Tenant Group Helps Save Berkeley Housing Authority

For Immediate Release:

From Save BHA: Contact #510/763-1085

Tenant Group Helps Save Berkeley Housing Authority
(BHA)

March 6, 2006

Save BHA Is Pleased To See The Berkeley Housing Authority Remain Under
Local Control

Berkeley CA -- The recent announcement that the Berkeley Housing
Authority will remain under local control in Berkeley, is the first
step in saving this troubled Housing Authority from being dismantled
or placed into receivorship by the hands of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD).

Tenants must continue to keep pressure on city officials to make sure
that the Housing Aurhority receives full funding to run it's public
housing and Section 8 programs properly, and to keep the BHA under
local control in Berkeley.

Berlekey's low-income renters have no choice but to remain vigilant
and to continue to demand that proper leadership takes control of the
Housing Authority, which must become accountable enough to pull the
BHA out of it's troubled agency status.

Special thanks to Eleanor Walden, Frances Hailman, Patrick Kehoe and
everyone else who joined in with Save BHA to keep the pressure on, to
Save the Berkeley Housing Authority from falling ever deeper into
being a troubled agency.

It is most unfortunate that many of Berkeley's Section 8 tenants will
face a huge hardship due to reductions in their utility allowances and
a reduction in the value of their Section 8 vouchers taking place on
March 1, 2007, and this too needs to be resolved somehow as a means to
help reduce the hardship on low-income renters of Berkeley.

See the latest articles and links below regarding the strugle to save
Berkeley's Housing Authority...

Sincerely,
Lynda Carson
510/763-1085


****************
City Council Fires Itself From Housing Authority
'Troubled' Agency Under Pressure From Housing And Urban Development

BY Kelly Fitzpatrick
Contributing Writer
Monday, March 5, 2007

http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=23676

In a bid to save the Berkeley Housing Authority from losing control
of its governance, the Berkeley City Council voted Feb. 27 to replace
all 11 current board members—including themselves.

Members of the City Council, who currently run the board with two
appointed residents, voted to fire themselves and allow Mayor Tom
Bates to start a recruiting process to establish a new board composed
of five public officials and two residents.

Tia Ingram, manager of the Berkeley Housing Authority, also plans to
reorganize its internal structure, said Berkeley Housing Director
Stephen Barton.

The Berkeley Housing Authority, which is responsible for distributing
federal housing vouchers, has been classified as a "troubled" agency
by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development since 2002 for
missing department deadlines and failing to verify whether tenants
meet requirements for subsidized housing vouchers.

The consistent failure to receive a passing score on HUD's annual
report could cause the board to be placed under the control of Alameda
County, which some officials say would hurt tenants.

Barton believes the recent changes may be able to raise the
department to passing status by a year from July. However, others are
not as confident.

Lynda Carson, a member of an advocacy group called Save Berkeley
Housing Authority, said she is not sure what effects the changes will
produce.

Carson said Ingram's past experience in running housing authorities
has been negative, pointing to her stint as manager of the Richmond
Housing Authority in 2000 when it was placed under "troubled" status
by HUD.

Ingram did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

Eleanor Walden, another member of the group and a commissioner on the
Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, said the recent action of the City
Council indicates "very firmly that they did not want control of the
housing authority taken out of Berkeley."

Carson said if the authority was no longer governed by the city, some
residents served by the Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers Program for
low-income tenants would be no longer be able to pay rent and would be
forced out of their homes.

Carson said she hopes the City Council has "managed to save it, and
keep it local and under Berkeley control."

Contact Kelly Fitzpatrick at
kfitzpatrick [at] dailycal.org.

****************
Rally Slams Housing Authority Leaders
BY Amanda Ott
Contributing Writer
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Upset with the operation of the Berkeley Housing
Authority, a group of Berkeley residents rallied
yesterday evening to call for drastic organizational
changes.

The protest was organized by the community activist
group Save Berkeley Housing Authority, which members
said was formed after four years of mismanagement
within the city's housing authority.

Lynda Carson, founder of the community group, said
her confidence in Berkeley Housing Director Stephen
Barton is further diminished by discrepancies between
his oral and written versions of evaluation results.

Click below for full story...

http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=21450
*****************
City Officials Take Blame for Housing Authority Mess
By Riya Bhattacharjee

August 29, 2006

Members of the Save Berkeley Housing Authority (Save
BHA), low-income Berkeley residents and city officials
got together at the South Berkeley Senior Center on
Saturday to discuss the future of public housing and
the Section 8 program in Berkeley.

Currently in its fourth year of being listed as a
"troubled agency" by the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development, the BHA was dropped from being
listed as a standard performer because of errors in
reports submitted to HUD and also because of its
numerous errors in running the public housing and
Section 8 programs.

Click below for more...

http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?archiveDate=08-29-06&storyID=24958


*****************
Berkeley Daily Planet

"We're losing our housing because that is the Bush
administration's agenda," Frances Hailman called out
to cheering protesters. "The word(s) 'affordable ...

Click below for more...

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/text/article.cfm?archiveDate=07-14-06&storyID=24608

*****************
Uncertain Future For Berkeley's Section 8 Tenants

Originally, the tenant's group known as Save Berkeley
Housing Authority ... read in the Berkeley Daily
Planet that Section 8 contracts in Berkeley are soon
..

