the BHA.

Despite the assurances that the City of Berkeley is doing all that is possible to get the BHA back on track, and to pull it out of it’s status as a troubled agency, the Mayor sent the wrong message by reappointing 2 of the old board members back to the BHA.

Dorthy Hunt and Adolph Moody, were with the old BHA board, and it is deceptive of the Mayor to announce that 7 new board members were appointed to the BHA, when there are actually only 5 new members being appointed.

This is a bad sign, and raises the possibility that city officials are not really serious about fixing the numerous problems facing the housing authority through the years.

As board members, Hunt and Moody remained largely silent as the problems grew within the BHA through the years, and this is very troublesome to Section 8 tenants that expected more from these 2 tenant board members.

After discussing this with several members of the tenant’s group called Save Berkeley Housing Authority, it was apparent no one felt that reappointing old board members to the new board, was a real solution to resolving the problems at the BHA.

In addition, recent reports reveal that problems with the BHA’s Section 8 program have become so severe that it's become apparent that landlords have actually been charging rent to dead people for several months and more in Berkeley, while the BHA kept making payments to these greedy landlords.

In other cases, former landlords still kept receiving rent checks from the BHA, long after the tenants moved away, and it turns out that the BHA ended up making payments to both old and new landlords similtaneously, for several months and more. Full details of these very serious problems have not yet been fully disclosed to the public.

Since April of 2004, the nation's Section 8 program was switched from being a fully funded voucher based program, to an underfunded budget based program, and every dollar that is now being misspent by the BHA, it ends up taking away funding from all the other voucher holders needing help in the program.

These serious types of problems need to be remedied immediately, and the landlords need to return the money that they did not deserve back to the BHA, so that the money can be used to house REAL tenants who are in need.

To the good, out of the so-called 7 new board members appointed by the Mayor, at least 2 of them seem promising because one has experience in affordable housing projects, and another was employed in the past by the Housing Action Coalition.

As well meaning as the other new appointees may be, it does not appear that they have the real experience needed to run the BHA, during such a critical period in it's history.

At this point, the BHA needs new board members that have some knowledge and understanding of HUD's policies, and will not just be political appointees that are expected to rubberstamp the failed old policies of City Manager Phil Kamlarz and BHA’s Steve Barton.

The elderly, disabled and poor need Berkeley's housing authority, and the opportunity to save this housing authority from reaching a point of total collapse seems to diminish day by day.

Newly Tom Bates Appointed BHA Board Members:

Carole Norris (Chair)

Carole Norris is a Vice President with ICF Consulting.  She has more than twenty years experience in affordable housing, urban planning and community development. Prior to joining ICF, she directed the activities of two California community redevelopment agencies, was executive director of a San Francisco-based non-profit development corporation, and managed her own business providing technical assistance to federal, state and local governments.

 
Marjorie Cox

Marjorie Cox has served as a Deputy Attorney General for the California Department of Justice since 1987.  As Deputy Attorney General, Ms. Cox has done specific work for the Public Rights Division, Civil Rights Enforcement unit, and is currently working in the Employment, Regulation, and Administration ("ERA") Section.

Dorothy Hunt

Dorothy Hunt has served as a tenant representative on the Housing Authority Board since January of 2005.  As a disabled senior with a Section 8 voucher, she has institutional knowledge of the Housing Authority.  She has been an active volunteer in the city for over 60 years and is President of the Seniors in Progress program at the South Berkeley Senior Center.  Ms. Hunt's professional background is in education and counseling. 

Melissa Male

Melissa Male is a constituent services specialist for Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, where she serves as a liaison between constituents and state agencies and programs and is the district representative on all disability and senior related issues.  Ms. Male has a law degree from UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law and has done legal work with the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and the Positive Resource Center.

Michael McBride

Michael McBride is the Senior Pastor at The Way Christian Center in Berkeley and is the Director of Student Support Services at the Berkeley Technology Academy, where he oversees support services and engages community organizations and others in support of the students.  Pastor McBride also serves as the Co-Chair or the Berkeley Black Ecumenical Ministerial Alliance, an organization of pastors representing the African American faith-based community.

Adolph Moody

Adolph Moody currently serves as one of two tenant representatives on the Housing Authority Board.  He is the father of two teen-aged children and has worked in customer service, as a Greyhound driver, and as convenience store manager.

José Moreno

José Moreno is an urban planner with Design, Community & Environment in Berkeley.  He previously worked at the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association and at the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition.  He is a graduate of UC Berkeley