Tuesday, April 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
America's public housing developments are "the last bastions of socialism" and should be shut down in favor of a voucher system that lets the poor choose where to live, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole said.
In a speech Monday meant to sharpen contrasts between the GOP presidential challenger and President Clinton, Dole also railed against the Clinton administration's Department of Housing and Urban Development, calling it an intrusive "Big Brother" that should be closed.
The closing of HUD could create an immediate housing shortage for thousands of low-income Southern Nevadans, according to local officials.
In Las Vegas alone, 731 senior citizens and 1,354 families depend on HUD subsidies to help pay rent, said Gerard Cote, controller of the Las Vegas Housing Authority.
Cote said another 1,246 dwellings that house seniors and low-income families are also subsidized by HUD.
In Las Vegas, HUD pays an average of $340 a month for rent, and residents kick in 30 percent of their monthly income, or about $100, Cote said.
Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones criticized Dole's proposal as "irresponsible."
"When is the last time Sen. Dole spent a lot of time working in inner cities?" she asked.
Jones said HUD funding helps build soccer fields and other facilities that improve the quality of life in low-income neighborhoods.
"Take that money away and you're creating war zones in cities," she said.
Dole singled out three fair-housing investigations launched by then-Assistant Housing Secretary Roberta Achtenberg, including a 1994 action against a Berkeley, Calif., neighborhood group protesting the opening of a nearby home for recovering drug addicts.
"Fair housing laws will be enforced in a Dole administration," Dole told the annual National Association of Realtors conference.
"There is no room for discrimination ... but there's also no room for a Big Brother Housing and Urban Development department threatening and intimidating those doing nothing more than expressing their First Amendment rights," he said to applause.
Dole noted the investigations and threatened fines were ultimately dropped by HUD, but added dryly, "I hope my remarks won't lead to an investigation."
Achtenberg, whose nomination in 1993 was fiercely opposed by Senate conservatives, resigned her post last year to make an unsuccessful bid for San Francisco mayor and has since returned to the housing department as a senior adviser to Secretary Henry Cisneros. It is an appointment that does not require confirmation by the Senate.
Dole's morning remarks were the latest in a series of speeches designed to paint Clinton and his appointees as reckless liberals. The Kansas senator has previously taken aim at Clinton's judicial appointments; today was the first time he turned on HUD.
He said the department's public housing program, begun long before Clinton took office, had failed to improve the lives of the poor. Calling the federal bureaucracy "landlords of misery," Dole said housing vouchers for the poor are a better alternative. He also called for privatization of the Fair Housing Authority, and said safety-net programs for the homeless would be better administered by the Department of Health and Human Services.
HUD is one of four cabinet-level agencies that Dole has said he would eliminate, in addition to Commerce, Education and Energy.
Resurrecting a hot primary issue that has since fizzled out, Dole also reiterated his commitment to retaining, under any flat-tax reform, the popular deduction for home mortgage interest. And, he said, he wants to "eliminate, and if not eliminate, at least reduce" the tax rate on capital gains.
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