Guest MINDSETTER™ Gary Morse: RhodeMap RI and 26 Unsuspecting Communities
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
In a December 23 Providence Business News article Governor Chafee announced 26 communities receiving $5.3 million in grants from the 2014 Rhode Island Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. CDBG awards originate from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and will be a funding source of RhodeMap RI.
What Governor Chafee failed to mention in his announcement was that when RhodeMap RI was approved in December, new federal rules on CDBG awards were concurrently being implemented by HUD. The Governor and state officials have tried to portray RhodeMap RI as benign, but that's not the case for those taking CDBG awards.
The RI Department of Administration’s legal department is now reviewing how the new HUD rules, known collectively as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), impact communities taking CDBG awards. The answer may come as a surprise.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTCDBG awards led to a lawsuit
HUD's AFFH regulations have been around since the 1968 Fair Housing Act. But for four decades, they were poorly understood, and largely unenforced.
In 2006, a New York law firm, the Anti-Discrimination Center, tried to enlist HUD to join in a lawsuit against Westchester County, NY for alleged false AFFH certification by Westchester when taking CDBG awards. HUD refused leaving the Anti-Discrimination Center to file the lawsuit alone as a government whistleblower. In this type of lawsuit, the whistleblower shares in the money recovered.
In 2009, Westchester settled agreeing to a list of required changes, the biggest change being the deconstruction of Westchester’s single-family residential zoning. This included single-family zoning in all of Westchester’s exclusive million-dollar neighborhoods.
HUD Deputy Secretary, Ron Sims, said in an August 2009 statement "Until now, we tended to lay dormant. This is historic, because we are going to hold people's feet to the fire."
But in the years following 2009, a Westchester “foot-fire” never made it beyond a flicker in Westchester's million-dollar neighborhoods.
Status quo in Westchester
In April 2014, the Anti-Discrimination Center filed with US Judge Denise Cote a 37 page memorandum outlining how Westchester was thwarting the 2009 settlement agreement. It was reported that senior officials at HUD had little appetite for a confrontation with Westchester given it was home to prominent Democrats such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
In an August 2014 letter sent to US Attorney General Eric Holder, a complaint was made "about the continued failure of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to enforce each and all of the provisions of the [Westchester] consent decree."
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, was responsible to ensure compliance of the 2009 Westchester settlement agreement. But he was also an Obama donor, and prospective Attorney General in a future Hillary Clinton administration. It was believed by some that Westchester's million-dollar neighborhoods were being protected.
Lessons for RhodeMap RI came from Westchester
The perception that Westchester never really had its "feet to the fire" prompted HUD to step-up AFFH enforcement. In July 2013, HUD published in the Federal Register proposed AFFH rule changes to ensure future compliance on a national scale. But implementation of the rule changes was delayed until December 2014.
As RhodeMap RI was being approved, HUD’s new AFFH rules became federal law. Despite promises by state officials that there were no new laws established under RhodeMap RI, their “trust me” position concealed HUD's more aggressive stance on AFFH policies and enforcement.
Are 26 RI communities breaking federal law?
RI state law under the Low and Moderate Income Housing Act (LMIH) defines a set of municipal level goals for affordable housing, enforced by the RI courts. HUD AFFH mandates are measured at the census tract (neighborhood) level, and enforced by the federal courts.
To put this difference in perspective, Providence has met the LMIH goal with 12% of its housing defined as “affordable." But Providence may not be AFFH compliant. This is illustrated on the RhodeMap RI Providence Opportunity Map for the Blackstone Blvd. section of Providence’s East Side. RhodeMap RI has defined this neighborhood as having a “Very High” comprehensive index for implementation of low-income housing despite Providence's 12% affordable housing. AFFH compliance is measured at the neighborhood level.
CDBG is a contract agreement, not free money
CDBG documents signed by the 26 RI communities are, in effect, contracts between HUD and the community. Under RhodeMap RI, the question for communities is whether they are AFFH compliant at the neighborhood level.
The answer given most often by municipal officials on AFFH compliance is: “We have a state approved Comprehensive Plan.” But does the State of RI certify federal AFFH compliance during the comprehensive plan review process? That is what the RI Department of Administration is now trying to figure out.
RhodeMap RI is not likely to just "sit on the shelf" now that stricter AFFH compliance is being demanded by the federal government. 26 communities may now want to ask – is it safe to cash that CDBG check?
Gary Morse, of Barrington, is a retired communications consultant and is active in the debate on RhodeMap RI policies.
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