A group of House members introduced today a bill similar to one being considered in the Senate that would overhaul the state’s affordable housing system.
House Bill 997 (it’s not yet up on the Web for a link) has a number of sponsors, including Democrats Joseph Cervantes, Mary Helen Garcia and Antonio Lujan of Las Cruces and Andy Nuñez of Hatch.
Also among the sponsors is House Majority Leader Ken Martinez of Grants.
It is the same as Senate Bill 519, sponsored by Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, which would, over a period of several months, shut down the state’s scandal-plagued regional housing authorities and replace them with an affordable housing system overseen by the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority.
The bill would also provide for audits of each of the seven housing authority regions to determine the extent of the mismanagement first revealed last year when Frances Williams, a member of the Las Cruces-based Region VII board, complained about problems. Several weeks after she went public, the Region III authority, based in
Papen’s bill has the blessing of Gov. Bill Richardson. It has passed the Senate Public Affairs Committee and will be heard in the Corporations and Transportation Committee Monday. If it’s approved there, it must still be heard in the Finance Committee before heading to the Senate floor.
Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, who is not a sponsor of the House bill, has not yet decided how many committees it must visit before a floor vote. Many lawmakers say if leaders want to pass a bill, they assign it to two committees, but if they want to slow or kill it, they assign it to three – as was the case with Papen’s bill.
The housing authority scandal is a hot potato in the Legislature because of the relationship between Lujan and former Region III Housing Authority Director Vincent “Smiley” Gallegos. Gallegos is a former legislator and current lobbyist who, in past sessions, has spent a lot of time in the speaker’s office.
Among the scandals that have plagued the housing authority was the disclosure late last year that a top aide to Lujan, who may not qualify for low-income housing, had been living rent-free in a home owned by the Region III authority. After the situation was revealed by the Albuquerque Journal, the aide paid back rent. She continues to live in the home.
Lujan has repeatedly said he didn’t know about the situation until a reporter told him about it, but concerns about his relationship with Gallegos were among the reasons some House Democrats supported