Problems at Hayward Manor
* Sadly, the only factual statement that former L.A. Housing Department general manager Gary Squier made in his interview (Opinion, July 27) regarding the failed skid-row Hayward Manor housing project is, “Everything that could go wrong went wrong with the Hayward Manor.” He simply left out the role played by city officials, including himself, in this fiasco. The defaulted, uncompleted housing project has resulted in a loss exceeding $10 million to L.A. taxpayers and over $14 million to the bondholders.
When he blames the debacle on the bondholders for initiating a lawsuit, he leaves unsaid that the bondholders waited until five months after the default to file and that occurred only after the city strung the bondholders along for a year and a half with false promises about working toward an acceptable solution.
Those desperately in need of low-income housing need what the Hayward Manor housing project should be. Squier and the city owe it to us all to identify what really went wrong with this project and to restore our confidence in the city housing bureaucracy he once led.
HAROLD P. REICHWALD
Counsel to the Hayward Manor Bondholders’ Committee
Los Angeles
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