The Need to be Fiscally Responsible in Lean Times

A front-page article exclusively in a recent Houston Chronicle print edition details the failings of a Houston Housing Authority program designed to provide low-income people with an opportunity to buy their own home has taxpayers in Texas and beyond talking.

The story chronicles the mismanagement of the “scattered sites” housing program, which allowed for the government purchase of 365 houses purchased from the U.S. Department of Housing in 1987 and 1988. The agency paid to upgrade the homes and opened them to public housing tenants. In 2004, the decision was made to shift renters out of the homes and to sell them to low-income people.

But since 2007 only 47 of the homes have been sold, including just 12 last year.

In many cases, people say they have tried to buy the homes but been told they were outbid or the homes were already sold – even when records show that was not the case. Many of the homes have been left vacant and apparently all but forgotten about, allowing mold, rodents, animals and vandals to take over.

New board members responsible for overseeing the program acknowledge it is a disaster and that more needs to be done.

A quote from newly appointed board member Lance Gilliam is particularly telling, with Gilliam reportedl saying, “We as an institution … have not done a good job. It’s not hard. Some of the stuff in our business is just not acceptable.”

It is tempting, when reading about the story of this failed Public Housing program, to view it as one unfortunate isolated incident.

But the truth is that there are many other programs out there – both public and private – that fall short.

And while taxpayers, donors and others may be willing to put up with some level of mismanagement and waste during booming economic times, no one is feeling so tolerant right now.

When everyone from teachers to bus drivers to city planners are being laid off because of tough financial times, it is essential that we ensure that the work that we are doing as advocates for educational and social justice is managed well, and that we pay attention to how we spend our resources. We cannot afford to become poster children for mismanagement, ineffectiveness and waste.

This is one reason that we at the Institute are so excited about the program evaluation work that we are doing, as we partner with nonprofit and government organizations to examine their programs, working to evaluate how effective they are, what is being done well, and what might be done better.

Working together, we can begin to take steps to ensure that resources are used well and that we are effective in our mission to advance educational and social justice.