Housing situation still uncertain

After weeks of confusion following an uproar at an unofficial Rockville Centre Housing Authority meeting last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has given the authority’s board of trustees instructions on how to proceed.

The housing authority and its chairman, Gary Kondor, came under fire after the removal of two board members, Cynthia Fielder-Boyd and Herbert Coleman, both tenant representatives of the Old Mill Court complex. Kondor and the board dismissed the trustees last month, after the authority’s executive director, Jamie Morrison, received a letter from HUD stating that the election of Coleman and Fielder-Boyd could not be approved.

According to federal law, membership of the governing board of a public housing agency must include at least one resident member who is eligible to receive direct assistance from the agency. Previously, residents of Old Mill Court qualified, but after state and federal agencies began running out of money to subsidize the complex, Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) wrote legislation that re-mortgaged the Old Mill Court property by offering tax credits to organizations that donated money to keep the authority afloat. This effectively privatized Old Mill Court, allowing it to remain low-income housing but removing all HUD subsidies.

HUD still subsidizes Rockville Manor — the second complex overseen by the housing authority — so, according to federal law, the housing authority board needed at least one elected representative from that facility. In a letter dated Aug. 1, however, HUD officials notified Morrison that the housing authority would be exempt from the requirement if, after 30 days, no Rockville Manor tenants expressed interest in joining the board as a tenant representative.

HUD also directed the authority to seek legal counsel to ensure the validity of the election of Fielder-Boyd and Coleman under state law, which calls for the board to have five members. The board, which creates policies for the financial and personnel management of the Old Mill Court and Rockville Manor complexes, now has seven members — five of whom are appointed, according to state law, by the mayor of the village, and two of whom are elected, according to federal law, by tenants of HUD-subsidized housing.

“We’re waiting for the state’s decision,” said Kondor, who added that the authority is scheduled to meet to discuss the issue on Aug. 21. “We’re getting some clarity, but there’s still a little confusion in the end.”

Kondor, who has found himself stuck between byzantine regulations and indignant residents, said he hopes to clear up the issue as soon as possible, but he added that the contradictory mandates from the state and HUD have made it almost impossible to understand what it is he and the board are actually supposed to do.

“We’ve got to figure out what the problem is, then we’ll address it,” Kondor said. “[But] I don’t see this being resolved this month.”

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