BHA executive director takes issue with 'squalid' label

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in Opinion

Friday, May 29. 2009

Comments (23)

Dear Walter,

This letter is in response to your use of the words “squalid public housing” in your last weeks’ edition of The Herald Gazette. What did you see when covering the story that made you think it was squalid?

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#1 HMMM on 05/29/09 at 03:06 PM

Can you publish a link to the story she is referring to?
I read weekly but do not remember the story.

#2 Walter Geiger on 05/29/09 at 03:18 PM

it was the story about the big drug raid. front page of 5.19 e-edition/print edition.

#3 Anonymous on 05/29/09 at 08:21 PM

Thank you for the information, Patty. I'm sure there are always improvements to be made to every aspect of our community, but you have a tough job to do, and we appreciate your commitment and pride in your work. It's so nice to see someone who sees the best in those who need a helping hand!

#4 Anonymous on 05/29/09 at 10:28 PM

Go Patty!

#5 Tony.T on 05/29/09 at 11:04 PM

Way to go Patty!Doctors,lawers,nurses & teachers!That shows with the help of people like you even good,know GREAT can come out of bad.

#6 WI John Galt on 05/30/09 at 12:24 PM

Walter,

Shame on you for insulting our HUD community (HUD community is Ms Henry’s term not mine)!

It is amazing to me how government bureaucrats can be so easily offended when their government give-away programs are questioned and/or challenged. HUD, not unlike the public schools, is a failed model but a vote getter for certain political groups. Remember Maynard Jackson’s last run for Mayor of Atlanta, he saturated the radio airwaves with an ad in which a HUD resident said the following, “vote for Maynard Jackson because he will not forget us that live in public housing (paraphrased)”.

I do not know Ms Henry, I do not know where her taxpayer subsidized office might be but I’ll bet a steak dinner I can drive around Barnesville and point out HUD housing without any difficulty.

Ms Henry should publish for the public record the hidden-cost per Lamar County citizen that HUD requires to maintain the HUD community in Lamar County. I find it instructive that government bureaucrats rarely discuss the cost to taxpayers when discussing their little political fiefdoms.

Recall June 20, 2006 edition of the Herald-Gazette. Headlines were as follows: $16,604,253: DFACS pumps big bucks into Lamar.

At that time that was a hidden tax of nearly $1000.00 on every man, woman and child in Lamar County. What about subsequent years, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009?

So if Ms Henry wants to defend the HUD community, she should tell us how much it cost per year so the taxpayers of Lamar County can understand the true of cost this very costly program.

I would strongly suggest it would be more cost-effective on every governmental level to give the money to Habitat for Humanity and let them build the houses and give them to the needy with one simple caveat, it is yours to keep and maintain, don’t come back to the taxpayers of another dime!

Walter, Ms Henry’s objection notwithstanding, I agree with your article!!!

#7 Sheila Tolley on 05/30/09 at 02:52 PM

Amen! You will post those facts for us, won't you Patty?

#8 Anonymous on 05/30/09 at 07:42 PM

apartment residents get screened too. Some complexes are nastier than others. Some are extrememly nice and dont put up with any crap and some just let everything go as long as the rent isnt more than 12 days late.
I can ride around and take pics of stuff that makes the housing authority and projects degrading. Ill even post up a link so that you and everyone else can click on it and see it or copy and paste if you want me to.

#9 Anonymous on 05/31/09 at 07:36 PM

and the crowd goes silent... aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

#10 Anonymous on 06/01/09 at 07:21 AM

SINCE YOU ALL ARE EAGER TO PUT DOWN PUBLIC HOUSING, LETS SEE YOUR DEGRADING PICTURES, WHO KNOWS THE PICTURES YOU TAKE MAY NOT EVEN BE PUBLIC HOUSING. YOU ALL ACT LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER HAD A DOWN MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE??? IF YOU HAVE WHAT DID YOU DO, MOVE BACK HOME WITH MOM AND DAD AND LET THEM TAKE CARE OF YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN??? SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT TO PROUD TO ADMIT WHEN THEY NEED HELP, SO WHAT IF IT IS A PUBLIC PROGRAM, DOES ANYONE OF YOU RECEIVE FOOD STAMPS OR MEDICAID/PEACHCARE???? IF SO, THEN THESE ARE PUBLIC PROGRAMS, SO WHATS YOUR OPINION KNOW???????????

