City’s Housing Director should be fired
January 12th, 2011 | 
Author: I’ve been patient both on this blog, on Facebook, in private emails and in person trying to explain how low income housing projects can’t generate enough tax revenue to offset the cost of supporting the residents. I’ve gone on to explain what level of market rate development Trenton needs to achieve self-sufficiency. I’ve made specific recommendations. I’ve even started a citizen’s budget group to work with the Mayor and City Council on the budget and revitalization.
Our Mayor and his housing director, Henrietta Owusu, don’t care about any of that.
They’ve not only approved a giant HOPE VI government housing effort that is sucking up our most valuable land into a low income project but now they’ve approved the sale of 36 homes to a low income housing developer for $1 apiece. This is the kind of project I’ve specifically warned them against.
Furthermore, after some careful sleuthing by a citizen activist it turns out the developer is engaging in “Pay to Play” with the Mayor.
Ms. Owusu has now officially made an enemy. Her job is revitalizing Trenton and she doesn’t know what she’s doing and in fact is doing the opposite. We don’t really need to fire her, just put her in a position where she can do no more harm. I recommend City Council not approving her for any new position. The Mayor is a more difficult situation.
At some point activists need to stop trying to play nice and get mean. I don’t know how long I can stay relatively nice.
More articles about this mess:
- Kevin Moriarty’s Blog: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
- Trentonian Article #1: In Trenton, 36 houses or lots to sell for $1 each
- Trentonian Article (LA Parker): 36 for $36 is good deal for developer, bad news for Trenton
- Trenton Times Article: Questions surround $6,000 campaign donation to Mack
- My previous blog on this: Discipline and Focus – Learning to say “NO”
- Trentonian Article #3: Trenton Mayor Tony Mack’s campaign got $6,000 from outfit linked to developer in $36 land deal (DOCUMENTS)
Posted in Real Estate Development | 
Tags: City Council, Henrietta Owusu, HOPE VI, Low income housing, Mayor, NJ, Trenton
Very well put! You are so right; this scheme just smells bad. There is no other way to put it. Thanks to the snow, we now have a week to speak out loudly against this project. Stay warm. See you soon. PHS
If someone from on high is not watching, we need to make them watch! This kind of BS needs to be stopped. I suggest we start contacting the Gov’s office on a daily basis with all of this information and try to get this theif out of office.