Bondage is being under the control of a force or influence or abstract power, in the case of income restrictions or limits, ...all of the above. By placing the amount of income a household can receive places a fear of transitioning to a higher income bracket. Therefore, a state of dependancy is placed on the housing program and receipients have no desire to develop educationally, be employed or move-out to make room for the next person who needs assistance. As a result, they are confined to affordable housing choices in areas of high poverty. Thus, a cycle is created within these areas and children face unforseeable challenges such as poor quality schools and limited access to economic opportunities. These properties are neglecting to motivate a change in lifestyle via career prep courses, seminars on abstenance ect,..but instead is creating an environment which poses health risk such drug abuse, alcoholism and sexually transmitted diseases. Within these communites are head of household residents living in fear of being cut off because they make more money than what is allowed..so they quit, give up or accept failure. By increasing the household income cap, there will exist a gap which opens up room for growth without revoking housing assistance.

Eliminate bureacracies, Minimal agents as population's less fortunate may need help getting started. Help Disabled get suitable housing but some payment based on income is workable. It's the gov't, so qualified applicants can live out their latter years with dignity. Red tape sometimes conduce addictions, & eventual death due to the time one may have left! Incompetence breeds fraud and discrimination and even criminal activity. Fire DEFACS caseworkers who do not show respect. Lower number of workers as some spend hours on RED TAPE! Most unemployed seeking housing would be grateful to work if able doing jobs that gov't spends billions on each year! Help disabled citizens acquire Social Security! Offer classes to unskilled CITIZENS so they can be productive! Again, ELIMINATE RED TAPE! Next, Take care of Americans before sending ANY MONEY outside our borders! STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION! CUT TAXES for those entities which will then hire more CITIZENS! Work towards helping people no longer needing HUD! This should be the objective as a long term goal! The Disabled, Senior citizens may need help thru death, but this is about 28% of all seeking help! STO Giving Credit to those who simply haven't reached that privilege yet! If put on the road to being productive, credit ratings shall be attained if people see this as desirable & necessary! If failure is received with a cushion each time, no one will need to do better! STOP SPENDING IRRESPONSIBLY! Let incompetence fail! This will educate effective individual, or corporate, competency! COMMONSENSE!
Ricky McDermon mcdsplace@hotmail.com

Goal 4 relates to building sustainable communities free from discrimination. However, there is nothing in the MAP that is guiding us to become more sustainable in the way we as an agency does business. We need to be setting the example and requiring our partners and grantees to do the same. Why are we not mandated to implement green procurement practices? Why aren't we required to recycle and decrease our waste stream? Our office is trying to do more because of a select few who care a great deal have made it a priority. In my opinion, measures have to be taken and prioritized from the top on down.

The acquisition process has been ineffective for many years. Many organizations have set out to make improvements within the areas for which they have actual control. But this won't work unless the entire line of business is improved and streamlined. Staff who do not even work in OCPO are held accountable for timely awards and breaks in service even when all of the deadlines are met. Everyone's plate in the agency is overflowing so a heavy workload is no longer an acceptable excuse on any level. If that is the case, then working smarter is the only solution. To do that a total business process re-engineering must be completed. It will involve committed participation by all parties involved, agreements to standardize across the board, a willingness to look outside of HUD at other Federal and private best practices, and the ability to actually admit that processes must be streamlined and automated where ever possible without jeopardizing laws and regulations - the first rule is 'do no harm'.

I remember the president saying he wanted to take H U D and the section 8 program back to a time when it worked for the people who needed it. I have been supplying low income housing in N W Indiana for over 30 years, and have had many tenant success stories of people who rented from me going on to being home owners and productive workers in the society. However the programs in Indiana are still not supplying me with any kind of help in how to get funding to continue to create more above standard affordable housing in today's market. I think that your field people need more knowledge in there jobs, so they can actually get more housing on the market for Low Income Family's.