Local HUD program in jeopardy of shutting down
The Clearwater County Board of Commissioners met on Oct. 20, with the Clearwater County Housing Authority being the first item on the agenda.
Clearwater County Housing Authority Board Chairman Joy Walberg and Housing Authority Board member Kent Barcus were present to seek monetary support from the county commissioners if they are unable to find a temporary solution in the face of current County Housing Authority Director Tom Derby’s resignation.
Walberg and Barcus informed the County Commissioners that an emergency meeting of the County Housing Authority was held on Oct. 19 with Executive Director Laura Straw of Bemidji’s Housing & Redevelopment Authority (HRA) in attendance. They reported that at this emergency meeting Straw obtained paperwork and a confidentiality agreement regarding Clearwater County Housing Authority.
After reviewing the paperwork, Walberg and Barcus said that Director Straw told the Housing Authority Board that public housing is losing money. According to Walberg and Barcus, Straw said she discovered that the last time any inspections were done of the Clearwater County housing was in 2005.
Walberg and Barcus informed the County Board that HUD Director Tom Derby, who is a certified inspector, admitted to the Clearwater County Housing Board and Director Straw that the required inspections had not been completed, although the box was checked on paperwork that the inspections had been done. Upon questioning by the Clearwater Housing Authority, Director Derby told them they did not have the funding to do the inspections, according to Barcus and Walberg.
Barcus and Walberg indicated that HUD could come in and shut the Housing Authority down. The last resort is for HUD to step in, they told the commissioners.
Barcus reported that HUD requires each unit to be inspected annually. There are 70 units in Clearwater County that need to be inspected, and he reported that Straw said they must be done. He said that they did not think initially there would be any problems in securing a new director for Clearwater County.
Walberg said that their board did not know Derby wasn’t doing the needed inspections. They thought that everything was going fine and that all audits passed without issues.
The Clearwater County HRA program is expected to end if no resolution to its oversight can be found. This puts 70 families who live in the units in jeopardy who count on this program.
Walberg said their best option at this time would be for Clearwater County to contract with Bemidji for a certain amount of time to do the overseeing of the Clearwater County Housing Authority on a temporary basis, and become compliant with needed inspections.
The inspections and other expenses to bring Clearwater County current would take some time -- reportedly "a good year" -- and money. It is suggested that the funding for this would be within the present finances of the local Housing Authority, especially with the inclusion of the director’s current salary.
Walberg also said they would need to find someone to be trained for Clearwater County in order to do the inspections.
Commissioner Dean Newland restated his concerns mentioned at last week’s Board meeting that he does not want to see Clearwater County Housing Authority become an extension of the Beltrami County HRA.
Commissioner John Nelson stated that it is premature for Clearwater County to put any money into this situation, and that they do need the temporary help of the Bemidji HRA.
Commissioner Nelson suggested they also work with the Headwaters Regional Development Commission.
Both Housing Authority board members present indicated they know little or nothing about the responsibilities of the HUD director and program, and were completely caught off guard about the resignation of the current director, which was announced in July.
They have been unsuccessfully seeking a qualified person to take the job since then. And they are also seeking a resolution to the issues raised above.