At the beginning of July, the mayor's office issued a request for proposals for a consultant "to assist with creating a plan for the development of affordable housing." The proposals were due a week ago, on August 3, but so far there has been no news of how many responses have been received or who is reviewing the responses. Since, according to the schedule proposed in the RFP, interviews with and presentations by the consultants who submitted proposals are supposed to be going on right now, I decided to find out what I could about the status of this initiative.
Remembering from my days on the Common Council that the city clerk logs in all responses to RFPs, I started there, figuring that, at the very least, I could find out how many proposals had been received. My inquiry was promptly answered, but I was told the city clerk did not have the information I sought, and I was advised to contact Peter Bujanow, commissioner for Public Works. I did but received no response. Since the RFP had originated in the mayor's office, I also contacted Michael Chameides, the mayor's aide. Again, no response.
Yesterday, the affordable housing development plan was on the agenda for the HCDPA (Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency) meeting. (HCPDA has been asked to contribute $5,000 toward the consultant's fee for the plan.) When asked about the status, Mayor Kamal Johnson, who serves ex officio on the HCDPA board, said he didn't know anything about the RFP but he didn't think they had gotten many proposals. He did announce that The Spark of Hudson wants to sign on as a partner and contribute $5,000 toward the consultant's fee.
COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK
From the sublime to the absurd: the mayor is trying, with the help it seems of a cadre of council members, to shove an unaffordable "affordable housing" project down the city's gullet while, at the same time (1) the statewide affordable housing expert pans the project's finances as weak and its rents as too high while offering no protections for the City, (2) the City can't keep track of its own RFP on this matter which is for (3) a study to determine how to properly develop affordable housing in the city.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't leadership; it's not even management. It's chaos in service of a single corporate welfare recipient.
Mr. Mayor: please explain why the City should commit to the Galvan proposal in light of both the bad report card it received and your own administration's present, after-the-fact attempts to hire a consultant to figure out if this idea is even in the City's best interests? The citizens deserve to hear it from you.
We have received 4 responses. Our DPW commissioner takes care of the request for proposals. This consultant has nothing to do with the 7th street project. I don't read this blog John unless someone brings it to my attention so when you are asking me questions I don't see them. I'm at 520 Warren st. and open to meet with you any time you want. ~Mayor Kamal Johnson
ReplyDeleteMayor, Thanks for your response. I have no interest in meeting one-on-one to discuss this. I simply would like to hear from you the answers to my questions above. How can Hudson justify putting the cart before the horse in such a longterm and fundamental way while simultaneously seek to retain a consultant to guide us in the precise matters the proposal claims to solve? If we know enough to adopt the proposed plan, why do we need the consultant? And, inversely, if we need the latter, how can we possibly approve the former? It doesn't seem logical to myself and many others. This is especially true in light of the failing report card the deal just received. Additionally, there have been many changes to the project from its location to its size to the renderings which seem to morph with each publication.
DeleteQ: Where do the 77 families currently live that theoretically will be housed there? Build it they will come? Just adding 77 cars to an already parking stressed neighborhood should make this project DOA.
ReplyDeleteWhen the housing authority was looking to build 70+ additional units last year (which they are once again) I asked repeatedly where these hundreds of people on the waiting lists were from ( I.e. were they local or not), and if there were duplications of names, as it would be expected that a person in search of an apartment would apply to multiple places. Nothing I asked for would invade anyone’s privacy. Was soundly refused. Because the numbers are pumped up via duplication. And if they won't tell thot, then it’s safe to assume a large number on their wait list are not local.
DeleteI think it’s a fair question to ask who the taxpayers of Hudson are being asked to support.
Delete