All three government housing agencies are in financial hot water, according to testimony Monday before the Senate Committee on Housing, Parks and Recreation, even though one of them has millions to lend for home mortgages and no one to lend to.
Testifying before the committee were Ira Hobson, commissioner of Housing, Parks and Recreation; Conrad Francois II, executive director of the Virgin Islands Housing Authority; and Claude L. Richards Jr., director of the V.I. Housing Finance Authority.
Richards said the Affordable Housing Act mandates the Legislature and the executive branch support and approve projects and the Housing Trust Fund, which is broke.
He said over the past several years the VIHFA's operating subsidy has been withdrawn.
One year ago, he said, VIHFA employees were removed from the General Fund, forcing the agency to use it own resources.
Richards also pointed out that the authority hasn't had a functioning board of directors for 18 months, because the administration hasn't sent any nominees to the Legislature, preferring to await legislation pending that would combine all three agencies under one umbrella. A need for that legislation seemed apparent, as the three agencies testified.
Richards said VIHFA issued $15 million in mortgage bonds in 1998 under favorable market conditions, allowing the authority to offer 30-year mortgages at an interest rate of 5.95 percent.
But he said the authority has a balance of $13.3 million and no way to originate sufficient mortgages to use the money before the April 2001 deadline because of a lack of housing developments. He listed several projects that have been held up for lack of funds, including the Mariendahl subdivision and Donoe subdivision on St. Thomas, Hermon Hill on St. Croix and Calabash Boom on St. John.
Francois said since 1995, VIHA has been in constant hurricane-recovery mode. In November 1999, he said, the agency got an additional $12 million loan under the federal Comprehensive Grant Program.
He said with the added money, the agency should be able to complete remaining projects.
On a bright note, Francois said for the fiscal year ending December 1998, VIHA received an "unqualified opinion on the audit statements." That means, he said, that auditors have concluded the agency's financial statement accurately presents its condition. "This is the first clean opinion in VIHA's history," Francois said.
He said the agency has processed a monthly average of $694,500 in payments to contractors, and $747,800 monthly to the V.I. Water and Power Authority, to which VIHA still owes $2.7 million.
As of June 2000, Francois said, the waiting list for public housing was 646 in St. Croix and 1,746 in St. Thomas and St. John, largely because there is more affordable housing on St. Croix.
Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole expressed bewilderment at the agencies' statistics. "These figures are glaring," he said. "There is a $13 million unspent balance at the Finance authority, and 1,746 people awaiting homes." He suggested they get together and try to funnel some monies into the Housing Trust Fund to make new developments available.
Edith Bryant Quetel, public information officer for the tenant council at the Lucinda Millin Home for the Aged on St. Thomas, came armed with a list of 35 complaints to give to Francois but would not air them publicly.
She did, however, ask Francois some questions. His answers revealed that the agency requested $1.2 million from the V.I. government for the home and received $458,000. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had allocated $363,230 to the home, he said.
Francois and committee Chairman George Goodwin assured Quetel they would make an inspection of the home soon.
Hobson said Housing, Parks and Recreation's budget has been cut 32 percent in the last two fiscal years, but the department has either completed or is up to 85 percent complete on most emergency housing in the territory.
Hobson said HPR has completed 80 percent of its recreational facilities projects for FY 2000.
Legislation calling for combining the three agencies has moved from the Committee on Government Operations to the Rules Committee, where it now sits. Rules Chairwoman Violet Anne Golden said, "When they're ready to go, I am too."
Golden said there are many issues that need to be sorted out by the agencies themselves before bringing it to Rules.
