Demolition Man: Either Gahan lied about the NAHA "memorandum of understanding" from 2017, or he lied to Mark Elrod Tower residents in 2019. Which is it?

On April 2, 2019 a discombobulated chihuahua on Zoloft -- also known as Mayor Jeff Gahan -- informed a group of public housing residents at the Mark Elrod Tower that he was the greatest public housing mayor in the city's history.

In which Deaf Gahan asks: “Okay, what’s the ISSUE with Riverview? Do you KNOW people who live over there? I mean, WHY are we talking about Riverview?”

These are exact quotes, by the way.

We have 1,187 (public housing) units, which is more than anyone in Clark County, any five counties combined, we have more than anyone, and we’re going to keep – that’s the way it’s going to stay, with more opportunities to live here in New Albany than any other place, but what we won’t put up with is sub-standard housing. It’s not, we’re going to make it better, make improvements, and you know I, I feel great about it, and you all should be too – I think you all should be really thrilled about it.

And this:

In the city of New Albany we have 1,187 units, and for many years you had to go through this period where at the federal government they were kind of turning the screws and they weren’t putting the maintenance money that they needed to maintain the properties down here, so, we knew we needed some maintenance done but it didn’t really get down here like we wanted it to, and that trend is continuing, uh, the latest budget they’re pushing for has a 16% reduction in funds for housing and urban development. So we’re still committed to making this, everything, every unit, the top flight, and we’re going to continue to do that, and I can tell you that’s going to happen, uh, we’re taking every step that we can possibly make to make sure that every unit is as good as it can possibly be.

If you're a rational individual favoring logic, and knew nothing else about the recent history of public housing in New Albany, these comments could be read in no other way than as an enthusiastic commitment to improve and maintain 1,187 public housing units in New Albany.

What's more, nothing else Gahan said to these senior citizens during 25 minutes of often disassociated rambling contradicts this conclusion. At no point did he mention demolitions or reductions, only "exciting" and "cool" things he's doing to ensure the future of public housing.

And yet in 2017, when Gahan abruptly seized the New Albany Housing Authority, he stacked NAHA's board with groveling sycophants, blocked then-director Bob Lane's 1:1 rejuvenation plans and putsch-started a process ending with the installation of redevelopment commission bag man David Duggins as NAHA director (gifting Duggins with a substantial pay raise to perform a job for which he had absolutely no experience), and he did so with no mention whatever of caring for 1,187 units.

Rather, Gahan's monotonous droning was accompanied by a soundtrack of queued bulldozers purring. Public housing was to be downsized by MORE than half, and displaced residents equipped with vouchers for non-existent rental housing before cattle cars shipped them to Outer Greenville.

The News and Tribune's typically tortuous and poorly worded editorial of March 11, 2017 at least managed to clarify the central point of Gahan's hostile public housing takeover.

On Monday, the New Albany Housing Authority board will consider a plan, brought forth by Mayor Jeff Gahan’s administration, to tear down an estimated 635 of New Albany’s 1,100 units. Those units affected would include Parkview Tower, Parkview Terrace/Broadmeade, Vance Court and Riverside Terrace.

There was an agenda delay owing to an illness suffered by public housing Bob Lane, allowing Gahan to share his "perspective" about social engineering in a column that wasn't entirely robotic, suggesting he almost surely didn't write it.

GAHAN: Public housing plan will improve the community (April 22, 2017)

On Monday, the NAHA will consider a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City and NAHA. This MOU establishes a multi-year plan through which the City and NAHA will work together to revitalize public housing in New Albany. The plan establishes a partnership between the City and NAHA to improve our community for all people.

This plan is not radical, mean-spirited or punitive. No public housing resident will be left homeless. The units that are slated for demolition are in such poor condition that it is not practical or responsible to repair them. Contrary to media accounts, we intend to rebuild a portion of the unfit units that will be demolished. While there will be fewer traditional public housing units once the plan is complete, NAHA will provide support to the same number of people as it does now, but the mix of subsidies and NAHA-owned units will change. This plan does not mean the City or NAHA is turning its back on our commitment to public housing.

Two days later the memorandum of force-fed disruption was approved by the stacked housing board, and a short time thereafter Lane was served with his walking papers.

Board opts for New Albany's public housing vision, passes plan, by Elizabeth Beilman

Plan calls for demolition, rehab of public housing units

NEW ALBANY — The New Albany Housing Authority Board of Commissioners initiated the first step Monday in embarking on a plan to demolish and rehabilitate hundreds of public housing units ... the board's move strays from recommendations of the housing authority director (Bob Lane) and instead takes up the vision of New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan, whose administration proposed the partnership and changes.

