For the HUD to effectively serve its constituents and the Nation, it must think beyond simply putting roofs over Americans' heads to creating programs that empower Americans to stand on their own two feet. For HUD to fulfill the vision, mission, and goals — particularly sub-goals 3A, 3C, and 4B — proposed in its FY2010-2015 strategic plan, technology must be a key component of the Department's long-term strategy. Providing safe and affordable housing does not alone enable Americans to achieve greater self-sufficiency or build stronger communities. However, when safe and affordable housing is combined with technology access and the resources that allow Americans to acquire the skills they need to compete in today's technology-driven world, greater self-sufficiency and stronger communities often follow.

With HUD-subsidized housing communities located all across the United States, the Department can play a pivotal role in closing the technology gap — a top concern of President Obama. One way HUD can do this is through continued and expanded support of its Neighborhood Networks Initiative. As one of the first federal initiatives to promote technology and self-sufficiency, Neighborhood Networks has been delivering technology access to America's communities since 1995. The Initiative has helped countless residents of HUD Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured and -assisted communities obtain jobs, advance in their current jobs, achieve greater academic success, pursue higher education, transition from renters to homeowners, and improve their overall quality of life. However, there is still a great deal of work to be done. HUD programs and initiatives that offer a technology component, such as Neighborhood Networks, should play a more significant role in HUD's strategic plan.

In addition, President Obama has made his support for technology access crystal clear. The Obama Administration has pledged support for universal broadband, or faster Internet service for all Americans. This is particularly relevant to HUD as 30% of families with incomes of less than $15,000 had the lowest rate of broadband adoption, while 89% of families with incomes of more than $150,000 had the highest rate of broadband adoption. To help the Obama Administration achieve its goal, HUD must incorporate technology into its housing programs.

Technology is not a luxury, but a necessity to which all Americans — regardless of their educational background, income level, or race — must have access and possess the skills to operate it. HUD is in a unique position to make this happen.

The one fear staff have here, about realistic goals, is that they will be set by people in an ivory tower who have no idea what life is like in the trenches. Giving someone goals without also giving that person the resources necessary to achieve that goal is grossly unfair, and it accomplishes nothing. HUD has had a habit of doing this, in the past. Since HUD has terminated supervisors for not meeting goals- even when they were grossly unrealistic, supervisors are understandably nervous about such goals. Goals presumably reflect measurements of something, of some change or activity. It is stupid and counterproductive to measure something that one cannot affect. The current draft Strategic Plan cites educational outcomes. That is a 2 way street. HUD needs to be pulling in celebrities, and others, to inspire students to do well, to change the culture of under achievement to one of excellence. Every ethnic group in America is capable of excellence, however it will take more than HUD has to achieve this goal. It will also take the cooperation of the people involved. That is truly critical. It is respectful for HUD to work with people to achieve good goals. It is grossly disrespectful for HUD to work on people, with goals residents are unaware of, or which mean nothing to them.

Have you looked at the percentage of bonuses and time off awards going to management? I'm curious, this is allegedly some kind of motivational tool, how well is it going to work, if over 80% of it isn't even going to staff? This may have changed in the last year, but that's how it was prior. Is that how this thing works out? Staff do lots of work, and people like [name redacted by moderator] get to praise themselves on HUDwide email? Several times? How is that going to accomplish any of your goals? Don't they have big enough egos already in HQ? I tell you what, why not restrict their emails to HQ only, so they at least don't embarass themselves all over the country.

It appears that there are Sub-goals such as 1B "Protect consumers when they buy a home," that may be difficult to measure. RESPA reform and homeownership counseling are examples of consumer protection, but how do you put a tangible measurement on these? However, we could measure the number of Lead-based Paint homes that are abated, the number of HUD homes that offer 1-year warranties to low- to moderate-income purchasers, etc. 4A "Excel in disaster preparedness, resiliency and recovery" does not appear to take into account all of the regulatory barriers facing HUD in housing citizens faced by disasters (e.g., Public Housing, Multifamily Housing, and Single Family HUD homes for Sale, etc.). Perhaps this would be the first phase of goals in addressing this 5-year strategic objective, but nonetheless, it should be addressed so that HUD provides the best housing services possible for those displaced by disasters. I believe we must closely analyze each Goal and Sub-Goal to ensure that HUD is the agency intended to meet the goal and has the budgetary and regulatory means to meet the goal.

[Name redacted by moderator] put out a lot of self- praise, recently, for doing so well on the CFC. That's great. I put my money into CFC, so some clown in HQ can crow about it? I felt like revoking my contribution card, and almost did. If you seriously want staff involvement in this, why not find a way to recognize and celebrate some great staff achievement at least once a week? Let anybody nominate it. If Obama can do this for the best ideas in each agency, why can't you guys do the same? And you would collect a number of internal ideas, shared on an internal website, for staff looking for ideas on cool things they can do in their own offices.

Apparently more than a decade of Dilbert hasn't affected management. Overly prescriptive micromanagement slows the work down. General Patton basically gave his units goals, and didn't specify how to accomplish them, because he knew his troops knew more than he did, at their level. Government agencies prefer to be overly prescriptive, far more so than handbook and legislation requires. The result is that work processes slow down, and often stop. I was told as a boy that if you whip a dog when it does a bad thing, the dog learns to avoid you, not to do what you want. If you reward the dog when it does the right thing, it will do that more. Most government agencies do not reward employees for being productive, or innovative, or acting above and beyond the call of duty. Most such agencies actually punish this. I am quite amused by the section of the Strategic Plan that talks about motivating undermotivated employees. Take any enthusiastic employee, and scream at them a few times, for random reasons. They'll slow down. They'll be a lot more cautious. They won't move unless they have absolute knowledge of success. The Strategic Plan lacks this significant piece: bringing management processes into alignment with the goals. They are not currently in alignment.

