Two of HUD's Katrina contractors

When we hear about hurricane relief contractors in the news, it's mainly regarding FEMA contracting, but HUD does have its own contractors assisting with the housing end of the recovery process. HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan responded today to some questions about a couple of contracting details. Nothing earthshaking here, but offered in case it can help subsidized-housing watchers to understand how the recovery is shaping up.

First of all, there had been a mention in HUD's Katrina response summary that the Office of Public and Indian Housing "awarded a contract for general disaster assistance within three days of the hurricane." Mr. Sullivan wrote: "The contract that was let within 3 days was to M.D. Strum for assistance to local public housing authorities (PHAs) in Katrina-affected areas."

Via online searches, it looks like M.D. Strum is a frequent presenter at housing officials' conferences and professional enrichment events. The company was approved last winter to run the Durham, NC Housing Authority amid some controversy over its employment of Larry Jones, who according to the Raleigh News & Observer "was fired as executive director of the New Orleans Housing Authority in 1991." (More here.) Despite this concern, the company recently won praise for straightening out Durham's HOPE VI project. Strum has been HUD's choice to run at least one housing authority in receivership.

We had also asked HUD about the role of the FirstPic company, which is mentioned in recent documents introducing HUD's KDHAP rent payment program for Katrina victims. Mr. Sullivan writes: "The role of FirstPic is to field calls from HUD assisted Katrina affected families looking for information on HUD programs including KDHAP."