Thread: Million-Dollar Wasteland: A Washington Post Investigation

Million-Dollar Wasteland: A Washington Post Investigation

A trail of stalled or abandoned HUD projects

By Debbie Cenziper and Jonathan Mummolo, Published: May 14

The federal government’s largest housing construction program for the poor has squandered hundreds of millions of dollars on stalled or abandoned projects and routinely failed to crack down on derelict developers or the local housing agencies that funded them.

Nationwide, nearly 700 projects awarded $400 million have been idling for years, a Washington Post investigation found. Some have languished for a decade or longer even as much of the country struggles with record-high foreclosures and a dramatic loss of affordable housing.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees the nation’s housing fund, has largely looked the other way: It does not track the pace of construction and often fails to spot defunct deals, instead trusting local agencies to police projects.

The result is a trail of failed developments in every corner of the country. Fields where apartment complexes were promised are empty and neglected. Houses that were supposed to be renovated are boarded up and crumbling, eyesores in decaying neighborhoods.

In Inglewood, Calif., a sprawling, overgrown lot two blocks from city hall frustrates senior citizens who were promised a state-of-the-art housing complex more than four years ago. Although the city invested $2 million in HUD funds, the developer doesn’t have the financing to move forward.

In Newark, two partially completed duplexes sit empty in a neighborhood blighted by boarded-up homes lost to foreclosure. The city paid nearly $400,000 to build the houses, but after a decade of delays, the developer folded and never finished. The money has not been repaid.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/invest...h3G_story.html

This is what they are doing with our money. Obama talks about shared sacrifice? For what, this? When times are tough like they are right now, average folks like us must sacrifice things we like for what we need. I did, I cut the cable, high speed internet and even the HD TV got sold. Try to tell that to liberal Democrats that want to raise your taxes for junk like the above. They take your hard earned money, flush it down the commode, then have the unmitigated gall to come back and tell you they are going to raise your taxes because they need MORE! Nov 2012 is coming, it's your chance to tell the big spending Democrats in Washington, "Hey pal, you'll get no more from me till you fix the waste, fraud and abuse", like the above. They are spending your great grand kids into slavery to the debt created today.

Originally Posted by Professor Peabody

This is what they are doing with our money. Obama talks about shared sacrifice? For what, this? When times are tough like they are right now, average folks like us must sacrifice things we like for what we need. I did, I cut the cable, high speed internet and even the HD TV got sold.

Sorry to hear things are tough for you.

Nov 2012 is coming, it's your chance to tell the big spending Democrats in Washington, "Hey pal, you'll get no more from me till you fix the waste, fraud and abuse", like the above. They are spending your great grand kids into slavery to the debt created today.

And replace the big-spending Dems with big-spending Republicans? Or do you think things will be different this time around, that maybe people have had enough?

Originally Posted by Doug_yvr

Sorry to hear things are tough for you.

And replace the big-spending Dems with big-spending Republicans? Or do you think things will be different this time around, that maybe people have had enough?

2001 when Bush took over with a Republican controlled Congress the Cumulative National debt was $4.02 trillion dollars when the Democrats took over Congress in 2007 it was $5.0 trillion dollars. When Obama took over with a Democrat Congress in 2009 the Cumulative National Debt was $7.4 trillion dollars, now in 2011 it's $14+ trillion. The Democrats took Congress in 2007, from 2000 till then the Cumulative National debt rose $1 trillion. Once the Democrats took over Congress with a Republican President the Cumulative National Debt rose $2.4 trillion dollars and since the Democrats took the White House and had a Democrat Congress in 2009 the Cumulative National debt rose from $7.545 Trillion to over $14+ trillion in 31 months. What can I say, those are the numbers, compiled from the Office of Budget Management by USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/econom...terstitialskip

Additionally, when the Democrats took control of the Congress in 2007 debt as a percentage of GDP was 36.2%. Today it is 63.6% and projected to be 68.6% for 2011.

