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HUD denies Southern Nevada's request for stimulus funds
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Southern Nevada requested $367 million in stimulus money from the federal government to help stem its crippling foreclosure crisis. It got nothing, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today.
“I am a little perplexed by the decision,” said Michael Pawlak, manager of Clark County’s Community Resources Department, which was to oversee the grant. “I thought we had a strong application and a strong demonstration of need. But, without having an understanding of what HUD based its decisions on, it’s hard to second guess them.”
In July, a consortium of Clark County, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Las Vegas requested $367 million, or nearly one in every five grant dollars available for the entire nation, to implement the second phase of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development initiative geared at putting families in foreclosed homes.
Unlike Southern Nevada, the Reno Housing Authority received $21 million. Other recipients included housing agencies in Florida, which shared $348 million, and agencies in California, which shared $318 million, according to HUD’s Web site.
Kenny Young, an official with the City of North Las Vegas’ Office of Housing and Neighborhood Services, said the county and cities will have to meet to determine the next step in addressing a problem that they say grows each month. More than 1,600 Southern Nevada homes fell into foreclosure in December alone.
Young said he was told that HUD received 482 grant applications, requesting a total of $15 billion. Only 56 applications made the cut, he said.
Local officials learned earlier this week that HUD Assistant Secretary Mercedes Marquez is coming to visit with them Friday, which some presumed was a good omen that the area qualified for a grant.
“Maybe they (HUD) thought things here were so bad that no amount of money would help us,” Young said. “We will have to regroup and see what comes out of the meeting with the assistant secretary.”
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In response to letram: No where did I state the grant writer should be fired for incompetence. I have been a grant writer for over 25 years and you are full of it saying it is not political. You are fooling yourself thinking that you are in control of making the grant decisions. It is all about who you know and how much power they have. Please don't think that the public is stupid.
Lizzie,
I've read your posts on the Sun and RJ forums regarding this issue stating we need to fire the grant writer for incompetence. As one who has participated in numerous committees to review grant proposals, and as a grant writer, I can tell you the process is anything but objective. In the majority of cases the awards are not based on what was stated in the proposal. Once the proposal passes the technical review the final decision is often based on geography, past funding, the perceived competency of the proposer, other extenuating curcumstances the writer can't know about and POLITICS!
Is Harry Reid really going to bring "green jobs" to Nevada?
I think it will be really hard for Harry to bring any green jobs to Nevada when Obama’s “Green Jobs” Go to Prison Slaves for .23 an hour.
http://www.infowars.com/obamas-green-jobs-go-to-prison-slaves/
....how can Harry bring more "green jobs" to Nevada when 22,000 “Green” Jobs Outsourced to India?
http://www.infowars.com/22000-green-jobs-outsourced-to-india/
OK all you democrates, tell me again why we need to keep reid in Washington and about all he does for the state of Nevada. In reality there are probably 2 reasons why Nevada didn't get the money. 1-It went instead, to the state of Nebraska, for Nelsons needed 60th vote, thanks Harry. 2-The feds thought it was just a thinly disguised method to obtain yet more funds to pay the ranson for the pseudo heroic firefighters of the city and county.