Another reason why smaller government is often better...
...because after a certain size, you start losing things. And when that size gets a lot bigger, you start losing lots of bigger things. The dollars start adding up as the bean-counters start assessing the damage to governmental budgets.
The problem is that many ONLY think of the governmental budget, but what about the taxpayers that paid out all that money.....for nothing?
From CSNews:
D.C. Housing Authority Paid More Than $300K for Vacant Units
(CNSNews.com) -The District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) paid $322,389 in housing assistance payments for units where no one was living, according to a July 30, 2008 audit by the Philadelphia Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
According to the audit, the DCHA did not “adequately implement controls” to prevent its Moving to Work (MTW) program “from making assistance payments on vacant units.”
There are dedicated public employees that take "heat" for trying to do the right thing by taxpayers. Yet, this is more than a bit silly. A little itty-bitty database (heck, even an EXCEL spreadsheet) should be able to, at a very simplistic level, keep track of inventory: where, vacant/occupied, by whom, rental, subsidy.
In 2003, the DCHA was accepted into the MTW program, which was created by Congress in 1996. The HUD Web site says the D.C. Housing Authority manages approximately 7,784 public housing units and uses the MTW program to “develop enhanced housing opportunities” and to “sustain quality property management.”
The one thing that has become clear over the years is that massive public housing projects have been a bust. Why? No self-interest. If you don't own it, you won't keep a property in as great a condition than if you own it. Not the renters, and not the "mangers". Again, think of that age-old "commons" problem that is often summed up as "if everyone owns it, then nobody takes care of it."
Now, was all lost for the taxpayers? Whew - nope!
Under pressure from the audit procedure, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said the DCHA recovered $278,561 of the $322,389 it paid for vacant housing units. However, the inspector general also said the DCHA still needed to recover the remaining $43,828 in housing assistance payments related to the vacant units.
Uh-oh - find that little boy that said "I see dead people":
The DCHA said that in 69 of the 124 cases cited in the audit, the head of the household had died but children were still living on the premises. Therefore, they say payments for these 69 units were “eligible.”
...The DCHA also said it has identified a HUD database that it can use to find tenants who have deceased, so payments for vacant units are not made in the future.
Should we help people down on their luck or with no other family to take care of them? Absolutely! But I do have to wonder - how many of those "children" were actually children and not adult children that were then eligible? One does wonder....