What is measured, or what gets attention, improves. I assume that you want to accomplish these goals. If that is the case, how can you reward those who do, both inside and outside of HUD, cheaply, since you won't have a lot of extra resources for this? This is a very important question.

Surveys show that the one thing employees- i.e. people- want more than anything else is APPRECIATION. It is also the thing they usually get least. Why? What you concentrate on grows. We have concentrated on need for the last 60 years, and what has grown - need. "What is reported improves"... because it's getting attention. Napoleon understood this. He said "men are ruled by toys", and created several new medals, including the Legion of Honor. His troops would risk their lives repeatedly for a little piece of metal and cloth... What do people get for doing an outstanding job, in our industry? *Ignored* Yep, that's right, the best a good employee, client, or program can hope for is very often to be ignored. We need to have yearly awards get-togethers in every state, perhaps at an event like the Coalition for housing- to recognize our heroes.

We need a Best Practices database. How about letting the people who know the most about them do the write-ups? It doesn’t get any easier than a resources Wiki that writes itself. If we had a Best Practices contest, web-based, with good questions so we get enough detail so people can copy, we have a very cheap way to spread good ideas. If we are going to use performance indicators to measure community health, this same website could be a way to collect that data. If Publisher’s Clearinghouse can collect a nationwide mailing list, with a promise of a chance at an award, why can’t we?

If you’re worried about abuse of nomination, it could come through a congressional office; or that could just be an option. It works for Military Academy nominations. Could be a great way to get Congress involved in making a place for everyone at the table.

I propose at least the following awards, on a statewide basis, to recognize those people who are achieving these goals:

Neighborhood Coordinator of the Year + 2 runner ups, for each census tract
Property Manager of the Year
Best community project created on a shoestring.
Best community project created by a partnership
Best provider of services on a shoestring, through networking.
best computer center, in categories:
children's programs, senior programs, job-training, economic development
best economic development/entrepreneurship program
best turnaround of a troubled housing property
best tenant/management relations
best community garden
most productive partnership/coalition in the state
best place to live for elderly
best place to live for family
most prolific provider of good programs to neighborhood residents
best residents' association
best nonprofit services provider
best vendor
best creation of "teaching/learning" community of opportunity in neighborhood
best solution to a difficult problem
best-looking resident amenity
neighborhood with the highest percentage of tenants "giving back" to the community
best intergenerational program
best youth program
best community activity that demonstrated a healthy community
most productive Memorandum of Understanding
best solution to a drug-related activity program
completion by a resident of 2 year or 4 year degree
best homeless programs
best transitional housing program
best manual that supported community building efforts
most unexpected or unusual partner in a coalition [police doing computers for example]
Law Enforcement officer most committed to proactive community building in a community
Most effective CDC and CFDI
Most effective alcohol treatment activity
best substance abuse treatment program
best energy conservation program
most useful resource that supports community building
best program done in coalition with a school
most helpful person in an agency [you want to energize HUD? Let our clients vote for the most helpful HUD person. Now there’s a Web 2.0 tool that would have some effect.]
best Welfare to Work program
best program created by residents

whatever else we want to see more of

Now, the above awards are "Olympic Gold", the two runner-ups [which would be used only where the field of candidates would be large] are the silver and bronze. We also need a "Diamond" category, for really outstanding stuff above the gold, given only when earned, not yearly. What would this do for people's resumes? I have repeatedly seen outstanding neighborhood organizers totally ignored by their own management. Do you see a problem with this picture? I sure do. Cures start small.

During WW II, the 9 PM tolling of the Big Ben clock was used by England to unite the population in common purpose. During WW II, even alcoholics willingly worked long hours in factories, for the war, because the whole country was focused on a clear goal. Newsreels would talk of a soldier destroying a tank, and end "not bad for a baker's apprentice from the Bronx". We need to clearly focus on healing our communities, in the same way. Call it a war on ignorance. Napoleon created many new medals, and his troops risked their lives repeatedly for a $5 piece of ribbon and metal. Presidential medals, and letters, could be used in the same way to focus attention on people doing good things in communities; web-based nomination through congressional offices. What you focus on grows. Why not have 20 goals regarding community healing, from improved education, to more social activities, and start recognizing best practices in those 20 goals? Obama has image, why not use it- cheaply?

The failure to recognize people accomplishing these goals is a kind of insanity. Will we continue the insanity, or focus on achieving these goals?

It appears as though we removed the words “faith based,” from the strategic plan lexicon and replaced it with non profits. I feel that this is a major mistake due to the perception and implication that will quite naturally be derived from this semantically inappropriate error. Our previous effort to partner with faith based communities across the country has just begun to see the manifestation of fruits from their newly established relationships with HUD. To stop or stall this process midstream would only turn the clock backwards or reverse the successful relationships that have already occurred. As the old proverbial phrase is stated “Please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

F1—Reduce barriers to faithbased
and community
organizations’ participation in
HUD-sponsored programs.

F3—Encourage partnerships
between faith-based/community
organizations and HUD grantees
and subgrantees.

F2—Conduct outreach and
provide technical assistance to
strengthen the capacity of faith-based
and community organizations to
attract partners and secure
resources.