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For the second time in
only three years, the Masiello Administration has—despite federal
mandates—slashed support for fair housing.
Whereas two years ago,
City officials claimed to have “forgotten” to include a fair housing line
in its budget plan for activities supported by the federal Community
Development Block Grant, this year the Mayor’s Office of Strategic
Planning reduced funding by 60 percent for the three agencies historically
funded on fair housing line. For Housing Opportunities Made Equal—which
has been at the center of Buffalo’s fair housing program for 29 years—the
loss was more than 82 percent.
This reduction in
support for fair housing can be compared to a 1.8 percent overall
reduction in the amount of federal CDBG funds the City will receive next
year.
Federal mandate
In order to receive
federal funds for housing and community development, grantees must
annually certify that they are “affirmatively furthering fair housing”.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has required
municipalities to conduct an Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing, to
undertake appropriate actions to overcome identified impediments, and to
maintain records of actions taken.
A 1996 report issued by
the Economic Consultants Organization Inc. for the City of Buffalo
identified significant impediments to fair housing and recommended 33
specific actions. While many have yet to be addressed, among those
recommendations were passage of a fair housing ordinance, support for
programs which encourage pro-integrative housing choice, aggressive
monitoring of housing providers and enforcement of fair housing laws.
Following the
intervention of HUD officials, in 2002-03 the City eventually appropriated
a total of $242,000 for fair housing divided among HOME, the Legal Aid
Bureau and Neighborhood Legal Services. In 2003-04, that funding was
reduced by eight percent to an annualized level of $222,640. Now the
aggregate funding for the three agencies has been slashed to $89,192. The
agency suffering the biggest loss is HOME.
An issue of
performance?
Administration
officials have claimed that in 2004-05 the City would institute a new
performance-based system to allocate federal dollars. Presumably, for
HOME to suffer a funding reduction of 82 percent its performance must have
been found lacking.
To the contrary, for
the last 20 years HOME—reporting monthly to both the City’s Fair Housing
Officer as well as the Office of Strategic Planning—has met or exceeded
each of its City contract objectives. During its last five contracts,
HOME has delivered between 286 and 430 percent of projected units of
service.
The City cannot
honestly claim that this draconian reduction is based on HOME’s poor
performance. In 2002-03 not only did HOME’s productivity exceed city
requirements by a factor of four, but was recognized nationally—winning
its second HUD Best Practices Award. In a February 25th letter to Mayor
Anthony M. Masiello, HOME wrote: “If indeed the City were using a
performance-based system [to allocate funding], one would expect the
amount of HOME’s fair housing contract to increase—rather than decrease by
82.1 percent.”
Service
duplication?
Some have suggested
that perhaps this funding decision was based on the fact that the City had
three agencies under contract to perform tasks it had labeled “fair
housing”.
Under the City’s own
Fair Housing Strategy, each agency is given distinct responsibilities.
Only HOME records and investigates reported incidents of discrimination,
provides victim advocacy and support, prepares administrative complaints,
provides technical assistance to government, and conducts a broad range of
educational services intended to prevent discrimination.
An absence of
need?
Putting aside for the
moment the issue of federal mandates, perhaps the City no longer has as
need for fair housing services.
The 1996 Analysis of
Impediments study prescribed a 33-element Action Plan, many parts of which
have yet to be addressed. A new AI study was authorized in January of
2004. Ironically, to conduct that study the City tapped the foremost
expert in Western New York: Housing Opportunities Made Equal.
Data from the 2000
Census reveals that Buffalo-Niagara is the seventh most segregated
metropolitan area in the nation. Thus it would appear there is still a
need.
Bigger picture
On Saturday, members of
the Buffalo Civil Rights and Human Rights Coalition held a press
conference to challenge the City’s threatened elimination of funding for
the Commission on Citizens’ Rights and Community Relations created by the
1999 amendments to the City Charter. HOME Executive Director Scott W.
Gehl spoke.
“While Buffalo embraces
the values of justice and equality in its Charter—those values are no more
than empty promises if the City regards civil rights as a luxury to be
pursued only in good financial times.
“As a citizen of
Buffalo, I am ashamed of a government which has slashed support for fair
housing by 60 percent and now threatens to eliminate funding for the
Charter mandated Commission on Citizens’ Rights. The Commission does good
and important work and deserves full and continued support.
“In Buffalo, which lies
at the heart of the seventh most segregated metropolitan area in America,
we must do more than pay lip service to civil rights.” |