Click below for full story...

http://www.thestreetspirit.org/Sept2006/berkeley.htm
*****************
Berkeley Daily Planet

Letter to Leaders on Housing Cuts By FRANCES HAILMAN
Commentary. An economic tsunami is rapidly approaching
this land. Those of you in the national congress ..

Click below for more...

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?archiveDate=01-04-05&storyID=20457

*****************

Commentary: Affordable Housing And the Redistribution
Of Wealth in America
By Frances Hailman


The redistribution of wealth upward is proceeding
apace in the Bush/neo-con America. What has been a
lower class, is rapidly transforming into an under
class, while the middle class is becoming the lower
class.

Through the nationwide action of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) in this Bush era, the standards for
low-income housing are changing accordingly, so that
soon the lower class will be too poor to be eligible
for "affordable housing." This will create more
available housing for the crumbling middle class,
which they certainly deserve.

Click below for more...

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/text/article.cfm?archiveDate=07-18-06&storyID=24655
*****************
Commentary: Rent Increase Too Much for BHA Tenants
By Eleanor Walden (02-16-07)

The Berkeley Housing Authority Special Meeting held
on Tuesday Feb. 13th was an unusual event. Not only
was it not previously announced, we read about it in
the Daily Planet in the Tuesday edition, consequently
it was not well attended by people whose shelter
depends upon BHA. With the exception of one woman who
spoke right to the point: that the City Council, who
sits as the Housing Authority Board of Directors, have
failed for 4 or 5 years to lift the agency out of it's
"troubled," read failing, status, the other speakers
recited jargon, statistics, and acronyms. I watched
the performance, or should I say charade, on
television. I was shocked at the lack of passion,
outrage, or meaning that was expressed by Tia
Ingraham, BHA Managing Director, or Steve Barton,
Berkeley Housing Director, or the City Council
members.

Click below for more...

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?archiveDate=02-16-07&storyID=26358
*****************
Commentary: HUD Cuts Create Nationwide Housing Crisis
By Frances Hailman (01-19-07)

Much has been written in the past several months
about Berkeley's troubled Housing Authority. Much more
devastating news is likely to emerge in the coming
months.

On Jan. 10, a hundred or so public housing
authorities, primarily on the East Coast, held a Day
of Silence to protest the draconian HUD funding cuts
that could wreak havoc on the nation's public housing
system, threatening to create a new wave of
homelessness across the country.

Click below for more...

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?archiveDate=01-19-07&storyID=26143

*****************
Berkeley Housing Authority May Lose Federal Funding
Possible Transfer of Control to County Agency Prompts
Concern Among Voucher Recipients
BY Saphonia Foster
Contributing Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006

The city agency that oversees the Section 8 voucher
program for low-income tenants voted Tuesday to notify
tenants it may soon lose its local control, which has
sparked concern among some Berkeley residents.

Residents said some low-income tenants, who receive
agency vouchers that allow them to pay below
market-rate rents, could be left in the dark if the
Berkeley agency is overtaken by Alameda County.

Click below for full story...

http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=20969
**************
Berkeley Daily Planet

August 1, 2006

Last Tuesday, according to Daily Planet reporter
Suzanne La Barre, ... Commentary: Saving the Berkeley
Housing Authority By Eleanor Walden ...

Click below for full commentary...

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?archiveDate=08-01-06&storyID=24770


****************
Citizens Press to Save Control of Housing Authority
Suzanne La Barre, Berkeley Daily Planet, page 1,
7/11/2006

Hoping to maintain affordable housing for the city's
most vulnerable citizens, local activists are rallying
to save the beleaguered Berkeley Housing Authority.

Public housing advocates plan to gather today
(Tuesday) for a press conference on the steps of Old
City Hall, where they will pressure city
councilmembers to flex their power to keep the agency
in Berkeley.

"The crisis with the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA)
is that all of us who are seniors, disabled,
low-income people are threatened," said Eleanor
Walden, a Section 8 recipient for 10 years and member
of the Rent Stabilization Board. She is co-organizing
Tuesday's event.

"What we're trying to do is make clear that we have to
protect the housing authority from HUD," she said.

Click below for full story...

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/news/print.asp?id=17165
****************
Council Faces City Housing Authority's Failures
By Suzanne La Barre (06-30-06)

The Housing Authority Board convened for an extended
meeting Tuesday to face the bitter reality that the
Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) is a troubled agency.


Click below for full story...

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?archiveDate=06-30-06&storyID=24505


***************
Berkeley Housing Authority Names New Acting Manager
By Suzanne La Barre (07-21-06)

The embattled Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) has a
new acting manager, Housing Department Director
Stephen Barton announced Thursday.

Click below for full story...

http://berkeleydaily.org/article.cfm?archiveDate=07-21-06&storyID=24676


*************
Berkeley News

The members of Save Berkeley Housing Authority (Save
BHA) offer our gratitude and thanks to the Berkeley
Daily Planet for covering the issue of the troubled
...

Through the years there has been no accountability
placed on BHA director Steve Barton during the four
years of failure while the BHA has been listed as a
troubled agency, and it may be time to call for his
resignation.

Click below for more...

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/news/print.asp?id=17837