See our report and comments below of MPHA’s failure again to submit for approval acceptable Annual Plans to HUD for their plans and programs for 2018 and 2019.
The annual plans must be submitted to HUD for approval in order for MPHA to implement plans the following year which includes budget, mission, etc. Since Greg Russ came on board, all they have been submitting to HUD are plans to privatize, sell or demolish public housing. So for 2018, and now for 2019, MPHA failed to submit acceptable, revised plans that included all the changes from the massive amounts of public comments that came from public housing residents and the larger public of Minneapolis that rejects plans to privatize, sell public housing and displace residents. MPHA ignored these comments.
These annual plans are called Moving To Work (MTW) Plans. Every year they have to submit MTW Plan for the following year. For 2018 and 2019, MPHA has failed to submit acceptable plans because they are all about how they will privatize and what loophole they will use to do it.
Mayor Frey and DFL City Council still have the authority to correct and stop MPHA from submitting such plans to HUD because HUD gives MPHA local control to propose plans through resident, community, city and county government consensus. But due to the Neoliberal agenda to gentrify Minneapolis, our DFL elected body are using a “hands off” strategy. Therefore, they are not exercising their duty and responsibility, and ignoring the legal charter MPHA falls under in the City of Minneapolis and State of Minnesota. As a result, MPHA is now a rogue government agency.
This is why since their 2018 MTW plans has not been approved by HUD, MPHA is now acting as if its MTW Annual Plan for 2018 has been approved, and that the agency is authorized to implement this Plan to privatize, demolish, sell public housing, even though these MTW activities for 2018 have not been approved by HUD. Given the plain language of the HUD-MPHA MTW Agreement, and history of regulatory relations and guidelines to date what we see here is illegal, unfounded, unprecedented, irresponsible, and confrontational.
For more analysis of how MPHA is doing this, see our report and comments from public housing residents such as Elliot Twins:
MPHA’s 2019 MTW Annual Plan: Final Public Comments to HUD from DG&PHC