Latest news with #Alberts
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'Roof over people's heads': Proposed cuts to HUD funding could impact local public housing programs
Editor's note: Federal Fallout is a Tribune-Democrat news series addressing the potential local impact of funding cuts. JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – President Donald Trump's proposed broad and historic cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's discretionary funding could, if ultimately enacted, significantly transform the nation's public housing and Section 8 rental voucher programs that approximately 20% of Johnstown residents use. Trump, in his 'skinny' budget, recommended slashing HUD's funding by approximately $33 billion, including $26.7 billion for rental assistance programs, compared to this current fiscal year. For now, it is just an outline of a spending plan that, in its text, refers to the nation's 'dysfunctional rental assistance programs,' he said. 'The skinny budget and what I've seen, it isn't enough for us trying to make any kind of guess of what to expect,' JHA Executive Director Mike Alberts said. 'It's too early. There's been no good numbers coming out of the (U.S.) Senate and House (of Representatives) yet that would give us any kind of idea of where we might see cuts in specific programs. We just haven't seen anything to give us a good idea yet.' Alberts continued: 'Really, the only thing that's going to matter in the end is the budget that they pass that is in effect for Oct. 1, which is the federal government's beginning of fiscal year.' Federal Fallout logo Regardless of what budget changes may occur, Alberts said JHA's mission will continue to be helping people 'with the basic human need of housing.' 'With things being tougher than ever with the cost of living in general, affordable housing is absolutely needed, especially in Johnstown and Cambria County, where the poverty rates are traditionally so high,' Alberts said. 'It's important work, and we really rely on those federal dollars to keep the lights on and keep a safe roof over people's heads.' 'Where things stand' JHA operates 1,504 public housing units – with 1,400 being in the city proper – that are used to assist people in poverty or economically disadvantaged conditions, the elderly, and disabled. The dwellings are almost always filled to capacity. Johnstown Housing Authority | Prospect Homes Blueprints Johnstown Housing Authority executive director Mike Alberts with original blueprints for the Prospect Homes Housing Project. Photo taken at the Johnstown Housing Authority main office in the Cambria City section of Johnstown on Monday, May 8, 2023. Meanwhile, as of the end of May, the authority had 764 of its 960 Section 8 vouchers leased up, as part of the nation's rental assistance program. JHA has left vouchers unused due to funding uncertainties. For example, Alberts pointed out that JHA was told to expect $500,000 for the program in May, but only received $460,000 when the money showed up in its account. 'We've been extremely conservative with those vouchers because we don't know where the money is and what the value is, so we've been extremely conservative,' JHA Chairman Charles Arnone said. 'We probably won't be doing any more during the summer until we know where things stand.' In total, JHA has a total budget of just under $20.3 million for fiscal year 2025. The areas of spending are: • Public housing: $8,642,000 • Section 8 landlord payments: $5,675,903 • Section 8 administration fees: $722,233 • Capital Fund: $4,673,514 • Family self-sufficiency ('On The Rise') program: $72,840 • Choice Neighborhoods grant: $500,000. Alberts said the current situation is 'business as usual' with the next budget being 'a huge question mark.' Last year, JHA was awarded a Choice Neighborhood planning grant to develop an outline for stabilizing and improving Coopersdale Homes. The 30-month process is still ongoing. Alberts said the $500,000 grant is 'completely safe.' 'That (planning grant) money's already obligated to us and that's not in any danger of being taken away,' Alberts said. 'That's not all to us yet, since we have to kind of request it as we need it, but there's no danger of that going away.' 'More state control' The Republican president's plan would transform the funding system 'into a State-based formula grant which would allow States to design their own rental assistance programs based on their unique needs and preferences. 'The Budget would also newly institute a two-year cap on rental assistance for able bodied adults, and would ensure a majority of rental assistance funding through States would go to the elderly and disabled. 'A State-based formula program would also lead to significant terminations of Federal regulations.' 'With respect to cuts to housing, one thing that I would view as a positive is it would put more state control on some of these issues,' said state Senate Majority Whip Wayne Langerholc Jr., R-Richland Township. 'I know when we exposed some of the issues within HUD in the past with the (Section 8 voucher) porting, with the wait list, with the influx of individuals from Philadelphia that could not get a voucher in that area but were coming here to Johnstown, our hands were kind of tied. 'There wasn't a lot we could do from a state perspective, as it fell on the federal government. So if that does in fact change and come back, it will give our state much more discretion in shaping that policy and ensuring that it is done appropriately, and we would be able to have an impact on a lot of those areas, specifically that porting issue and the loopholes that we exposed for residency requirements.' Langerholc said the situation is currently 'in flux.' 'It's a fluid situation,' Langerholc said. 'I know it's something that we're watching very closely at the state level, what the federal government is doing across the board as well.'
