The Department of Housing and Urban Development and public housing authorities

HUD

Department of Housing and Urban Development Analysis

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was initiated on September 9, 1965, when Lyndon B. Johnson approved the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act into law (Home Zone, 2011). The Department of Housing and Urban Development is the Federal agency responsible for implementing national policies and programs that address U.S. housing needs, which improve and develop the Nation's communities, and enforce fair housing laws. HUD's business is helping create a decent home and suitable living environment for all Americans, and it has given America's cities a strong national voice at the Cabinet level (Home Zone, 2011).

HUD is administered by the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Shaun Donovan, a former New York City housing commissioner and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, is the current Secretary, having been confirmed by the United States Senate unanimously on January 22, 2009 (HUD, 2011). Its headquarters is located in the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building in Washington, D.C and represents a major employer in the area.

Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) is the nation's fourth largest public housing agency serving more than 74,000 residents in the city of Philadelphia (PHA, 2011). Philadelphia Housing Authority has been effective in altering public housing to a state-chartered authority; which means they are not subject to the normal city charter requirements. If had to deal with the city charter requirements, it could effectively make operations regulated by tedious regulations that would hinder city-managed capital-improvement projects. As a result the PHA is the largest landlord in the state. For the most part the PHA operates fairly efficiently and the PHA has also been referred to as one of the most successful housing assistance organizations in the country.

However, there was recently a scandal involving Executive Director Carl Greene who was alleged to have mismanages funds and to have sexually harassed several of his employees. Due to these allegations he was fired by the Broad of Commissioners (Huber, 2011). When all these allegations emerged, HUD conducted an audit and this time it was of the financial and management operation at PHA. The reason for the audit was that the agency has $60.7 million of outstanding capital funds obligations that were not being met. With all of these problems were going on for more than a decade it is difficult to believe that the Board of Commissioners were completely ignorant of what was going on in the organization.

Conclusion

While the various branches of HUD severe as a valuable service to low income families that are in need of assistance in regards to obtaining decent housing, transgressions such as the one's highlighted are very troubling to say the least. Since funding for these programs comes from tax payers in this country, one might expect that there should be some level of accountability maintained in the management and administration of these programs at all times. People generally aren't too excited to pay as much as they do in taxes and it is reasonable to suspect that when taxpayers become aware that their funds are being blatantly mismanaged then this represents a serious issue.

Despite the managerial problems that have recently arisen in these two organizations, the demand for public housing needs to be filled as effectively as possible to mitigate social injustices that may occur otherwise. The problem is rather straight forward and there are primarily two types of solutions available. First, the programs could be shut down completely however this would cause a great deal of suffering from people who are in need. Therefore, these organizations must be forced to be accountable and offer the public a great deal of transparency regarding all of the operations.