{"id":521,"date":"2006-08-29T16:48:00","date_gmt":"2006-08-29T22:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/08\/region-vii-housing-authority-shuts-down\/"},"modified":"2006-08-29T16:48:00","modified_gmt":"2006-08-29T22:48:00","slug":"region-vii-housing-authority-shuts-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/08\/region-vii-housing-authority-shuts-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Region VII Housing Authority shuts down"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The members of the scandal-plagued Region VII Housing Authority board voted today to cease operations. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The housing authority\u2019s records will be sent to Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and kept by the Region III authority, which, for the time being, is continuing operations. Region VII\u2019s last day of operation will be Thursday.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s taking place today is very devastating, in my opinion,\u201d Board member Bennie Barreras of Socorro said at today\u2019s meeting, before the board voted to shut down the operation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The state\u2019s housing authorities have been plagued by scandal in recent months that has included the resignations of the directors in Las Cruces<\/st1:city> and Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, the defaulting on $5 million in bonds owed to the state and other mishandling of funds. There may be missing money. You can read more about the allegations by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The move by Region VII comes after the Region III board voted Friday to inform other housing authorities it had been funding that it could no longer do so. Without funds, Region VII had little choice.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

For years, Region III was run by former state Rep. Vincent \u201cSmiley\u201d Gallegos. He was tasked with helping restart other authorities around the state, and did so by loaning them money, and he essentially ran the entire operation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Following damning reports from the governor\u2019s office and State Investment Council, Gallegos was replaced earlier this month by Mid-Region Council of Governments Director Lawrence Rael, who told Region VII board members today that the money Gallegos loaned them was to be used only to rehabilitate homes.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Region VII built up almost $800,000 in debt to Region III. That money was spent primarily on salaries and office space, violating the terms of the bonds.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The bonds should also not have been used to purchase land for new developments, Rael said. That includes a 33-lot development Region III and Region VII planned to build on Las Cruces<\/st1:city>\u2019 East Mesa<\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe State Investment Council\u2019s opinion is that property should not have been purchased with these bonds,\u201d Rael said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The investment council has hired a lawyer to investigate and try to piece together the mess. The review by the governor\u2019s office found that problems were so great the authorities would have trouble surviving.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, that question is now answered.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In addition to the investment council investigation, I\u2019m told federal agencies are examining the situation, but those agencies do not confirm investigations. Region VII Board Member Frances Williams said at today\u2019s meeting that there is cause for investigation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re in big trouble. We have not been serving the people of this community,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 We haven\u2019t put a nail on the wall. We haven\u2019t put a house on the ground and yet we\u2019ve spent almost $800,000. That, to me, is pretty criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It was Williams who first made public the allegations that have led to the current situation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rael said he believes the housing authority law, first created in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> more than 40 years ago, is flawed. It creates such authorities, but gives them no funding mechanism. They can\u2019t spend bond money on operations, and it\u2019s presumed that they\u2019ll pay operational costs with profits from home sales.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t account for startup costs, Rael said, adding that he doesn\u2019t believe such a system can work.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Region VII board members seemed to agree. At least one indicated he believed the board was placed in a difficult position by being charged with providing affordable housing without being given the funding to do it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rael said he expects that the housing authorities will be restructured and resurrected, and said proposed legislation is being drafted.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

For now, the state is still in the process of figuring out what happened and whether there is any way to recover any of the $5 million the authorities still owe the state.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying, sort of, to put the pieces together,\u201d Rael said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There was much he wouldn\u2019t discuss publicly, which might be a further indicator that other investigations are taking place.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This scandal isn\u2019t over. The final report from the investment council isn\u2019t yet complete, and sources tell me the findings will be much worse than what is currently known publicly. Expect some fallout for Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, a close friend of Gallegos who has privately defended him during this scandal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The members of the scandal-plagued Region VII Housing Authority board voted today to cease operations. The housing authority\u2019s records will be sent to Albuquerque and kept by the Region III authority, which, for the time being, is continuing operations. Region VII\u2019s last day of operation will be Thursday. \u201cWhat\u2019s taking place today is very devastating, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}