Thomas MacMillan Photo
Standing in front of a housing project plagued by mold and leaky roofs, mayoral candidate Henry Fernandez blasted rival Toni Harp’s proposal to dismantle the city agency that enforces housing code violations.
Fernandez (pictured) was responding to a comment Harp made to the Independent in an interview published this week. Asked about how, as mayor, she would cut costs in city government, Harp said she would disband the Livable City Initiative (LCI) and reassign its functions to other departments.
“I want to make it very clear that that’s wrong,” said Fernandez.
He was speaking from experience: Fernandez was brought into City Hall in 1998 to rout out corruption in LCI as its new director; he later oversaw the department as the city’s economic development director. He said LCI plays a vital role in keeping people safe in the city, and in helping shape re-development plans, like the ones afoot at the Church Street South housing projects, where Fernandez held his Friday afternoon press conference.
Harp responded that Fernandez wants to “live in the past.” She said she would continue the “vital purposes” of LCI, using other departments.
Harp and Fernandez — along with Kermit Carolina and Justin Elicker — are seeking the Democratic nomination to replace retiring 10-term incumbent Mayor John DeStefano. Democrats will head to the polls on Tuesday. Their Friday afternoon salvos are part of an uptick in aggression as the clock winds down toward Primary Day.
Church Street South, across from the train station on Union Avenue, has a history of problems, Fernandez noted. He said the roof and the walls leak, leading to mold. And the complex is plagued by rats and other vermin. As the chief agency in charge of housing code enforcement, LCI is tasked with making sure property owners fix problems like those at Church Street South. Breaking up the agency would be “going backwards” and would “put families at risk,” Fernandez said.
Read more here about Fernandez’s previous proposals on how to improve code enforcement.
Problems at Church Street South aren’t going to be fixed just by code enforcement, Fernandez said. The housing project needs to be torn down and redeveloped, he said, pivoting to a second argument for keeping LCI around.
LCI “brings together the development tools” that Church Street South needs for a successful rehab, Fernandez said. LCI is the main agency for the disbursement of state and federal development money including Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. It’s the agency that works with housing organizations like Neighborhood Housing Services and Mutual Housing, and it employs neighborhood specialists who work closely with community groups, he said.
Church Street South needs to be reborn as a mixed use development as part of a connection between the train station, the medical district, and downtown that will create jobs and increase the tax base, Fernandez said. “Downtown begins right here.”
Fernandez said Harp’s call for disbanding LCI represents a conflict of interest, since the agency is responsible for inspecting properties belonging to her son’s business. That includes elderly housing on Rosette Street, where a recent visit exposed poor living conditions, including urine in the hallway and drug wrappers in the basement.
“What signal does she send when she says she would close down the agency that enforces the housing code?” Fernandez asked.
Harp’s call to disband LCI “reflects a misunderstanding of how you rehabilitate neighborhoods,” Fernandez said. “It reflects a lack of awareness of what LCI is and what it does.”
Asked for a response to Fernandez’s press conference, Harp declined to speak directly to the Independent. Her campaign emailed the following statement:
“It’s time for innovation and reorganization when it comes to LCI’s functions. My administration will absolutely continue the vital purposes of LCI but carefully evaluate whether, and how, to spread the job over other city departments. That’s the responsible thing to do. Given that LCI annually receives millions of dollars through programs like the federal Community Development Block Grant program that we may be able to use to address some of our community’s other needs, we at least need to be willing to look at redirecting those funds to where they can be most effective.
“For instance, we should be willing to use the money that LCI gets to directly help homeowners. Vulnerable populations such as the elderly, poor and those unable to get credit can all benefit from a new approach to using this money through grants, low-interest loans and other programs.
“The ‘Aging at Home’ concept is one that will be a focus of my administration. It’s a noble idea that keeps families together. Since funds are scarce, however, we need to take a look at whether some LCI funds can be better used there.
“There were some 1,500 blighted properties when LCI was started. It did a good job of reducing that number —there are now approximately 200. But we can’t live in the past as Mr. Fernandez wants to do by continuing to apply current money to old problems. City resources are scarce and we need innovative ways to accomplish the same objectives but with less money and less bureaucracy.”