Editorial: To fix SAHA, hold leaders accountable
The tenants forced to do business with the housing authority because they cannot afford fair market rents deserve a more responsive and less cavalier attitude from housing management. The latest SAHA program to come under scrutiny is the lease-to-purchase program. Many of the problems are not new; they have been around for years. Calling for yet another investigation of SAHA practices is not going to solve the long, festering problems within this agency. The finger-pointing and blame game need to stop, and the top management team must be held accountable.

Editorial: To fix SAHA, hold leaders accountable 
02/24/2007
San Antonio Express-News

When is the San Antonio Housing Authority going to do right by the people it is supposed to be helping?

Audits and investigations into their practices are becoming so commonplace that SAHA Chief Executive Officer Henry Alvarez is no longer fazed by them. After the City Council's Urban Affairs Committee called for an independent investigation of the housing authority, Alvarez said he welcomed the probe.

"We've been investigated before," said Alvarez, according to Express-News housing writer Ron Wilson.

The tenants forced to do business with the housing authority because they cannot afford fair market rents deserve a more responsive and less cavalier attitude from housing management.

The latest SAHA program to come under scrutiny is the lease-to-purchase program.

Many of the problems are not new; they have been around for years. Calling for yet another investigation of SAHA practices is not going to solve the long, festering problems within this agency.

The finger-pointing and blame game need to stop, and the top management team must be held accountable.

At the committee's meeting earlier this month, Alvarez commented that buyers should have received full disclosure about the condition of their purchases from their inspector or lender.

That's absurd. What does he think his role is in all this? He is running a public agency, and his salary is paid by the taxpayers.

Alvarez isn't doing anyone any favors by selling unsuspecting, low-income homebuyers damaged goods.

He's been chief administrator at the housing authority for almost three years; he should have a better handle on the job.
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