HDC: An anatomy of community failure

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Last week’s column on

Redemption and Reciprocity (R&R) must have struck a collective

nerve.

xml:lang=”EN”>I heard from many folks who were served by the Human

Development Corporation as well as those who were stung by it.

There’s a lot of finger-pointing and venom being spewed. It makes

me reiterate what I said last week: We need a process that holds us

morally, politically and financially accountable. When wrongdoing

has been established and admitted, a restorative justice model is

enacted to reinforce restitution and healing.

xml:lang=”EN”>It is worth dissecting the troubles of HDC that led

to its demise. The agency has been around since 1964 and served

thousands of poor and working-class families. It was established at

a time when the government was trying to cool out civil unrest.

Under the War on Poverty, agencies were created in cities across

the country. Those heading these agencies were dubbed “poverty

pimps” because their interest was not to eliminate the conditions

that gave rise to poverty but to see how to further profit from

them.

xml:lang=”EN”>Red flags started flying with HDC back in the late

1990s with its Head Start Program. Eventually after several years

of investigation and audits, the Department of Health and Human

Services (DHHS) terminated the St. Louis-based agency’s contract.

In 2000, it closed its Head Start offices after 35 years of

service. DHHS criticized HDC’s persistent under enrollment, poor

fiscal management and non-compliance regarding children with

disabilities.

HDC officials

blamed then state Representative Charles Quincy Troupe whose

actions prompted the governmental investigation. At the time,

Troupe’s response was that he wasn’t anti-HDC, he was

“pro-efficiency and productivity.”

xml:lang=”EN”>The lack of enrollment

“font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>in a city that has one of

the highest childhood-poverty rates in the nation was an outrage.

At the time, more than 5,000 city children were eligible for Head

Start. Insiders said employees weren’t doing their job of

recruiting.

xml:lang=”EN”>The nonprofit received about $12 million a year in

federal grants to provide employment, health, rent, utility and

emergency food assistance for low-income residents in St. Louis and

Wellston cities.

“font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>HDC was forced to close its

doors owing more than $1 million in overdue payments to employees,

contractors and creditors. HDC had received more than a half

million dollars for energy assistance but the monies were never

paid out.

HDC’s woes has

been blamed on Harold Antoine and Ruth Smith, past executive

directors; on the board of directors, some who have served for

years; on lazy and incompetent employees, on vendors who received

no-bid contracts; and even on the families who were served. All

were aware of the internal dynamics but chose to just complain or

to turn a blind eye because of fears of losing their jobs,

services, perks or privileges.

We see similar

scenarios happen in the sexual abuse cases of priests in the

Catholic Church or in cases of wrongful convictions. There are real

perpetrators out there but there are many passive accomplices along

the way. Silence or lack of action gives more power to the

perpetrators and results in more damage to individual victims and

to our communities.

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I know people

on all sides of the HDC tragedy; they are not evil people. It is

important that they take responsibility for their piece of the

problem. Our community must develop citizens who understand that we

all have human and civil rights and that we all have the

responsibility of protecting those rights for everyone. Otherwise,

we will devolve into a society where there’s no shame or remorse

for exploiting others, where all forms of abuse become commonplace

and where accountability only happens in the criminal justice

system. And that, my friends, is barbarism.

HDC: An anatomy of community failure

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