HUD officials address Aurora housing task force

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Updated: January 27, 2012 2:25AM

AURORA — For the second time in a year, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development leaders came to town Thursday to tackle questions on affordable and fair housing in Aurora. This time around, regional HUD officials spoke to the Mayor’s Task Force on Affordable Housing, a group of 25 city leaders Mayor Tom Weisner brought together to make recommendations on the future of affordable housing in the city.

Steve Meiss, Illinois HUD director, Gordon Patterson, director of HUD’s office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, and Ray Willis, director of HUD’s office of Community Planning and Development, detailed the differences in their departments and the HUD funding the city receives.

Meiss said Thursday that about $11.5 million in total HUD funding comes to Aurora each year.

In the last 15 years, about 150,000 public units of worn-out housing nationwide have been eliminated, making it a time of transition for all housing authorities, he said.

AHA Executive Director Jean Federman said there are 893 Section 8 housing vouchers committed to Aurora. There are currently 652 public housing units the AHA owns, and 146 of those will be eliminated when the Jericho Circle public housing complex is torn down, following years of disrepair. About 93 residents at Jericho Circle received relocation vouchers, she said, and about 700 people remain on Aurora’s Section 8 waiting list.

Former Aurora Police Chief Bill Powell asked Meiss why there is a need to rebuild Jericho Circle. Meiss said Aurora is not committed to replacing the Jericho Circle units, but the community is required to actively further fair housing in the city.

“That’s up to the community to decide,” Meiss said.

The city received $1.1 million in Community Development Block Grant funding from HUD in 2011, according to Karen Christensen, manager of the city’s Neighborhood Redevelopment division. The city also received about $522,000 in HOME investment partnerships funding in 2011.

Willis said those funds must be used to benefit the city’s low- and moderate-income population, eliminate slums or blight, or meet an urgent need. He said that the funding for the block grant program and other programs is continuing to decrease.

“Aurora is going to have to do less with what they have,” Wills said.

In March 2011, Meiss and Antonio Riley, HUD regional director, met with city leaders to clarify questions about housing redevelopment. Meiss said in that meeting that the Aurora Housing Authority is not required to rebuild public housing at the Jericho Circle site.

In its latest plans, however, the Aurora Housing Authority hopes to redevelop mixed-finance, mixed-income housing at the Jericho Circle site.

In December 2011, Weisner announced plans to introduce a scattered-site affordable housing model to city leaders.

The next Affordable Housing Task Force meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Feb. 15.