#11 Enoc Siuol on 06/01/09 at 12:14 PM

You know I hear this kind of egotistical garbage all the time when someone want to feel superior because they have a job and are able to stay a pay check or two a head of the repo-man. The numbers show that 80% of all Americans nation wide have very little financial reserve to keep them a float if they run into a problem that hits them hard in the pocketbook. Many have money problems of no fault of their own. All it takes is a serious injury or illness.
I don’t see how anybody with any kind of ambition would want to stay in Lamar County and try to earn enough money to support even a family of two much less of four or more. Lamar County over the last several decades has had no significant population increase because there is nothing here to allow anyone to have even a modest standard of living. Unless you were born into a local family that is already well established, to be able to live in Lamar you have to work elsewhere. I commute 800 miles a week in order to have a job that’s even worth my time or effort.
The jobs that are in Lamar Co., the local workers have to compete with the skilled labor of the five surrounding counties. I just wonder how many new high school grads will choose to try to make a living in this county. All one has to do is to look at the weekly blotter the local law enforcement agencies issue to know that there is something seriously wrong in this neck of the woods.
So far in life, I have done very well financially, and I had to leave this place to do so. I probably pay more in taxes that most people in Lamar County make and I don’t mind it going to those who have problems find a place to live. A helping hand up is an investment in the future for all and more than anything else……..it’s the right thing to do, Christian or not.

#12 Sheila Tolley on 06/01/09 at 01:02 PM

See and answer comment 6.1 in reference to comment 6.

#13 Anonymous on 06/01/09 at 03:33 PM

In my previous work endeavors, I frequently had to enter the abodes of these renters. It makes me sick to see some of these renters paying nothing to live in these apartments. They have no sense of ownership in these properties and they don't seem to care if they destroy it. I'LL STRESS, NOT EVERYONE IS LIKE THIS. IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY THIS YOU MUST BE ONE OF THOSE I AM REFERRING TO. Many of the residents lived in filth and then complained about roaches. If you clean up, they will not be that big of a problem. Have you ever seen one of these apartments that the blinds were not destroyed. Do taxpayers pay for these?

#14 Sheila Tolley on 06/01/09 at 05:46 PM

You are a lying Idiot. Go kill roaches for them. No one has said anything about poor people. They are speaking of LAZY people. The government should just give everyone's money back who have paid taxes all their life. Good folks like you will look after the rest of the world, won't you. I was about to let you get on my nerves. How silly. I know now that you are just a backward spelling your name person who does not even believe what comes out of your own mouth. God feeds the birds of the air but he does not throw the food in their nest. They keep their own nest clean.

#15 Anonymous on 06/01/09 at 06:53 PM

hey 7.1 There is nothing wrong with getting some assistance until things get back right for you. How you carry yourself while you are in this time is important also. Just because the projects are the projects doesnt mean that the majority of them have to live up to the stereotype that we all know them as. They have a bad name for a reason. If the citizens that live there would report foolishness more often and refuse to have their children and grandchildren grow up in and around drug activity and filthiness it would increase the little bit of respect the place has as a whole. It would be nice for ppl in the surrounding counties to know that the BHA dont allow all the same crap to go on that the other HA allow.

#16 Dana on 06/01/09 at 09:10 PM

Who built this "squalid public housing"

We should go after the builder, anyone who would build such trashy places should be band from building in the future.

Or is this a building issue????

