Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 10, 1990 TAG: 9006130462
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By WILLIAM J. EATON LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Now, under self-styled "bleeding-heart conservative" Jack Kemp, HUD is trying to recover its reputation and live up to its true mission as the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
While chafing under budget constraints, Kemp has persuaded President Bush to propose an innovative program that would combine federal funds, new tax breaks for development in big-city slums, and matching money from state and local governments to increase housing options for the poor and homeless.
It got nowhere last year because lawmakers focused on the continuing revelations of lax management during the Reagan administration, six-figure fees to Republican consultants, and waste of HUD funds earmarked for luxury buildings, golf courses and swimming pools.
During his early months in office, Kemp concentrated almost exclusively on what he called cleaning out the "swamp" at HUD and assembling a team of top department officials he said were selected without regard for political credentials.
Slapping a table for emphasis, the shirt-sleeved Cabinet officer said in a recent interview: "One thing I've tried to do is to get this place depoliticized and get the political influence peddlers out of HUD's programs." Most observers believe he has accomplished that goal.
When a HUD reform bill was adopted without opposition in the closing days of the last Congress, it cleared the way for a new housing program that is being assembled with bipartisan support in the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee.
"I predict that by the end of 1990 there will be a Rose Garden ceremony at which President Bush will sign a bill that will have at its epicenter the major components advanced by the president," Kemp said in an interview.
Even without new legislation, Kemp has canceled a wasteful program intended to help elderly citizens and dropped a controversial system of co-insurance for HUD housing that led to billions of dollars in defaulted loans.
"The best thing I have done at HUD is to get it out of the business of inefficient and cumbersome and flawed programs and back to its original mission of housing, homeownership and community development for low-income people," he said.
Kemp has placed heavy emphasis on spreading the idea - and the practice - of resident management of public housing. Although only a few score of the 13,000 public housing projects have moved in that direction, HUD is confident that the concept is sound and eventually could lead to ownership of the projects by the tenants.
"It's a growing movement, but it can't all happen overnight," said Joe Schiff, assistant secretary of HUD for public and Indian housing.
Public housing is in pitiful shape in many large cities, with 22 of the largest 140 public housing agencies regarded as "troubled," including those in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington. The nation's capital alone has 2,000 boarded-up units that were built for low-income residents but now stand vacant.
Dealing with the problem of the homeless, Kemp acknowledged that progress is slower than he would like. But he asserted that Bush's proposal to tie shelter to other programs that deal with job training, child care, substance abuse and mental health care mark a significant breakthrough.
by CNB