USA Today
30-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Texas A&M athletic director shocks with announcement about future of baseball program
Texas A&M athletic director shocks with announcement about future of baseball program After days of anticipation, Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts has seemingly made his decision regarding the future of the baseball program moving forward. According to The Eagle reporter Alex Miller, Alberts announced on Friday afternoon that head coach Michael Earley will remain with the team after missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021. The Aggies were also the first program in college baseball since 1991 to be ranked as the unanimous No. 1 team and not make postseason play. Here is the statement from Alberts on the state of the position and his discussions with Earley: Earley's first season at the helm was one that most Aggie fans hope to forget. Texas A&M went 30-26 (11-19 SEC) after being ranked as the best team in baseball before the season began. The only hope of the program reaching postseason play diminished after the Aggies fell to the LSU Tigers in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals. Following the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, and the inevitability of the Aggies missing the tournament was confirmed, the discussions of the program's direction were sparked immediately. Potential head coaches were tossed around on social media, as the fanbase felt that Alberts would move forward following what was a disappointing season, to say the least. However, it seems that Alberts and the Texas A&M baseball program are moving forward with Earley at the helm for the foreseeable future. The former hitting coach and assistant turned head coach looks to be getting an opportunity to rewrite the wrongs that occurred in 2025 and get Texas A&M back to the apex of college baseball. Will Earley turn things around in College Station? Only time will tell. If retaining Earley is truly the final decision, the surprising announcement from Alberts will certainly raise eyebrows if the program is not able to have success in 2026. Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Dylan on X: @dylanmflippo.
San Francisco Chronicle
29-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
College sports lurches forward, hoping to find a level playing field with fewer lawsuits
MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. (AP) — On the one hand, what this new version of cash-infused college sports needs are rules that everybody follows. On the other, they need to be able to enforce those rules without getting sued into oblivion. Enter the College Sports Commission, a newly created operation that will be in charge of counting the money, deciding what a 'fair market' deal for players looks like and, if things go well, helping everyone in the system avoid trips to court whenever a decision comes down that someone doesn't like. With name, image, likeness payments taking over in college, this group will essentially become what the NCAA committee on infractions used to be – the college sports police, only with the promise of being faster, maybe fairer and maybe more transparent. In a signal of what the CSC's most serious mission might be, the schools from the four biggest conferences are being asked to sign a document pledging not to rely on state laws – some of which are more permissive of payments to players -- to work around the rules the commission is making. 'We need to get out of this situation where something happens, and we run to our attorney general and file suit,' said Trev Alberts of Texas A&M, one of 10 athletic directors who are part of another group, the Settlement Implementation Committee, that is helping oversee the transition. 'That chaos isn't sustainable. You're looking for a durable system that actually has some stability and ultimate fairness.' Number crunching to figure out what's fair The first, and presumably more straightforward, is data being compiled by LBi Software, which will track how much schools are spending on every athlete, up to the $20.5 million cap each is allowed to distribute in the first year of the new arrangement expected to begin July 1. This sounds easy but comes with the assumption that universities – which, for decades, have sought to eke out every edge they can, rulebook or no – will provide accurate data. 'Over history, boosters have looked for ways to give their schools an advantage,' said Gabe Feldman, a sports law professor at Tulane. 'I think that will continue even with the settlement. It's anyone's guess as to how that manifests, and what the new competitive landscape looks like.' Adding some level of transparency to the process, along with the CSC's ability to deliver sanctions if it identifies cheaters, will be key to the new venture's success. 'There's legal risk that prohibits you from doing that,' Alberts said. 