Heard Around Town: Internal shakeup at the Buffalo Housing Authority

The financially strapped Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority has been making personnel changes, terminating some employees and demoting others, in an effort to control costs as the agency’s cash reserves dwindle, City & State has learned.

Multiple sources, all speaking on condition of anonymity, say key staff members have been removed from their positions and that their workloads have been relegated to outside firms or BMHA’s general counsel, David Rodriguez.

Not only has the authority been operating at a deficit in recent months, but hundreds of its apartments lie vacant, leading to the close scrutiny of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has designated BMHA’s management as “substandard” for two years in a row. 

The authority has submitted a turnaround plan to the federal agency and is now working to implement it, but HUD, which supplies most of the authority’s funding, has suggested that BMHA may fall into receivership if it doesn't turn things around soon.

Rodriguez and the authority’s executive director, Dawn Sanders-Garrett, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.