Newsday.com - Former HUD chief, politicians form coalition to oppose federal housing policy


NEW YORK (AP) _ A group of Democratic politicians, anti-poverty advocates and nonprofit organizations announced on Monday the formation of a coalition to fight changes in federal housing policy and threatened to sue unless the changes are reversed. The new Coalition to Save America's Affordable Housing charged that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development interpreted provisions in a congressional appropriations bill in a way that enabled it to limit reimbursements to state agencies for the Section 8 voucher program, which helps poor people pay their rent. The coalition, headed by former New York Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo, said the Bush administration, not Congress, mandated the changes...On April 22, HUD announced it would reimburse housing authorities for vouchers based on Aug. 1, 2003, costs plus an annual inflation adjustment that would cover 2004. Critics complained that the department's reading of the budget was incorrect and that the government should continue to update voucher costs every three months to more accurately reflect cost-of-living increases.


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Oh, the horror. This is worse than Abu Ghraib.

Andrew Cuomo was Clinton's HUD Secretary after Henry Cisneros went out in a scandal. After Bush was elected, Cuomo ran an unsuccessful candidacy for NY governor in 2002. He withdrew from the race for the Democratic nomination after the Clintons and other heavyweights decided to back Carl McCall (who was kicked brutally to the curb by George Pataki--McCall ended up with only 33% of the general election vote ).

As long as we are strolling down Memory Lane, Henry Cisneros, you may recall, lied to the FBI about payments he made to a mistress. Cisneros copped to one misdemeanor count in 1999, and Clinton pardoned him just before leaving office.

Section 8 was central to the Clinton Administration's "deconcentration" policies aimed at knocking down the big housing projects and scattering the families around the metro area. The vouchers let the former public housing tenants rent from private landlords.