[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 9, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E335-E336]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    JOSEPH FINNERTY: A JOB WELL DONE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 9, 2010

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, mixed emotions describe 
the way I and the people of New Bedford feel about the retirement of 
Joseph S. Finnerty, as Executive Director of the New Bedford Housing 
Authority. Running a housing authority and a city is no easy job, as 
people well know. But Joe Finnerty has never been one to complain about 
this task for which he volunteered and which he has performed in an 
extraordinary fashion for thirty-five years. No one can begrudge him 
his retirement after all that service in such a demanding position, but 
Joe can't begrudge us our feelings of regret that he's leaving. As 
Executive Director of the Housing Authority, Joe Finnerty has served 
not just the residents of public housing, but all of the people of New 
Bedford, by the great contributions he has made to the quality of life 
for those residents and for the city as a whole.
  Madam Speaker, tomorrow, March 10th, some of Joe's close friends, who 
know well what an extraordinary asset he has been to the city and 
people of New Bedford, are gathering with him to provide a well-earned 
salute. As you know, our business will keep me here in D.C. at that 
time, so I am taking advantage of this forum to send him my best 
wishes, not simply personally, but because the example of a man who has 
dedicated so much of his life to the important job of running a public 
housing authority, and done it so well, ought to be held up for those 
who sometimes become unduly pessimistic about the good that can be done 
in government. And I ask that the article by Jack Spillane, from the 
New Bedford Standard Times, be printed here for that purpose.

                            [Jan. 26, 2010]

         Retiring Housing Chief Looks Back on Reign With Pride

                           (By Jack Spillane)

       Few people in New Bedford have positively affected more 
     people's lives over the last 35 years than Joseph S. 
     Finnerty.
       Entrusted with the housing care of thousands of low-income 
     city residents since 1975, Joe Finnerty has presided over an 
     era in which the city authority rebuilt much of its aging 
     public housing stock, de-leaded more than 2,000 units, and 
     put into motion rebuilding projects that will eventually make 
     scores of housing units accessible to the disabled.
       Under the leadership of the 73-year-old Finnerty--who will 
     retire at the end of this month--the New Bedford Authority 
     has, for decades, provided stable and reliable housing for 
     thousands of low-income city residents.
       But it's something else that Finnerty--a member of a 
     political family long active in city and local Democratic 
     politics--seems most proud of. During Finnerty's long tenure 
     as executive director, the New Bedford Housing Authority did 
     not lose any of its public units to market-rate housing. (Any 
     apartments lost to demolition have been replaced by other 
     units elsewhere in the city.)
       That's a monumental achievement in an era when housing 
     rental rates far exceed the ability of people who work in 
     minimum-wage jobs to afford any type of housing.
       Finnerty is a staunch defender of the need for government-
     sponsored public housing.
       ``I don't see why you don't want to provide housing that's 
     affordable to people so that they can raise their families,'' 
     he said.
       Public housing's biggest beneficiaries are the elderly, 
     children and the disabled, he noted. ``It provides affordable 
     rents so that a family is not struggling to maintain a decent 
     environment.''
       Finnerty's philosophy notwithstanding, it's not unusual to 
     hear local complaints that New Bedford possesses too much 
     government housing, that people are moving down from Boston 
     because the housing is more affordable in New Bedford and 
     Fall River.
       Finnerty says he doesn't understand the attitude.
       It would not be progress, he said, to return to the massive 
     slum and tenement districts that blighted American cities in 
     the 1930s and 1940s.
       ``We can do a lot better than that now, and we are doing 
     better,'' he said.
       ``Public housing is no different than public health. It's 
     no different than public transportation. It's a vital part of 
     an urban community,'' he said.
       ``There are judges, university presidents and community 
     leaders who grew up in public housing, or who for a 
     significant time in their lives lived in public housing,'' he 
     noted.
       And the cities, Finnerty said, take responsibility for most 
     of the public-housing stock necessary to their surrounding 
     towns and suburbs. (By and large, suburban communities have 
     limited their public housing to elderly units, leaving their 
     own low-income families and disabled to relocate in the 
     cities.)
       Finnerty seems like a model for what a good, low-end, urban 
     private landlord should have been.
       He touts the importance of mixing working tenants with non-
     working ones in public housing. And he was always a no-
     nonsense manager who made it clear to bad public-housing 
     tenants that he would evict them. (He's even been consulted 
     by private owners of low-income housing about how to keep 
     developments safe and secure.)
       ``Public housing is not a right, it's a privilege,'' he 
     said.
       Many public housing tenants are ambitious, working two 
     jobs, and some eventually get themselves out of public 
     housing, Finnerty said.
       ``People who live in public housing are not different. They 
     are intelligent people. Their character is the same as the 
     people who live in non-public housing.''
       The job of a housing authority in a city the size of New 
     Bedford (just short of 100,000 people at the last census) is 
     not a small one.
       There are some 4,355 government-supported housing units in 
     New Bedford that were either directly or indirectly under 
     Finnerty's management--more than 2,500 federal and state 
     units, and an additional 1.600-plus Section 8 vouchers for 
     private housing.
       Finnerty, who worked for 13 years as a teacher and coach in 
     the Fairhaven school system, originally thought he would 
     preside over the housing authority for a comparatively short 
     period. A political appointee of popular former Mayor John 
     Markey, he thought he would return to public education, 
     perhaps as a principal or superintendent.
       (Finnerty, by the way, was one of the founding members of 
     the board that built Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-
     Technical High School and is a former trustee at both UMass 
     Dartmouth and Southeastern Massachusetts University.)
       But at the housing authority, Finnerty said there were 
     always important projects proceeding and he wanted to oversee 
     them to completion.
       ``I saw it (the public housing stock) as really an 
     investment for the city,'' he said. ``And it was definitely 
     needed.''

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