Battle over public housing continues in Brewer

Low-income housing scattered throughout Brewer has destroyed many single-family neighborhoods and excluded private investors from the competition for the construction of public housing, Brewer Mayor Ronald Harriman charged Sunday.

Harriman said the Brewer Housing Authority is “out of control.” Privileges such as tax exemption and a carte blanche status allow the the agency to build almost anywhere in the city, Harriman said, while zoning laws restrict private investors from developing public housing in the same areas.

At last week’s City Council meeting, Harriman proposed and the council approved putting future public housing projects out to referendum in November. “I’m convinced that if people are asked to support more public housing the answer would be an overwhelming `no,’ ” Harriman said.

“If we put this out to a public referendum the people in Brewer — the ones actually subsidizing the project — can voice their opinion,” Harriman went on. “It takes some of the politics out of it for the council.”

Since its inception in Brewer in 1972, the Housing Authority has sought cooperation agreements from the City Council on proposed projects, according to Frank McGuire, vice-chairman of the Brewer Housing Authority’s board of commissioners.

McGuire maintained that Harriman’s statements stem from his philosophical beliefs on public and private investment.

Some public housing in Brewer is built in areas where private investors cannot compete, as zoning laws regulate development. “By definition that’s not unfair competition,” McGuire said.

Public housing does not wreck single-family neighborhoods, McGuire declared. That is a “hypothetical concern over what might happen in the future. In reality I believe that is unrealistic; we need never do that.”

The Housing Authority must get project approval from the City Council and the Planning Board. Also, the commissioners are residents of Brewer, McGuire said, and want to provide decent living conditions without spoiling city neighborhoods.

McGuire said the decision to put future projects out to referendum may have been an attempt to restrict development by the Housing Authority. Approval of public housing projects should rest with the administration, and not with the voters.

The commissioners were not informed that the Housing Authority would be a topic of discusion at last week’s meeting, he added. McGuire has written a letter to the council, asking the panel to reconsider its vote.

At last week’s meeting, Councilor Jerry Hudson said the City Council should continue to exercise control over the approval of projects proposed by the Housing Authority.

“Who’s going to have the last say so?” Hudson asked. “If we’re going to have the last say so there’s no use in throwing it out to referendum. If we’re totally against the project and it passes, we’ll have to live with it,” Hudson said.

Hudson went on to say that the Housing Authority could use the referendum as a mechanism to “reve-up” support for a project, whereby residents could be persuaded to vote in favor of a proposal.