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Jolie Rouge · 06-22-2009, 02:26 PM

http://www.anitamoncrief.blogspot.co...ility-for.html

Quote:

ACORN says that it will not apply for any of the stimulus money, and it probably wont; but some of the 204 organizations will. ACORN Housing, perhaps, or maybe ACORN Fair Housing? Reading ACORN’s 300+ page year end report is really enlightening.

Building Community Institutions and Resources

Our efforts are concentrated on housing counseling, housing development, media, and schools. We made continued progress in most areas in 2006 perhaps with the exception in schools, which separate reports will detail. Special note must be made of the progress in housing development, which continued to accelerate throughout the year especially in New Orleans and the expansion from New York’s experience.

You might be wondering know how much money ACORN could bring in from these endeavors, and the answer lies in the same report.

ACORN Fair Housing

Year End/Year Begin Report December 2006
Staff: Valerie Coffin, Director Maxine Vasquez, Research Assistant

Overall evaluation: Despite having a rather successful year with five simultaneous fair housing projects, we’re ending on a sour note by having problems with HUD to receive 3 of 6 grants we were originally awarded for the coming year. Continuing work will be done with testing and identification of fair housing issues as part of tenant campaigns in Los Angeles and work on insurance issues in various cities. Other areas of work including the annual lending study, and GIS/Mapping have had no major changes.

New grant applications- We were originally awarded five FY2006 FHIP grants totally $450,000 for projects in Louisiana, Maryland, Denver, Las Vegas, and New Mexico. Shortly afterwards we awarded an additional $100,000 for the 2005 application in Louisiana bringing the new grant total to $550,000. However, we have only negotiated three projects with HUD (NM & 2 LA) and are running into problems with the other three (CO, MD, NV) that appear to be a result of both local HUD incompetence and larger political motives. It is unclear if we will be able to save this funding.

Outlook for 2007

Three FHIP grants are entirely up in the air right now making it difficult to make too many definite plans other than fighting to maintain the funding that HUD already awarded us. It’s a reminder that we need to maintain tight record-keeping on federal-funded projects and offices awarded these grants need to take them very seriously.

Federal Funding: In 2006, we helped win grant awards for $912,378 in federal funding from HUD. Overall, we helped write and submit 13 federal grants to HUD for FY2006, four of which are still outstanding. With Valerie Coffin, Fair Housing Director, we helped raise $450,000 in FY2006 FHIP funding for fair housing education and outreach. This year New Orleans also received an additional $100,000 in new funding from reallocated FY2005 FHIP funding. In Dallas, the ACORN Institute received a ROSS grant for $362,378 over three years from reallocated FY2005 funds to provide services and training to public housing residents in that city. We have also continued to provide support on reporting and other requirements for approximately $4 million in LEAP grant funds (FY2004 and FY2005)

If one ACORN entity with two full time staff can aquire this much in Federal funding, I wonder what the other 203 ACORN organizations are doing?

In a year where the “nanny problem” has already been replaced by the “tax problem,” Democrats need to wake up from the after glow of the elections and look really hard at the liability that is ACORN. Republicans should take heed and hold these Dems accountable for their relationships with ACORN.

When does turning a blind eye to corruption turn into turning a blind eye towards the people?