News -> INDReporter MON, MAY 16 11:10AM by Leslie Turk

Hardy's housing bill sails through House 97-0

State Rep. Rickey Hardy’s bill to make affiliates of housing authorities subject to the state’s public records law won overwhelming support in the House, which voted 97-0 to strip their  exemption from the sunshine law. Hardy, who played a key role in helping to expose potential corruption in the Lafayette Housing Authority (the feds continue to investigate, but there is ample evidence of wrongdoing), wants the public to be able to review the deals designed to bring much-needed low-income housing developments to Lafayette.

Affiliates of housing authorities are defined as any corporation, entity, partnership, venture, syndicate, or arrangement in which a local housing authority has an ownership or governance interest of less than a majority. For the only such venture complete and operational, St. Antoine Gardens, an independent auditor found that the LHA improperly used as much as $1 million of Section 8 and other funds for repairs, upkeep and an employee’s salary.

One sentence of the 1997 state law exempts affiliates by virtue of their association with housing authorities, shielding these affiliates’ paper trails from public scrutiny: “Affiliates of housing agencies shall not, by virtue of their affiliation with such local housing agencies, become subject to the laws of this state applicable to public agencies and their governing bodies, including but not limited to laws pertaining to public disclosure of records, open meetings, minimum wage rates applicable to government contracts and employees, if any, procurement of goods and services, and laws relating to public employees.”

Hardy’s legislation effectively strips that sentence, making it possible for the public, the taxpayers, to see who is involved in these developments, how the money is being spent, who is profiting from them and whether there are conflicts of interest. For the purposes of the public records law, these affiliates will be considered public bodies.

Let’s hope the state Senate sees the House’s wisdom.

Read more about the importance of this legislation here and here.


Comments (8)add
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written by wow , May 16, 2011 - 08:32 pm
Thanks again Ricky. Why is it none of the other guys care enough to get involved in this? 97 - 0 Does this mean it has no shot at getting out of the Senate?
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written by The Original Northsidian , May 16, 2011 - 10:55 pm
We shall now see if the politically connected control our state Senators. FOLLOW THE MONEY!!
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written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , May 17, 2011 - 01:42 am
Bought and paid for, we have the best politicos money can buy.
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written by Morrow , May 17, 2011 - 09:19 am
I believe the legislature will see the taxpayers don't mind funding low income housing, and we don't mind people making a buck. We just want housing dollars to benefit the poor & not make millionaires outta a louse smart enuf to figure out how to play the system. A man's name... or his soul... at what cost
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written by realitycheck , May 17, 2011 - 10:57 am
AMEN!!! Thank you Mr. Hardy!! Sunshine heading our way!!
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written by ragin_cajun , May 17, 2011 - 05:53 pm
"We just want housing dollars to benefit the poor & not make millionaires outta a louse smart enuf..."

Here's the problem. You don't realize that the whole point of taxing people to house the poor is not really to house the poor. If it were, they'd just pay the poor people's rent, or their house note. There'd be no "low income housing development". There'd be a "voucher", instead.

Have you ever heard of someone building a "low income grocery store"? "We need public-private partnerships to facilitate the construction of grocery stores in blighted areas.". Of course not. The government just pays the poor man's grocery bill. Or, mails food stamps to the poor man.

So why should housing be any different? If the governmnet REALLY wanted poor people to have "affordable housing", they'd just pay the rent for them--like they do with "Section 8".

This whole issue is a dog and pony show. From the financing, to the construction, to the boards and consultants, to the "oversight" from Baton Rouge and Washington. This whole thing is a hustle--every step of the way. Wise up!
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written by tif , May 17, 2011 - 07:56 pm
Your right ragin.
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written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , May 18, 2011 - 04:35 pm
if you consider the waste and the under the table overruns being spread to every greedy builder, consultant, government peep lined up in conjunction with state and local government whores for a piece of the pie, you can understand that the poor underprivileged have a long wait if they expect help from trhe government, case in point, OBAMA is now kissin every major oil co's ass its payback time the couillion sold out to the oil co's and to the LABOR UNIONS
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