BMHA . . .CELEBRATING POVERTY

Yesterday's Ground Breaking at BMHA-Frederick Douglass Towers marked another
anniversary in the death of 'civil rights'. Attended by a virtual who's who
of politics, banks & developers, it was painfully ironic that such a costly,
unneeded project should occur in the name of Frederick Douglass, an early
hero of both civil rights & 'womens' lib'.

Gladys Holmes & Mary Johnson Boulevards Two streets were named after
BMHA-tenants who lived in poverty & died, or will die, in poverty. Holmes
moved into BMHA in 1952 & died in BMHA in 1997. Still living, Johnson moved
into Douglass Towers in 1960. The interesting question of whether her 22
grandchildren, 27 great G-children, & 3 great-great G-children escaped
poverty was not addressed. Obvious inversion of "welfare reform" by BMHA
isn't discussed. Buffalo's overwhelmingly low income, blue-collar population
lives in declining neighborhoods with plummeting housing values. They don't
even dream of living in a brand-new $150,000 townhouse carpeted thru out &
with new washers & dryers. All for 30% of net income, as low as $80/ month.
Poverty Way It hardly sends the traditional message of the 'American Dream' .
. .good education, work hard, save, & buy a house. That is all unnecessary at
BMHA. Just establish "poverty credentials" & one is set for life.
Politicians, developers, bankers & bureaucrats wine & dine the few 'select
poor" to leverage millions of poverty funds to build ever more "safe,
affordable, decent, low income housing" At $46 to $48 million, the Frederick
Douglass endeavor is certainly not affordable for taxpayers. To any informed
citizen it is a chilling message that a "worst governed city" (Governing
Magazine & Syracuse Univ./Maxwell School of Citizenship, Feb, 00) is spinning
ever-further the wrong way. The city now has 22, 854 vacant housing units,
2nd highest (exceeded only by Camden) percentage of any city in the
Northeast.

$5.2 Million heist . . .& Much More? Not to worry, BMHA is building even
more costly poverty units at West Side Lakeview Homes. The $76 million tab
provides Clinton-friend, Philadelphia-developer Israel Roizman a $6 million
developer fee. The units will cost taxpayers up to $1/4 million each. Nobody
locally has been told that Roizman's longtime comptroller Stuart Briefer was
arrested for stealing $5.2 million (Phila. Inquirer, 3/30/01). His lawyer
alleges that this revelation is just the tip of the iceberg of Roizman
irregularities. It has long been predicted that BMHA's "HOPE VI Project" will
become their biggest scandal ever. It is utterly absurd on its face. It is
allegedly a take-off on former HUD Secretary Kemp's proposal to replace
failed "high-rise warehouses for the poor" with economically diverse "normal"
housing. But 666 just-remodeled (cost $16 mil.) sturdy brick garden
apartments, the envy of many cities, will be demolished to build
jammed-together, flimsy particleboard & vinyl 2 & 3 story units.
"Masiello-Approved" SLUMS OF HOUSTON Both Douglass & HOPE VI are Buffalo's
costliest-ever poverty housing, as Masiello gave his blessing to Houston's
Scott Wizig's buying 100's of abandoned houses (for as low as $400 each).
Wizig then sells them, with minimal rehab, for $30,000. Masiello is reversing
decades of HUD rhetoric (safe, decent, affordable) with "selling slums to
unwitting poor, sending the profits to Houston".

Buffalo's Housing Policy is . . . NO POLICY The vacuum caused by massive
dis-investment in working class neighborhoods is being filled by a virtual
invasion by housing charlatans. Frank Parlato Jr. became nation-al poster boy
for the HUD-FHA scandal exposed in 1997. Seldom discussed in Buffalo, Parlato
profited $10 million in a dozen years, while fueling white flight, growing
foreclosures, & plummeting values. And all the while preparing the way for
more charlatans to follow his 'successful' model. But Parlato has not been
convicted of anything. A CBS documentary on HUD's FHA scandal featuring
Parlato did not even air locally. The latest FHA-scam by the King Brothers
(Chas. & Wm.), who were convicted in April, 2000, has not yet resulted in a
sentence. And questions about involvement in the scam by city hearing
officer & WSNHS V. Pres Greg Fina, Esq. remain unanswered. Meanwhile, we
discovered that BMHA Bd. member & Erie Co. Independence Party Chair Charlie
Flynn sold his 1st FHA-scam house.

Imitating Quintana, Flynn filed an 8-page "complaint" against me, alleging
that I harassed his children on my bicycle at his S. Buffalo home. The 8
pages were taken by ADA Drmacich, who has prosecuted me 10X, all charges
dismissed. Flynn's dubious history & conviction for "criminal tampering",
impersonating his boss (M. Kader) to have office electricity shut off after
being fired as Realtor in 1994, apparently do not bother Drmacich (or Frank
Clark) at all.

Absolutely No Photos!! Other new housing scammers, Venere Hutchinson &
girlfriend-partner Dana Upcher, hold $3 mil. of fraudulent mortgages on
dozens of cheap HUD houses. Hutchinson was due in Housing Court June 2 on 21
houses, but seeing a News photographer, he refused to attend court. His
hearing was postponed 4 * wks, as neither the recently-created Supervisor of
Slum & Blight (Frank DiJames) nor his boss, former-deputy mayor Ray McGurn,
has any plan to address slums or blight. In Buffalo, government is not
expected to work.

Richard Kern, MSW, June 16, 2001
www.Kernwatch.com (716)882-2388 email: Kernwatch@AOL.com