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Turtleboy shoutout to former Worcester mayor Ray Mariano for standing up to the man. Just saw in the paper today that his common sense plan for the Worcester Housing Authority has been struck down by the federal government. According to the Telegram and Gazette, “Those heads of households could only stay in public or leased housing for a maximum of seven years, the policy states, and would be kicked out of housing after three years unless they worked or went to school.”
Newsflash – Great Brook Valley is not supposed to be anyone’s home for life. It’s a temporary place to get your shit together while you’re going through a hard time. If you can’t find a way to get the fuck out of GBV in SEVEN YEARS then you are completely hopeless. Alfred Dente and I would like to sponsor you on a one way ticket to Canada. They love giving out free shit up there.
But it sounds like a pretty common sense plan right? You get a taxpayer funded roof over your head and all you have to do is find a job or go to school sometime in the next 36 months.
Wait, what’s that you say? The federal government is shutting this down for absolutely no fucking reason at all?
“(We) made an error in approving the Worcester Housing Authority’s annual plan which included as an attachment, a time limit plan for tenants,” HUD spokeswoman Rhonda Siciliano wrote in an email. “HUD has rescinded its approval of Worcester Housing Authority’s annual plan. We apologize for the confusion that this has caused to the Worcester Housing Authority and to the tenants.”
Ummm, OK. So that’s it? That’s the whole fucking explanation? “We fucked up when we approved of this really good idea. Somehow we just caught onto this now. Our bad.”
Now I don’t normally vote Republican because sometimes I think they’re overreacting about the evils of big government. Big government has brought us Social Security, interstate highways, national parks, and put a man on the moon. Oh yea, and remember World War 2 and the Civil War? Yea, that was big government tyranny at it’s finest. So I recognize the sweet awesomeness that big government can bring us.
But now I think I understand where these blowhards are coming from. What the hell just happened? Rhonda Siciliano was just sitting in her office one day, trying to beat her personal best in minesweeper, when out of the blue she said, “I’m gonna see what’s going on in Worcester and then ruin it.” This is what she’s paid for? How much does she get paid anyway?
Oh you mean she made $123K and then somehow got a $750 bonus? Well she obviously earned that bonus right? I mean, it’s not easy sitting around the Department of Housing and Urban Development office in Boston all day. She obviously missed the well-publicized plan from New England’s second biggest city. Here’s a question – what would you have to do to NOT earn that $750 bonus? Because apparently she could just come into work and take a dump for eight hours while reading Turtleboy Sports on the can and still earn that reward. Zero fucks given by Rhonda Siciliano.
Do you have anymore information Rhonda baby?
Saying it had not yet collected all the facts, Ms. Siciliano declined to say whether the government knows if anyone at HUD read the plan before approving it.
Yea, who needs to read a plan anyway? Just stick it in a pile somewhere and let it collect dust while Rhonda takes a giant smash. I’ve seen better explanations from Roger Goodell.
Ray Mariano won me over with this quote:
“One explanation is they’re incompetent. The second explanation is they’re cowards, because they got some phone calls and some pushback.” In an email sent to Mr. Mariano Monday afternoon, Robert P. Cwieka, deputy director for HUD’s Boston office, indicated surprise at the local changes.
“How can this be?” he asked Mr. Mariano in the email.
Ray Mariano is EXACTLY the type of politician Turtleboy Sports can get behind. He is 100% right too. Either they’re complete morons who somehow missed this gigantic plan from a relatively large city, OR they caved to a bunch of PC idiots who spend their free time protesting “police brutality” and “offensive signs” at apple picking farms.
He apparently hasn’t heard back from Robert P. Cwieka, who is the “deputy director for HUD’s Boston office.” Because I’m sure this country could not possibly function without a deputy director of HUD’s Boston office. I’m sure Cwieka hasn’t gotten back to him because he’s taking a gigantic smash.
This is why people vote Republican. This is why America can’t have nice things.
So what was the purpose of this program anyway Ray Mariano?
The purpose of this program is to motivate residents toward self-sufficiency and free up scarce housing resources for some of the many applicants who languish on our waiting lists,” Mr. Mariano wrote in the Monday morning news release. “We have become one of only a very few (if any) housing authorities in the entire country who will implement such a program in both public and leased housing.”
