Orlando Sentinel |
“Rarely does U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown feud with the White House — the veteran Florida lawmaker is a loyal Democrat, after all.
But plans by the administration to shutter a pair of housing offices in Orlando and Tampa as soon as this fall has stirred Brown into mounting an intense, and occasionally bitter, campaign to keep them open.
At least four times this year, she’s met with top officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development , and she’s come away disappointed each time.
She even raised the issue with President Barack Obama on Tuesday during a meeting he held with the Congressional Black Caucus — though Obama was noncommittal.
“It’s an uphill battle, [but] it’s a battle I’m willing to fight,” said Brown, who repeatedly has criticized the administration for how it’s handled the issue. “I think HUD is dead wrong.”
Their argument: It makes no sense to eliminate housing offices in Florida when the state is still struggling with the foreclosure crisis. HUD workers are trained to help distressed homeowners avoid foreclosure while assisting on other issues, from senior housing to homelessness.
The state led the country in foreclosure activity in June, fueled in part by housing troubles in Central Florida — which had more than 2,200 foreclosure filings that month.
“I think [the closings] send a terrible message to the people in the area that we don’t care about them,” Brown said.
A letter signed this spring by nearly every Florida Democrat in the U.S. House, including U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson of Orlando, echoed that point and asked for a chance to “petition HUD to keep [the] facilities open.”
But the administration so far is standing firm.”