Developing the District
In her Feb. 19 front-page article, "HUD Loses Faith in Housing Program," Carol D. Leonnig misstated and omitted facts. In six months, the Church Association for Community Service renovated and sold 21 homes with happy homeowners. More than 80 percent of these homes were sold to low- to moderate-income families at affordable prices.</br></br>Despite the efforts of midlevel Housing and Urban Devlopment officials, the Bush administration looked beyond partisan politics, saw the merits of the project and allowed it to move forward. Otherwise, 21 new homeowners and 14 soon-to-be homeowners would not own a home, and there would be 300 boarded-up houses in Washington instead of 265. This project is proof that faith-based solutions do work. Also, we applaud D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams's support for affordable housing, including this project.</br></br>Ms. Leonnig misstated information on the fees earned by our company and by the Church Association. GLM will be paid only its costs plus a 10 percent fee. GLM has yet to recover its costs, and the Church Association has poured all of the money back into the project.</br></br>We are the only African American and self-sustained Asset Control Area Agreement operating with HUD. Also, we are the most cost- effective agreement; others received sizable grants. We hope race is not the issue here, but we wonder. Ultimately, we rest our case on results -- 21 sold and 14 under contract -- completed in six months.</br></br>The Post articles on District community development corporations [front page, Feb. 24 and 25] overlooked the tremendous contributions that CDCs have made to neighborhoods that others, including the private sector, had long since written off.