In March Gov. Bobby Jindal announced his plans to create a single Louisiana Housing Corporation to streamline the state’s disparate housing entities, including the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency. He proposed that the nonprofit LHC oversee all housing funds in the state, uniting almost 30 separate programs now managed by five organizations.
Monday the Senate passed Republican Sen. Neil Riser’s bill 36-1, sending it to the House. The legislation calls for an 11-member board with eight gubernatorial appointees to run the corporation.
To ensure a smooth transition for the consolidation, the LHFA would continue to exist through June 2012.
Apparently seeing the handwriting on the wall, the LHFA’s president, Milton Bailey, announced to his board April 13 that he did not want to be considered for re-election to the office of president. His resignation was effective immediately. At that time, the board voted to leave the office open for three months and then begin a search, according to spokesman Jeff DeGraff. In the interim, Vice-President Alesia Wilkins-Braxton is acting head of the agency.
Specifically, the legislation is designed to dismantle the LHFA, which, according to the Associated Press, was the subject of numerous complaints about bureaucracy and inefficient spending after the 2005 hurricanes.
The LHFA's chairman in the wake of those storms was Greg Gachassin of Lafayette. Gov. Kathleen Blanco appointed Gachassin to the board, through the Louisiana Mortgage Bankers Association, in January 2005. He was named interim chairman in February 2005 and served as chairman from April 2005 to April 2006, leaving the board in October 2007, according to LHFA's records. A couple of years later, Gachassin formed The Cartesian Company, which he describes as a real estate development and finance solutions company, specializing in development, project management, capital solutions and public-private partnerships. Read more about how Gachassin used his position on the state board and later the Lafayette Public Trust Finance Authority to orchestrate lucrative low-income housing deals for himself here. (State Rep. Rickey Hardy has asked the Louisiana Board of Ethics to investigate whether Gachassin's actions constitute a violation of the state's Ethics Code.)
Billions in federal and state dollars flow through many different agencies in Louisiana, including the LHFA, the Office of Community Development’s Disaster Recovery Unit, the Department of Health and Hospitals and the Department of Children and Family Services, along with many other programs that plan, fund and monitor home ownership, homelessness prevention, rental assistance, and even housing related child care.
“By supporting this legislation to create the Louisiana Housing Corporation, we will help developers better access capital and offer affordable housing options to Louisiana residents in need of safe homes for their families,” Jindal said. “We are long overdue in establishing a consolidated and focused strategy to coordinate our state housing programs, which will potentially save millions of taxpayer dollars while helping public and private housing agencies provide more effective services to our people.”
Louisiana has almost 30 housing-related programs managed across five different organizations, all with a shared purpose of providing safe and affordable housing. These agencies currently employ more than 300 people — more than 100 earning in excess of $60,000 a year — and this staff serves overlapping functions, Jindal contends. Creating a unified LHC will include the reductions of staffing needs and elimination of multiple boards, his office noted, while better identifying housing needs and developing policies and plans to meet those needs around the state.
In announcing the plan in March, House Speaker Jim Tucker said, “A statewide coordinated housing plan has been sorely needed for some time. Coordinating the myriad of housing programs and agencies across this state will help focus the state’s efforts in providing quality homeownership, rental and recovery initiatives.”
The corporation would oversee rental assistance, home ownership promotion programs, homeless prevention, housing-related child care and hurricane recovery dollars for rebuilding rental housing.
JUNE 17 If anyone ever wonders why Saints fans hate Atlanta with a capital H, here's a good indication. Radio "professionals" at an Atlanta station created an entire segment around making fun of former Saints player Steve Gleason, who is now paralyzed by ALS. Listen, nobody's ever accused DJs of being rocket scientists. But how could someone think it is amusing to pretend to ask a man with a degenerative, fatal disease if he will be alive next week? The DJs have been fired, and are now whining about how gutless their former bosses are. Wow.
JUNE 18 Here's the latest from the Advocate on the fatal hit-and-run accident allegedly involving the president of the Livingston Parish School Board. He's accused by police of hitting a 21-year-old man on a highway early Sunday and driving away. The man died at a hospital later. On Monday, police seized the president's truck and towed it away. But he's available for board meetings: apparently a $500 bond is sufficient for this type of thing over in St. Helena Parish.
JUNE 18 Former broadcast journalist Griffin Scott has posted this plea on his blog for financial assistance from his readers. Scott, who says he was fired after he wrote something fairly innocuous (for Facebook) on his wall, is suing a media giant for his job back. He's framed himself as David going after a bloated media giant, and he's probably not far off.
JUNE 18 Here's a fairly absurd column posted on DIG Magazine about the completely absurd practice of naming killer storms. Tornadoes don't have names. Blizzards don't have names. But hurricanes do, and there's a big process to bestow them, Jacques Cormery writes. He's right about the crazy assemblage of names -- this year, there's everything from Tanya to Humberto -- and his idea that we don't waste good names on killer storms is a good one.
JUNE 17 Political columnist John Maginnis has some advice for Louisiana Republicans: grow up. After the schism that occurred in this past session - fiscal hawks teaming up with Democrats to spank the Republican "majority" and hand Gov. Jindal his, er, aspirations for continued solon control -- they need to figure out how to get along with each other, Maginnis writes.
JUNE 17 Here's the Picayune's obit story for Dorothy 'Miss Dot' Domilise, the lady who made poboys at the uptown restaurant that bears her name. Miss Dot moved to New Orleans during World War II, where she met and married her husband Sam. When she passed away Friday she was 90, and had spent more than 60 of those years working at the restaurant on Annunciation Street.
JUNE 17 This editorial in the Advocate speaks in favor of the consent decrees that have federal judges overseeing police operations and the sheriff's parish prison in New Orleans. Mayor Landrieu and Sheriff Gusman can't get along, so outside forces, like the Inspector General and the judges, are needed to make sure things run right, the editorial opines.
JUNE 18 Here's a post from Manny Schewitz on Forward Progressives that is good for a chuckle. Manny had an epiphany back in November, and is sharing it with us today: he believes that Fox "News" is killing the GOP by pandering to right wing nuts. Now, don't get it twisted: Manny's not broke up about it. He says he enjoys watching the downward spiral with a shot of whiskey and "a schadenfreude chaser."
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I predict you are going to burn in hell !