Wow, what an asshole. Trying to motivate people to (gasp) get a job???!!!! That’s racist!!
But seriously, is there anything more useless than the HUD? Apparently all these people work there.
Thank God we have four Management Analysts, whatever the hell that is. Because three Management Analysts obviously aren’t enough. And thank goodness Tracey A. Williams has a job as secretary. She’s obviously doing a great job since somehow Mariano’s plan made it into the hands of absolutely nobody until today. And how would the government function without an assistant for Rhonda Siciliano? Because someone has to run the government while Rhonda is taking a HUD-sized dump.
The bottom line is I hope that Ray Mariano throws a fit here and takes this shit all the way to Washington. And on that note I have a confession to make. I voted for Barrack Obama in 2008.
It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I thought I was taking part in some sort of social revolution. Man, they got me pretty good. I mean, no offense but I can’t even believe any person, democrat or republican thinks this guy has the minerals to be leader of the free world. He seems like a nice enough guy, but it just seems like shit like this is par for the course these days. And no, I didn’t vote for Mitt Romney in 2012. I did my patriotic duty and voted for Jill Stein. TAKE THAT two party system!!
Feel free to share your thoughts to keep the conversation going.
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15 Comment(s)
Since most people who read this blog have little to no knowledge of policy, I feel it’s important to explain a few things.
Firstly, Ray Mariano should focus his efforts in creating jobs for those living in subsidized housing instead of trying to kick them out of housing and create a more costlier situation. A policy that puts people on the street with no job or housing is probably not a good policy.
Secondly, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program accomplishes a lot of the issues brought up in this article. Here is an example of that program:
-A developer develops a housing project that’s 40% low income and 60% market rate. In order to fill the market rate units, the development has to blend in with other market rate developments. It cannot be an isolated area in the bad part of town (ie: projects) and it cannot have low quality or standards.
-When someone applies and qualifies for a low income unit (such as their income is less than 60% of Area Median Income) it’s their unit for life. They can go get a job, win the lottery, or do something productive to society and never lose that unit. Therefore, they are not disincentive to sit find a job, like most programs make low income people become.
-If the family in the low income unit is suddenly earning more money, the development has to convert the next vacant market rate unit into another low income unit. This keeps helping society and the community around it with goals of helping more and more people come out of poverty.
That program is way better than what Ray Mariano suggested and currently already exists in Worcester and across the country. His efforts should be to spread and grow that program and create more jobs for residents in Worcester.
You say the unit is there’s for life. Would they become more responsible for the cost of the unit, e.g. rent, if they start to become more successful? That would appear to be appropriate.
You don’t even know what your talking about…he is the head of the WHA not a job placement bureau or employment finding service……he is going BEYOND of what is expected to help people as HE ALWAYS DID IN HIS POLITICAL CAREER TOO..
As you said, Obama was elected TWICE! This is what the American people want.
This is more after the fact outrage than anything… most people are too concerned with sound bytes around election time. Now if we can find something that rhymes with “Mariano” or “Rhonda M. Siciliano,” we might be getting somewhere.
Also, not only does it not appear that the HUD budget has gone up much under Obama, it wasn’t even important enough to be one of the three cabinet departments that Rick Perry wanted to eliminate.
“HUD-sized dump”…lol
He is sensible… no wonder he isn’t in politics anymore. Can’t we just make it a rule that if you are able bodied and collecting government assistance (this means you too, executives at defense contractors) you have to pedal a spin bike a couple hours a day that is hooked up to a grid tie inverter in order to shrink energy costs?
Might revAmp the program. What could be the ampeRage per cyclist. Not worth accelerating equipment and setup costs.
Imagine the outrage of the democratic legislature when they caught wind that their voting base will need to take personal responsibility and become productive members of society. They wouldn’t have that. The more people they keep hooked on living off of the taxpayers the better the likely hood they get elected. They can’t have their voting base depleted or else their out of a job.
You live in Massachusetts… the voting base of the democratic legislature is organized labor and their allies.
That’s not what the radio told him.
I thought Jay Severin got fired when he was no longer marketable
The Best and Brightest!
Martha Coakley and her base of voters called (from GBV). How can she possibly be elected I the buses can’t pull up to gather up the usual suspects and add some reload onto the EBTif they already moved out or got a job and moved up, and caught on?