After warning the city few months ago that it is at risk of losing 1.8 million dollars in federal housing aid from Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agency has acted: HUD has announced it will cut almost a million dollars of aid from Paterson, 835,000 dollars to be exact, reported a local paper.
The reason cited for the cut was the city’s lack of initiatives on spending the allotted funds. In the last few years, Paterson did not take any major effort to provide affordable housing for its residents.
The mayor, Jeffrey Jones, says the problem first begin with his predecessor, and he is not to blame for the recent developments.
Under the former mayor Jose Torres the agency fined the city 2.2m dollars for mismanagement of funds; in 2009-10 the agency took back 1.1m dollars from the city’s allotment.
It seems the agency is hell-bent on taking funds for past errors and mismanagement.