If the Republicans are overspenders, they overspend a whole lot less then than the Democrats do.

Peabody, you never look at the bright side. Everyone one of those projects involved kickbacks and "contributions" which were a major stimulus to the economy. No politicians or federal bureaucrats cut off cable televsion.

Originally Posted by PatrickT

Peabody, you never look at the bright side. Everyone one of those projects involved kickbacks and "contributions" which were a major stimulus to the economy. No politicians or federal bureaucrats cut off cable televsion.

I guess I was just being pessimistic.

Originally Posted by PatrickT

Peabody, you never look at the bright side. Everyone one of those projects involved kickbacks and "contributions" which were a major stimulus to the economy. No politicians or federal bureaucrats cut off cable televsion.

Like this one?

D.C. Current | SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2010

Our Tough-Luck President

By JIM MCTAGUE | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Solyndra, a key to White House's green-energy policy, pulls public offering due to an auditor's fear that it might not remain a going concern.

You've never heard of Solyndra? That's strange, because it was supposed to be the cornerstone of Obama's vaunted green-energy future, but now is a king-size political embarrassment. Solyndra, recipient of a $535 million Department of Energy loan guarantee, last month cancelled a $300 million initial public offering because auditor PricewaterhouseCoooper said its operating losses and negative cash flow raise doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern. Ouch!

It gets worse for Obama. When he toured Solyndra's Fremont, Calif., factory in May, he gushed that the company was "leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future."

MORE EMBARRASSING, SOLYNDRA was the first recipient of a loan guarantee under the dual auspices of the Recovery Act and Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The Department of Energy noted the loan guarantee was the first it had issued since the 1980s. On Sept. 4, 2009, the day of the award, Vice President Joe Biden crowed that it was "part of the unprecedented investment this Administration is making in renewable energy, and exactly what the Recovery Act is all about." DOE Secretary Steven Chu called it "part of a broad, aggressive effort to spark a new industrial revolution that will put Americans to work, end our dependence on foreign oil and cut carbon pollution."

Taxpayers are on the hook for $390.5 million—73% of the loans. Some observers questioned the wisdom of the government's deal from the start, saying the company was an inefficient, high-cost producer.

One of Solyndra's biggest stakeholders is Argonaut Ventures I. Its majority owner is Oklahoma oil billionaire George Kaiser, who was a "bundler"of campaign funds for the Obama-Biden campaign. This means he collected contributions and sent them en masse to the candidates. Kaiser e-mailed us an emphatic "NO" when we asked if he played any role in the pursuit of the loan guarantees.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB...133405348.html

Frankly, I don't believe Mr Billionaire. To me it looks like a giant money laundering scheme. The article goes further....

WILL THE EXTRA LAYER OF bureaucracy help Chu protect taxpayers? Well, this month, the DOE awarded loan guarantees to Abengoa Solar, part of Abengoa, a Spanish outfit whose U.S. shares (ticker: ABGOY) trade in the pink sheets, and Abound, a Colorado-based photovoltaic-film maker.

Abengoa Solar got $1.45 billion in guarantees to build plants in California and Arizona. Its profits depend heavily on subsidies from the government of economically troubled Spain.

Abound Solar received a $400 million grant to ramp up production of cadmium telluride photovoltaic panels. Here's a coincidence: Russ Kanjorski, nephew of Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski, is a marketing executive at Abound, which got a $3 million federal grant in 2008. He previously had been a principal of Cornerstone Technologies, which got $9.2 million in earmarks from Kanjorski and then went bankrupt. A spokesman for Abound says Russ Kankorski had no role in the loan-guarantee negotiations.

Like I said, in my opinion it looks like a giant money laundering scheme. The public needs to remember that we are on the hook for all those loan guarantees when Obama proposes "another" stimulus of the same garbage.

Obama said "leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future." For who? I'll let you decide if these were investments worthy of our tax dollars. Then you'll know what to do Nov 2012.

Nailed it didn't I.