A Policy Memorandum to President-Elect Trump
Your winning campaign notwithstanding, the recent election results could be a stepping stone to endearing yourself and the Republican Party to the Black and Hispanic communities. How? By demonstrating that you not only believe that “Black Wealth Matters,” but that you will, by executive action, make it happen – almost overnight.
I would like to offer you a fresh idea, which may appear at first simplistic or even utopian, but upon reflection, is not only doable but will capture the imagination of the media, both local, national, and international, and more importantly, cause the Black and Hispanic electorate to listen to you very carefully.
The Turnover
The idea is simple. It is to eliminate immediately a “culture of dependency” on government, and instead generate a “culture of independency” from government by encouraging and making it possible for long-time public housing tenants, of which the beneficiaries would be substantially from the Black and Hispanic communities, to own – without any mortgage or restrictions – those apartments in which they are currently legal tenants in public housing projects throughout the United States (which in my opinion are horribly mismanaged), through a conversion to private ownership to be called “The Turnover.”
The immediate advantages are obvious:
- Converting “sweat equity” and years of paying rent into ownership;
- Creating pride in home ownership;
- Reducing criminal activity and increasing “self-policing” by residents;
- Enabling the Black and Hispanic populations in many gentrified minority and lower income neighborhoods to capture the rising real estate boom in their own neighborhoods. Currently these residents are rightfully angry that although they contributed to the boom by surviving the lean years, they are now unable to participate in the “payoff,” as they are tenants and not homeowners.
- Creating generational wealth which can be passed on to the children of these tenants – soon to be homeowners. (Michelle Obama’s “generational wealth affirmative action” speech revealed an ingrained and long-festering grievance of many African-Americans – that their families do not have the benefits enjoyed by many White, Asian, and Hispanic families of inherited or “trust” wealth which can be used for business or investment purposes and create further opportunities to advance economically.)
Note: You will probably be required to obtain approval from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), some bondholders, and local state agencies, but this should not be impossible because your administration would advocate for this turnover.
An Emancipation Proclamation
I think the first “turnover” should be announced by you in front of a public housing project in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Chicago, or Atlanta as soon as possible. This plan – a modern-day Emancipation Proclamation – will be perceived as being in sync with your own real estate experience and the classic Republican philosophy of home ownership, coupled with your rejection of governmental dependence, a message that will resonate in the Black and Hispanic communities.
You will emancipate these Blacks and Hispanics from an inefficient and broken housing authority bureaucracy, and at the same time, you will create first-time stakeholders who will become instant capitalists. These individuals will now be able to pass on their newfound capital wealth to their children for the first time ever in American history.
This plan will excite the targeted populations and demonstrate that you care for them, especially in “blue” urban centers like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, which today are probably your weakest areas of voter support. It will stand in contrast to the approach of the Democrats who would never offer such a plan to Black and Hispanic tenants since Democrats crave constituent dependence and won’t permit or encourage these communities to free themselves from their Democratic patrons and “guardians.”
Can you imagine the excitement as other cities’ Black and Hispanic populations clamor for the same treatment? Electric!
Even if this “turnover” is not strictly within the Executive’s jurisdiction and you may need cooperation from other branches of government, the idea will nevertheless gain you great positive media attention and popular acclaim because it demonstrates your belief that Black and Hispanic citizens should also own their own homes, debt-free, paid for by their sweat equity and years of rent.
Action Plan
Appoint a blue-ribbon panel of respected public and private figures, both Republicans and Democrats, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, if possible, as well as well-known African-American (e.g., Dr. Ben Carson) and Hispanic personalities (e.g., Congressman Ritchie Torres), to support the “Turnover” of public housing apartments to their legal tenants. You should appoint a chairman from the Black community who can relate to this plan with the same passion and positive reaction as the local populace will embrace it.
Eligibility rules for the “turnover” would include:
- Being the official registered tenant in occupancy;
- Having a minimum number of years in residence;
- That all rental payments are current;
- No criminal activity in the apartment;
- No eviction proceedings pending;
Rights of Current Tenant:
- No mortgage;
- Right to sell. The cost of the unit to be repaid to the government, or bond holders, provided the sale price exceeds the government’s book value cost. The transfer of the apartment to the tenant in occupancy would be without any restrictions. The apartment may be sold, mortgaged, leased (with Board approval), or treated in any way that a fee simple title (condo) or a co-op would be transferred, depending on the eventual condo or co-op status of the property.
- Right to bequeath to family or non-relatives, with sale rules as above;
- Immune from judgment for any prior debts of the Tenant;
- May be elected to the Board of Directors of this condominium or co-op.
The simplicity of the rules will themselves be very attractive to the current tenants.
Possible Objections
“You mean you are going to eliminate the New York City Housing Authority?”
“Yes, the current tenants (400,000 in NYC alone) will now become co-op/condo owners. These owners will elect from among themselves a Board of Directors. In this manner, we will eliminate NYCHA’s bureaucracy, which certainly will help our national and NYS and NYC budgets, since federal, state, and city dollars subsidizes these bureaucracies.” The same would be true of all other public housing agencies across the country.
“Tenants will not be capable of caring for their own apartments!”
“Yes, they will! Some of the smartest and most experienced people live in public housing projects, and once they become homeowners, they will protect their new stake in society. This is exactly the “culture of independency” we should want to implement.”
“This is just a gimmick – would you have bi-partisan support?”
“Of course. In fact, the Democrats may try to “steal” this idea.” The Democrats would not dare to oppose this.
Preliminary Steps
- Obtain the actual demographic public housing statistics showing where Blacks and Hispanics reside. I suggest you break it down, at least in New York City, borough by borough, or even better, neighborhood by neighborhood.
- Draw up a “balance sheet” to show the voters how many billions of federal, state, and city dollars public housing costs the taxpayers, the percentage of crime that currently plagues these tenants as compared to the rest of the city, and how this “turnover” plan is a win-win situation. The benefits will come from these Black and Hispanic tenants gaining home ownership and new wealth, the reduction of billions of dollars in federal, state, and city subsidies, and most importantly, a projected major reduction in crime in these neighborhoods.
- Commence the “turnover” program starting with a public housing unit in Brooklyn or the Bronx (where you are wildly popular among the Hispanic population), where there is a real estate boom ongoing, and if the plan works there, it would then be extended to the rest of the housing projects in urban centers throughout the United States.
- A management contract would be entered into with private managers through an RFP (Request for Proposals), rather than utilizing the current NYCHA because of their own entrenched culture of dependency and self-perpetuating bureaucracy. Besides, new faces will mean that a new age in urban housing has arrived.
A Case Study
Will this plan work? Yes! How do I know? I personally saw it happen in Moscow.
I opened a law office in Moscow in 1991, and I saw this “turnover” happen in reality.
When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the Russian masses literally had no money. President Yeltsin, to his credit, made almost every urban Russian a member of the middle class by enacting legislation which “turned over” their rental apartments (rent was $10 a month, paid to the USSR government) to the then-current registered tenants at no cost. Incidentally, there was a small minority of tenants who refused to accept this “turnover” because they did not want the responsibility of ownership after 70 years of Communism, I am sure this will not be a problem in the U.S.
This “turnover” was in my opinion the only absolute success of Yeltsin’s administration.
I am prepared to set aside time from my law practice to assist you with this project or any other part of your administration, if you feel this merits your consideration.
