{"id":288,"date":"2019-05-31T11:49:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T11:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/?p=288"},"modified":"2019-05-31T13:20:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T13:20:50","slug":"audit-bowser-administration-awarded-millions-to-developers-with-low-ranking-proposals-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/288\/","title":{"rendered":"Audit: Bowser administration awarded millions to developers with low-ranking proposals – The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/dc-politics\/audit-bowser-administration-awarded-millions-to-developers-with-low-ranking-proposals\/2019\/05\/30\/57c17368-82f7-11e9-bce7-40b4105f7ca0_story.html?noredirect=…<\/a>
\nAudit: Bowser administration awarded millions to developers with low-ranking proposals Fenit Nirappil
\nD.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser Bowser speaks at a seminar Thursday at the new Washington Mystics arena in Southeast Washington. (John McDonnell\/The Washington Post) The administration of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) awarded tens of millions of dollars to affordable housing developers even though evaluators scored their proposals poorly, according to an audit released Thursday.
\nBowser last year awarded $103 million for nine housing projects. But the audit found five of those winners ranked in the bottom half of 20 applicants, including the two lowest-scoring proposals.
\nIn doing so, the Bowser administration passed over five higher-ranking proposals that would have created an extra 353 affordable housing units, including 95 for the city\u2019s poorest residents, according to D.C. Auditor Kathleen Patterson. Those five projects ultimately received funding in March as part of a later award cycle.
\nThe new report is the latest to question how the District spends hundreds of millions from the Housing Production Trust Fund, the primary tool for addressing a dire shortage of affordable housing in a rapidly gentrifying city.. Bowser has made the fund the centerpiece of her housing strategy and has lobbied the D.C. Council to expand the fund.
\nThe council increased the annual contribution to the trust fund to $116 million in the budget it passed this week, short of the $130 million sought by Bowser.
\n[Read the full audit and DHCD response here]
\n\u201cIncreasing the number and type of affordable housing is a very important priority,\u201d Patterson said in an interview. \u201cWe are simply not doing this if we are funding projects that don\u2019t meet all the requirements or don\u2019t meet the requirements in the best way possible.\u201d
\nPolly Donaldson, who has final say about which projects are funded as head of the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, said there are valid reasons for the officials to fund low-ranking projects.
\n\u201cThe panel\u2019s scores may not take the bird\u2019s-eye view of the whole portfolio and consider what would be most effective and efficient, in combination and in line with the administration\u2019s priorities and needs across the city,\u201d Donaldson wrote in a letter to auditors.
\nDonaldson refused to provide the auditor\u2019s office with documentation that detailed the decision to choose the lower-scored projects.
\nHer letter noted that an unexpected availability of housing vouchers \u2014 which are included in trust fund awards as a way to house the city\u2019s poorest residents \u2014 changed the feasibility of projects reviewed by the auditor.
\n[D.C. statehood to receive first House hearing in 25 years]
\nDonaldson also said written proposals may not reflect a developer\u2019s ability to deliver housing units, and that city officials should have discretion to consider past experiences with developers.
\nThe housing proposals that won despite low scores include Anacostia Gardens Apartments, Petworth Station, Mary\u2019s House and complexes at 1100 Eastern Avenue Northeast and 3500 East Capitol Street NE. All five development firms or their executives have given campaign contributions to Bowser, records show.
\nThe Department of Housing and Community Development refused to provide the D.C. auditor with a host of documents relating to how the housing projects were evaluated and selected, even after the auditor\u2019s office took the rare step of issuing a subpoena. Donaldson said the documents should be private because they relate to \u201cdeliberative process,\u201d although the auditor\u2019s office has broad powers from Congress to receive documents on the operations of city government.
\nAuditors were able to obtain the documents through other means.
\n\u201cI wouldn\u2019t hesitate to go to court if it was necessary,\u201d Patterson said.
\nThursday\u2019s report follows earlier audits that found the city poorly managed the fund and tapped housing dollars for unrelated purposes, such as window frosting and gym equipment for the housing agency\u2019s office..
\nBowser declined to answer questions about the latest audit at an event Thursday morning, saying she hadn\u2019t seen it.
\nJohn Falcicchio, the mayor\u2019s chief of staff, said Donaldson \u201chas the authority and the responsibility to make decisions about how best to create and preserve affordable housing. We have full confidence in her ability to do so.\u201d
\n[After heated fight, D.C. decides to swap Banneker, Shaw school sites]
\nCouncil Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said he hadn\u2019t read the audit as of Thursday afternoon, but was troubled that the housing agency refused to comply with the auditor\u2019s subpoena and suggested such a move may be \u201ccontrary to law.\u201d
\nThe auditor \u201chas very broad authority to access all documents,\u201d said Mendelson.
\nPatterson recommended lawmakers pass legislation that would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to publicly release documents relating to the selection of affordable housing projects.
\nCouncil member Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) has already introduced a bill to that effect.
\n\u201cWe need to understand why projects receive dollars and why projects didn\u2019t for this critical program,\u201d said Silverman. \u201cIf we are not following the scoring, then why are we having a competitive bid process at all?\u201d
\nRead more:
\nClients of D.C. lawmaker Jack Evans had interests before government
\nBrandon Todd reprimanded for campaign finance violations
\nLots of money, but few bold initiatives in D.C. budget
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Mary Bolton 202-390-1208<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/dc-politics\/audit-bowser-administration-awarded-millions-to-developers-with-low-ranking-proposals\/2019\/05\/30\/57c17368-82f7-11e9-bce7-40b4105f7ca0_story.html?noredirect=… Audit: Bowser administration awarded millions to developers with low-ranking proposals Fenit Nirappil D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser Bowser speaks at a seminar Thursday at the new Washington Mystics arena in Southeast Washington. (John McDonnell\/The Washington Post) The administration of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) awarded tens of millions of dollars to affordable housing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housingarchive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}