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By Jason Paris via Wikimedia
By Jason Paris via Wikimedia

Internal Shakeup at the Buffalo Housing Authority

by / Aug. 7, 2015 3pm EST

The financially strapped Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority has been making personnel changes, terminating some employees and demoting others, in an effort to control costs as the agency’s cash reserves dwindle, The Public has learned.

Multiple sources, all speaking on the condition of anonymity, say key staff members have been removed from their positions and their work delegated to outside firms or BMHA’s general counsel, David Rodriguez.

Not only has the authority been operating at a deficit in recent months, but hundreds of its apartments lie vacant, leading to the close scrutiny of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has designated BMHA’s management as “substandard” for two years in a row.

The authority has submitted a turnaround plan to the federal agency and is now working to implement it, but HUD, which supplies most of the authority’s funding, has suggested that BMHA may fall into receivership if the ship is not righted soon.

Rodriguez and the authority’s executive director, Dawn Sanders-Garrett, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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