The plan calls for demolition of Parkview Tower, Parkview Terrace/Broadmeade, Vance Courts and Riverside Terrace, totaling 635 of New Albany’s roughly 1,100 units. It also orders rehabilitation of Riverview Towers, Mark Elrod Towers and Crystal Court, as well as redeveloping Beechwood Terrace as a mixed-income complex.

snip

The board's vote was a disappointment for the dozens of public housing residents and local advocates who packed the board room Monday in opposition.

Some who spoke before the board worry that transitioning away from brick-and-mortar housing to vouchers, though it follows a national trend, isn't as easy as it sounds.
Lynda Wilcox, past president of the board of commissioners, said being awarded a Housing Choice Voucher doesn't guarantee someone housing.

"I would implore you," Wilcox said to the board. "I know that you've all been appointed by the mayor, I know that's of great interest, but please understand, there are no rental units in New Albany for this number of units that they're talking about taking down. There are good ways to do this, compassionate ways to do this."

And so we return to the present day, and Gahan's remarks to residents of Mark Elrod Tower. Did Gahan patronize the seniors by flatly lying to them about his halved-NAHA wet dream?

There's almost no other conclusion, unless something else has changed; perhaps Gahan and Duggins have undergone a conversion to compassion, and there'll still be 1,187 units (as you've surely noticed, MORE than Team Gahan calculated in 2017) in 2029.

It would be really cool if Dear Leader would clarify this. Until then, what about some Kool-Aid and Loaded Rice Krispies Treats for progressive Democrats who can't seem to grasp why this matters?

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Democratic mayoral candidate David White understands that change begins with a whole lotta scrubbing, and NA Confidential advocates just such a deep civic cleansing. 

After eight years on the job, Mayor Jeff Gahan's list of stunning "achievements" is long, indeed: tax increases, budgetary hide 'n' seek, self-deification, daily hypocrisy, public housing takeover, non-transparency, pay-to-play for no-bid contracts, bullying city residents and bullying city employees. Eight years is enough. It's time to drain Gahan's swamp, flush his ruling clique and take this city back from Gahan's Indy-based special interest donors. 

NA Confidential supports David White for Mayor in the Democratic Party primary, with voting now through May 7. 

Gahan's public housing putsch: "We won't allow the City to revise history to their liking."

Thanks to the Gahan-engineered crisis at the New Albany Housing Authority, Aaron Fairbanks has emerged as a passionate and articulate local advocate of progressive politics, clear thinking and fine expository writing. I'm delighted to reprint Aaron's commentary here. This one's for sharing with friends. 

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What is continuously lost in the dialogue on the City of New Albany's plan to raze roughly half of the public housing stock is the presence of two distinct visions.

On the one hand is the vision of Mayor Jeff Gahan and David Duggins, and on the other hand is the vision of the former executive director of the NAHA, Bob Lane, with nearly two decades of experience in housing under multiple administrations.

The City of New Albany's vision can be understood through the agreed upon Memorandum of Understanding, passed by the NAHA's board of commissioners in April of 2017. The shortcomings are blatantly clear, and public comments by a plethora of professionals with decades of experience in housing and homelessness have been levied against the Memorandum of Understanding passed by the NAHA. 

Among the concerns present with City's plan are:

• No details on the minimization of disruptions in the lives of residents displaced.
• No details ensuring that affordable housing stock will not be reduced in New Albany.
• No evidence that an adequate supply of Housing Choice Vouchers exists.
• No evidence that there is an adequate supply of market rental units that accept vouchers.
• Inadequacy of replacement low-income unit requirements.
• Failure to ensure that no resident will be forcibly displaced from New Albany.
• Demolition "without a data-informed plan for offsetting the loss of ... affordable housing units" risks exacerbating homelessness in and around New Albany.

See NAHA's Memorandum of Understanding (Duggins replacement board mix)

On the flip side, Bob Lane also had a vision. Lane stressed to the board of commissioners at the NAHA that, despite their appointment by to the board by Gahan, the NAHA "is an independent entity." He urged them to think independently, and they opted to rubber stamp the City's plan. The two most important features of Lane's vision expressed in his draft Memorandum of Understanding:

• Proposed preserving one-for-one "hard-unit replacement of low-income units in mixed-income settings to the extent feasible."
• Would've ensured that "current NAHA households [are] provided options that allow them to stay in New Albany if desired."

Bob Lane's draft Memorandum of Understanding

Lane's plan was a feasible and compassionate approach that didn't start at "we're going to reduce our affordable housing stock" and end with "we'll find out the details later." Ignoring the existence of his vision is disrespectful to the two decades of service that he's provided to current and former residents of the NAHA, and it's quite frankly historical revisionism.

