Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Gov. Greitens Cuts MHDC Program

This was actually not a big surprise to the neighbors of the MACO Northcreek project currently under construction in the Mill Creek Valley.  After witnessing poor planning, corruption, and lack of transparency for a project that negatively impacted a National Historic Trail hiking/biking trail and a presidential library, not to mention the Missouri Housing Development Commission’s (MHDC) plush Class A commercial space with great 14th floor view of downtown KC, several neighbors sent letters to both the Governor Greitens and the State Auditor Nicole Galloway early in the year asking for them to carefully review this program that appears to be blatantly broken.  The Governor would eventually echo those concerns calling the MHDC low-income housing tax credit program a “failing program.”   Examples were cited where, for every dollar spent, “only 35 cents made its way directly to the development of housing.”   The remaining 65 cents on that dollar gets divvied up between MHDC and developers who invest further into the campaigns of city council members and state legislators who send MHDC their secret letters of support away from the TV cameras on City 7.  This is how you get projects like Northcreek that are literally impossible to stop, even with thousands of signatures of dismayed neighbors and voters who don’t matter.  Our local politicians are more beholden to these developers rather than the voters who put them in office.  This parallels what has been happening at the federal level with HUD and exposed on a recent PBS Frontline series entitled “Poverty, Politics and Profit” showing developers getting rich off the backs of the taxpayers and the poor.  And here in Independence, we have taken this even further down into the mud when we approve projects that negatively impact historic resources, recreational facilities, green spaces, balance of housing diversity, and even placing housing projects within FEMA flooding areas.  For Heritage House Apartments, we even wave what are supposed to be minimum standards for fire and public safety.  Our low-income citizens, seniors, and taxpayers deserve better responsibility and accountability.