KEMP'S HUD LEGACY
August 20, 1996 Kemp's Legacy as Housing Chief: Ideas, Not Accomplishments
By STEVEN A. HOLMES, WASHINGTON, D.C.
As President George Bush's secretary of housing and urban development, JackKemp was known as an innovative thinker and virtually the only voice forthe inner-city poor in an administration with priorities elsewhere.
But a look at his record at the Housing Department shows that Kemp was unableto translate his ideas into solid accomplishments -- although others, afterhim, have begun to do so. Instead of setting in place creative policiesthat would help the inner- city poor, Kemp often found that his ideas andpolicies were thwarted by a hostile, Democratic-controlled Congress, anuninterested Bush administration, and what many saw as his own bureaucraticand managerial shortcomings and an unwillingness to compromise, even withpotential allies.
"He was much more interested in the ideas he was promoting than hewas in the nuts and bolts of how you get from point A to point B,"said Cushing Dolbeare, a longtime advocate for low-income housing. Nowherewas Kemp's failure more evident than in his highly touted program to encouragepublic-housing tenants to buy their apartments, an effort he advocated withthe fervor of a Southern Baptist preacher and one that he declared wouldhelp poor tenants break the shackles of dependency. But in the four yearshe headed the Housing Department, the agency succeeded in selling only 135units -- all but three located in one apartment house in Washington -- outof a total public-housing inventory of 1.3 million apartments, town housesand single-family homes.
At the same time, as the only major official in the Bush administrationexhorting Republicans to be concerned about the problems of minorities andpoor people, Kemp was popular with liberal black and Hispanic civil rightsleaders. "He talked that kind of inclusive, expansive talk," saidthe Rev. Jesse Jackson. "That's how he developed a reputation thatgained him disfavor among the right-wing types and gained him an appreciationwith people beyond his type." Kemp is given credit for restoring integrityand morale to a department that had been ignored by President Ronald Reaganand battered by influence-peddling scandals under Reagan's housing secretary,Samuel Pierce. After taking over the department in 1989, Kemp abolisheda number of programs that were badly abused under Pierce's tenure, includingan account that could be spent at the discretion of the housing secretary."It changed during Jack's tenure from an agency which was known forpolitical wheeling and dealing to one that was squeaky clean," saidAnna Kondratas, a former assistant housing secretary under Kemp.
He also set about lifting sagging morale within the agency, sprucing upHUD's drab headquarters, making sure the cafeteria offered better food,even organizing and attending agency picnics that included everyone fromundersecretaries to mail room clerks. But beyond cleaning up HUD, Kemp waslargely ineffective in getting his pet projects implemented. Housing expertssay the program to sell public-housing units to the tenants who occupiedthem failed because the potential buyers were too poor to afford them ordid not want to buy an apartment that usually needed extensive renovation,often in a crime-ridden, drug-infested development.
"He had this wild theory that all of the residents were sitting onthe edge of their seats waiting to purchase the units they were living in,"said Richard Nelson, executive director of the National Association of Housingand Redevelopment, a group representing agencies that manage public-housingand community redevelopment programs. "The condition of public housingis misunderstood by many.
While there are units that are livable and decent, they are generally notwhat people necessarily want to have as their permanent home." Kempwas also unable to win approval in Congress of his other major policy initiative:enterprise zones in cities, in which, he hoped, tax incentives would revitalizeblighted neighborhoods. That failure, some critics said, stemmed as muchas anything from Kemp's unwillingness to compromise. He insisted that cutsin taxes, particularly on capital gains, be the only incentive. But manyDemocrats in Congress, and city officials, thought that a mix of tax incentives,government money and social-service programs were needed. "Kemp haslittle credibility in this field because at every opportunity to choosebetween practical political compromise to benefit low-income communitiesand his supply-side dogma, he consistently chose the latter," saidRichard H. Cowden, executive director of the American Association of EnterpriseZones, which represents cities and states that have set up enterprise zones.
"He actually set back the clock in this field by staking out a positionthat guaranteed a political stalemate on policies towards cities."In keeping with his professed concern about civil rights, Kemp initiateda number of innovative programs to root out discrimination against blacksand Hispanics by insurance companies and mortgage lenders.
Those programs led to suits against such insurance giants as State Farmand Allstate, the largest provider of homeowners' insurance in the country.But under Kemp, the Housing Department, never developed efficient meansto investigate complaints of housing discrimination, a role Congress hadgiven the agency in 1988. As a result, by the time Kemp left office, a backloghad built up of more than 480 complaints that had not been investigated.
But if he lacked follow-through, Kemp is acknowledged to have been a visionarywho promoted ideas that eventually became federal and state policy. Stateshave set up more than 800 enterprise zones since, as housing secretary,Kemp became the first federal official to advocate them. Last year the Clintonadministration designated "empowerment zones" -- enterprise zonesby another name -- in 12 cities.
Last week, Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros announced a new initiative tohelp 25,000 tenants in public housing buy homes by the year 2000. UnlikeKemp's program, however, these tenants would not necessarily buy the apartmentsthey are renting. But backers and critics agree that Kemp's most importantlegacy was fighting to prevent the agency and, by extension the plight ofbig cities, from being forgotten. "I think Jack Kemp was good becausehe was outspoken for the department," said Shanna Smith, executivedirector of the National Fair Housing Alliance. "He wasn't ashamedto be working there."
Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company