Last Chance to Fend off a Federal Takeover in Buffalo

The authority that manages Buffalo’s public housing system has formed a plan to deal with continually subpar occupancy rates and financial issues, but it isn’t out of the woods yet.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had requested that the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority submit a plan by the end of April to address the issues, hinting that a federal takeover could be imminent if the occupancy rates—about 84 percent, a full 9 percentage points below the rate deemed acceptable by HUD—do not improve. Last month, the authority’s board of directors submitted a plan to HUD.

Joan Spilman, HUD’s Buffalo field office director, said the federal department has started to review the plan and met late last week to discuss what improvements it still requires. She said the submitted plan will need to be amended with timelines and more specificity in certain areas, and that HUD will work with the authority to get it into shape.

“It’s a very comprehensive, big-picture plan,” Spilman said. “We’re hoping to put some details together with them.”

But if the agency is unable to effectively implement their plan and improve their occupancy rates and financial stability they could end up on the list of housing authorities under the care of HUD. There are currently only six housing authorities—including those in Detroit and East St. Louis—under the care of the federal department.

“Receivership is certainly not someplace we want to go,” Spilman said. “But it’s a possibility if they don’t improve.”

This is not the first time in recent years the authority has attempted to put together a plan to address these issues.

About a year before the latest turnaround plan, the housing authority, along with a long list of partners including the University at Buffalo and SUNY Buffalo State, learned that it would not receive a $30 million grant it was seeking as part of HUD’s Choice Neighborhood program—a big disappointment to the authority, which saw the program as an opportunity to seriously address long-standing issues.

“They put all their eggs in one basket about getting the funding to implement the plan,” Spilman said. “That didn’t come through and now they’re looking for a plan B to deal with the situation.”

With the competitive landscape for funding, the housing authority will likely have to cobble together multiple funding sources to make their new plan a reality, Spilman said.

“You can’t depend upon one source to solve the problem,” Spilman said. “It’s very complex.”

Under the new plan, 342 units at the largely vacant A.D. Price Courts and Commodore Perry homes would be removed from the authority’s portfolio, to be replaced with 475 renovated apartments at the Commodore Perry homes and Shaffer Village through HUD’s rental assistance demonstration program, which would allow the authority to partner with private companies to build and operate new units.

In addition, the plan calls for the sale of housing authority property, better coordination between authority teams, writing off bad debt, lease enforcement and the completion of new units already under construction.

Executive Director Dawn Sanders-Garrett described the plan as an opportunity for the housing authority to reinvent itself during the crowded meeting where it was approved by the board of directors.

“The BMHA is in the midst of its overall transformation plan,” Sanders-Garrett said to a boardroom packed with housing authority employees and residents. “The BMHA is continuously evolving by adapting and redefining itself to meet the current and future needs of our residents and the people of the city of Buffalo.”

Joe Mascia, one of the two commissioners elected by housing authority residents, said the plan is only a shuffling of numbers and units designed to shed HUD’s “substandard” label without addressing any root problems. A self-proclaimed pot-stirrer, Mascia often butts heads with the five appointed commissioners and the agency administration, all selected by Mayor Byron Brown.

“It’s a shell game as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

HUD’s residential assistance demonstration program is also troubling, Mascia said, since residents will have to live with the authority putting up property as equity and risk seeing it taken away if the deal doesn’t work out.

“I’m not a big fan of it because you’re mortgaging your assets,” Mascia said. “If you can’t fill those apartments like the way you say you should and if there’s crime running rampant, I don’t care how nice you make it look.”

But Sanders-Garrett remains confident that the plan will work and the housing authority will remain under local control.

“I can guarantee that the BMHA’s plan will be accepted and that we can move forward with dealing with our occupancy and our financial issues,” she said.