Without the City's concerted effort to squash the NAHA's previously stated proposals -- until its eventual takeover and appointment of Gahan's right hand man, David Duggins (seriously, we've tracked dollars contributed to Gahan's 2015 re-election campaign to Duggins's address), as interim executive director of the NAHA--there would be 42 new units of supportive housing in what would have been the NAHA's Harbor House development. 

Without the hostile takeover of the NAHA, Lane may have been able to execute his vision of redesigning the street grid at Broadmeade and Parkview to match the City's existing street grid.

We won't allow the City to revise history to their liking. Affordable housing has never been a priority for Gahan and Co, and the recent lip service and PR stunts won't change that history of consistent opposition to the goals of affordable housing advocates.

Four things you should know about Jeff "Dead Inside" Gahan's public housing hostile takeover and land grab.

Dead inside!

Revere a million prayers

And draw me into your holiness

But there's nothing there

Light only shines from those who share

Unleash a million drones

Confine me then erase me babe

Do you have no soul?

It's like it died long ago

As usual, Jeff Gillenwater keeps it simple and direct. I urge readers to contact Mayor Gahan, the City Council and the Floyd County Democratic Party, and ask them why this assault on the New Albany Housing Authority is being prioritized.

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For the unfamiliar, it might be helpful to know a few things.

1. Public housing units are often demolished with the promise of one-to-one replacement. That rarely actually happens and the displacement discrepancy is often significant. The City of Louisville, for instance, cannot begin to tell you what actually happened to lots of if not most former residents of complexes they've demolished. New Albany, on the other hand, isn't even pretending to do one-to-one replacement.

2. Much like in Louisville, the units not slated via Camp Gahan for rehab/replacement on site in New Albany are the ones located in areas considered most valuable by private developers. The "land grab" evidence is strong.

3. A lot of research suggests that decentralization of subsidized housing does not benefit residents and often creates problems for others as the problems and/or problematic people the residents were experiencing just continue on in their new locations sans the community self-help and support mechanisms they may have built in their previous locations. While the "project" areas get "better" (read as: gentrified), the residents often don't as their opportunities or lack there of don't change simply by virtue of being separated from friends in a strange place. Poverty related issues are just dispersed across other neighborhoods which often don't have the service base to deal with them.

4. In New Albany, these are the very same government officials who recently successfully conspired to fork over millions of public dollars to a private developer who's building an "upscale" apartment complex in my neighborhood charging unprecedented rents way above current market rates. These folks are quite literally subsidizing housing for the wealthy while cutting it for the poor so the land on which they currently live can be redeveloped.

Previously:

ON THE AVENUES: A luxury-obsessed Jeff Gahan has packed a board and now seeks to break the New Albany Housing Authority. Can we impeach him yet?

So-called "Democrat" Jeff Gahan's "Memorandum of Understanding" details his hostile takeover of the New Albany Housing Authority, and the land grab to follow.

So-called "Democrat" Jeff Gahan's "Memorandum of Understanding" details his hostile takeover of the New Albany Housing Authority, and the land grab to follow.

The Memorandum of Understanding (in PDF form, below) provides an outline of the city's plan for a hostile takeover of the New Albany Housing Authority.

As discussed yesterday in my column, the NAHA has a plan of its own for modernizing and decentralizing affordable public housing, but the city has actively sought to cripple it (and to pack the NAHA board with shameless sycophants) in preparation to purge the city of as many affordable public housing units as it possibly can, and to use ground cleared of affordable housing to facilitate "luxury" projects prioritized in the new Comprehensive Plan, one largely crafted by the same bureaucrats who'll now "administer" affordable housing in New Albany.

ON THE AVENUES: A luxury-obsessed Jeff Gahan has packed a board and now seeks to break the New Albany Housing Authority. Can we impeach him yet?

As for any of Gahan’s claims about cooperation with the NAHA board, it must be understood that he’s done everything in his power to subvert its legal operation, primarily by withholding appointments – an abuse so flagrant that Rep. Ed Clere has been compelled to author legislation in the House that would forestall such chump maneuvers in the future.

It remains that the NAHA is an Indiana corporation, and plays by Ben Carson's Department of Housing and Urban development, pointing to a supreme irony, because if Gahan is able to accomplish this takeover and purge owing to the disintegration of HUD, our presumably Democratic mayor (does the term still have meaning?) will yet again be out-Trumping the Donald himself.

The Memorandum of Understanding reads something like the one handed by Ribbentrop to the Polish ambassador just before Hitler's tanks crossed the border. Feeling good about yourselves, Democrats?