#17 Enoc Siuol on 06/02/09 at 05:21 AM

I can always tell when someone feels guilty about what they say because they usually resort to character assignation. I didn’t get on your nerves, I got on your conscience and that made you feel uncomfortable. Yes, good folks will take care of the rest of the world because we know we are our brother’s keeper.
I get this right wing (what’s mine is mine and you get your own) regurgitation from the very folks who clam to be God’s people. They seem to forget the teachings of Christ once they leave the pew. Yes, I struggle with it myself and have to live my life everyday seeking a higher vision in order to stay focused on what really matters.
I am well aware of the insane dysfunctional cycle people find themselves caught up in and we should all do what we can to help break this pattern which affects us all. It doesn’t take a psychologist to figure out that Christ was a socialist. How this gets integrated into a capitalist society is a cross that we must all bare in our own way.
Could you please allow me a little professional courtesy on my pen name? Thanks a bunch.

Take care,
Enoc Siuol

#18 Sheila Tolley on 06/02/09 at 09:05 AM

Sure Louis. You are delusional. You are not Jesus. You can stick this Socialist and Capitalist crap anywhere that it fits. I was brought up on the poor side of the tracks. My Dad got on a bus and left when I was three. Never said bye. It became my brother's job, he was seven to look after my sister and me. I started working in my neighbors garden when I was five. My mother worked in a textile mill at night and sharecropped for food from the neighbor to feed us children and pay the bills. I lied about my age to get a work permit when I was 14 to go to work in a peach packing plant. I have put in my time, my friend. We took turns carrying water from our neighbors house for drinking and bathing. I was taught to take care of things that belong to other people and my few possessions, THE HARD WAY. You can continue to pity the ones who don't care and I will continue to be an example to people who want to improve.

#19 Anonymous on 06/02/09 at 12:27 PM

Thank you, it seems that we are on the same page. It is primarily up to the residents to report such activities that is going on, the people that work at the HA can't be the overseer 24/7, they have home lives that they must attend to as well. The residents need to take responsibility for their own actions as well as the actions of their children and guest. They must first take pride in themselves and the community they live in. In my own personal opinion, the HA is not a bad place to start or due to financial constraints is not a bad place to resort back to if necessary. As far as I know, they provide Pest control every month, lawn care every month and they have a 24/7 maintenance staff. On top of that some of their properties even have central heat and air. To me, if I were to become down on my luck, this would be a place I would not be ashamed to resort back to and get a fresh start.

#20 Anonymous on 06/02/09 at 12:33 PM

First of all Dana, I think that you need to look the word Squalid up in Webster's Dictionary to see what the meaning is along with Walter. I would not use this term for the BHA, this term is more suitable the three duplexes that are at the beginning of Parkview Drive from Twelfth Street (run down, falling down, nasty looking properties). This compared to BHA is no comparison at all!

#21 Anonymous on 06/02/09 at 12:40 PM

Well said, you can always no matter what tell the guilty ones.

#22 Enoc Siuol on 06/03/09 at 06:35 AM

Shelia,

It’s admirable that you should choose to live your life as an example, just as I do. To have a Mother who loved you so that she worked relentlessly to provide and to have a brother, who at such a young age, had what it took to step up to what was required was such a blessing in your life. All the adversity you faced and with the character to overcome, as well as, those who gave of themselves obviously made you who you are today. For that, I’m sure you have much gratitude. Although, what I hear projected in your comments is anger, which is merely an attempt to make others feel guilty for what they have yet to overcome themselves.
You are very correct when you said, “You are not Jesus”, although; I am who I am as a result of what he brought into this world. Christ said the number one commandment was to love they neighbor as thyself and he also said to love each other as I have loved you. I’m just trying to do this myself. If you feel I am delusional, well what can I say? There is only one way to find the inner peace we all seek in this life and that is to forgive to the point of nonjudgment and to love in the way Christ taught us to. Once you can do this you find that nothing else really matters.

Warmest regards,
Louis

#23 Dana on 06/03/09 at 06:38 PM

I was just trying to find out if the problem was with the buildings or occupants?

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