GET OUT OF TOWN!
BHA pitch to public aid recipients takes hit at Hub …
A Boston Housing Authority letter that insults the city’s school system and calls out the crime rate has infuriated the agency’s boss and others who say the flier used to promote a pilot relocation program is “shameful.”
BHA Administrator Bill McGonagle said he wasn’t even aware of the letter, which appears to suggest that Boston is a crimeinfested city with failing schools, until the Herald sent a copy of it yesterday to Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s office, which forwarded it to the housing chief.
“That letter was not properly vetted and not authorized,” McGonagle said. “I would not have approved a letter that describes that program that inartfully or that distastefully ... That is an insult to the residents of Boston and to every neighborhood in this city. It blew my mind.”
The letter was signed by Jonathan Tarleton, who lists his title as director of the Expanding Choice in Neighborhood Opportunities Program and who McGonagle describes as a “mid-level BHA employee” who’s “certainly not in a position to send out a letter without my permission.”
Tarleton could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Lisa Martin, a former Boston Public Schools elementary teacher whose children attend city schools, said she was appalled when a friend showed her the letter, which offers to help families move out of the city to “allow your children to grow up in a low-crime environment with good schools.” The same antiBoston message is repeated later on in the flier.
“I was really offended. It speaks volumes about the way (BHA) feels about the school system, using that as a selling point to get people out of the city,” said Martin, 39, of Dorchester. “To me, it’s shameful.”
McGonagle said the BHA will send out a new letter about the pilot program, which actually is called Expanding Choice in Housing Opportunities, or ECHO. The program will be open to 100 Section 8 voucher holders — poor and working families who receive federal rental subsidies for apartments in the private sector — many of whom have expressed interest in moving out of Boston but have been unsuccessful because they’ve lacked information about available apartments or because
‘That is an insult to the residents of Boston and to every neighborhood in this city. It blew my mind.’ — BILL McGONAGLE Boston Housing Authority administrator
they’ve encountered discrimination.
“One of the things we don’t want to do is discourage families from staying where they are,” McGonagle said. “They know best what’s best for their families. But if they want to move and they’re being prevented because of discrimination or a lack of information, we want to break down those obstacles.”
The program will provide free legal advice so that tenants know their rights under the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits landlords from discriminating against prospective tenants because of their race, because they have children or because they have Section 8 vouchers.
McGonagle said the “vast majority” of the 12,000 housing vouchers the BHA administers go to Boston residents. He would not say what, if any, discipline Tarleton faces for sending out a letter that dumps on Boston.