HomeMy WebLinkAbout1974 08-20 Hearing for HRA Set in Maplewood DISPATCH H HRA .
eco r rig o
Set a
in Maplewood
By Jean Haskell The information which while housing costs in
Staff Writer the commission subse- Maplewood are above
A 28-month-old propos- quently submitted states the average for Ramsey
al for a housing and re- that an HRA would ena- County, family incomes
development authorityble Maplewood to pro- in the city are below the
(H R A) in Maplewood vide a variety of pro- county average. Also. 20
will be debated at a pub- grams, including hour- per cent of Maplewood's
lie hearing Sept.12. ing for the elderly, low population lives in over-
The Maplewood Cityand moderate-income crowded housing, based
Council. voted Thursday families and urban re- on 1970 census data, ac-
to set the hearing date newal. . cording to the commis-
but let HRA proponents - sion.
know they could be in In a July. 1973. report As of 1970 the city had -
for some tough question- -the commission present- o n I y four subsidized
ing. ed data showing that, housing units. -
One councilman. Bur-
ton Murdock, said he
does not think HRAs in
other communities have
been very successful
and he is worried that
the city might create "a
monster we can't cope
with."
Councilman Donald
Wiegert noted that fed-
eral funding for subsi-
dized housing has been
cut off for many months,
making it impossible for
HRAs to carry out their
programs.
"Are we going through
motions •by setting up
something that isn't
going to do anything?"
he asked.
Mayor Robert Bruton
said he. too. has unan-
s w e r e d questions, in-
cluding one of the Metro-
plitan Council's role in
providing subsidized
housing. .
The proposal for an
HRA was made by the
city Human Relations
Commission in A p r i 1.
1972. and repeated in
July. 1973. Last Decem-
ber the council tabled
action to set a hearing
date until the commis-
sion and city atorney
provided more informa-
tion.