'But we want to start as transparent as we can be, because we think it engenders trust.' Good intentions aside, Alberts concedes, 'I don't think it's illogical to think that, at first, it's probably going to be a little wonky.' How much should an endorsement deal be worth? Some of the wonkiest bookkeeping figures to come from the second category of number crunching, and that involves third-party NIL deals. The CSC hired Deloitte to run a so-called clearinghouse called 'NIL Go," which will be in charge of evaluating third-party deals worth $600 or more. Because these deals aren't allowed to pay players simply for playing – that's still technically forbidden in college sports -- but instead for some service they provide (an endorsement, a social media shoutout and so forth), every deal needs to be evaluated to show it is worth a fair price for what the player is doing. In a sobering revelation, Deloitte shared with sports leaders earlier this month that around 70% of third-party deals given to players since NIL became allowable in 2021 would have been denied by the new clearinghouse. All these valuations, of course, are subject to interpretation. It's much easier to set the price of a stock, or a bicycle, than the value of an athlete's endorsement deal. This is where things figure to get dicey. Though the committee has an appeals process, then an arbitration process, ultimately, some of these cases are destined to be challenged in court. 'You're just waiting to see, what is a 'valid business purpose' (for an NIL deal), and what are the guidelines around that?" said Rob Lang, a business litigation partner at Thompson Coburn who deals with sports cases. 'You can see all the lawyer fights coming out of that.' Avoiding court, coordinating state laws are new priorities In fact, elements of all this are ripe to be challenged in court, which might explain why the power conferences drafted the document pledging fealty to the new rules in the first place. For instance, Feldman called a law recently enacted in Tennessee viewed by many as the most athlete-friendly statute in the country 'the next step in the evolution" of state efforts to bar the NCAA from limiting NIL compensation for athletes with an eye on winning battles for recruits and retaining roster talent. 'What we've seen over the last few years is states trying to one-up each other to make their institutions more attractive places for people to go," he said. 'This is the next iteration of that. It may set up a showdown between the schools, the NCAA and the states.' Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, said a league spanning 12 states cannot operate well if all those states have different rules about how and when it is legal to pay players. The SEC has been drafting legislation for states to pass to unify the rules across the conference. Ultimately, Sankey and a lot of other people would love to see a national law passed by Congress that does that for all states and all conferences. That will take months, if not years, which is why the new committee drafted the document for the schools to sign. 'We are all defendant schools and conferences and you inherently agree to this,' Alberts said of the document. 'I sat in the room with all of our football coaches, 'Do you want to be governed?' The answer is 'yes.''
USA Today
28-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
'You fight every day': Texas A&M athletic director talks state of athletics
'You fight every day': Texas A&M athletic director talks state of athletics Following the annual Southeastern Conference Spring Meetings, Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts discussed a variety of topics, including the baseball head coach position heading into the offseason. The Aggies were ranked as the unanimous No. 1 team in college baseball before the 2025 campaign, which is far from how the season ended. Texas A&M's campaign was cut short at the SEC Tournament, as they finished the season with a 30-26 (11-19 SEC) record and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021. With this year's ventures ending earlier than initially anticipated, the program became the first team since 1991 to miss the postseason after being ranked as the No. 1-ranked club in the preseason. Texas A&M's disappointing season sparked conversations regarding the head coach position, as the team prepares to rebuild and attempt to retain some of the talent from this year's squad. With many question marks surrounding the position, Alberts set the record straight at the SEC Spring Meetings. While baseball remains a hot topic among many Aggie fans, the second-year athletic director also discussed several other important topics, including the state of Texas A&M athletics as a whole. The men's and women's tennis programs have achieved a multitude of incredible victories, including the men's team advancing to the Sweet 16 and the women's team competing for a national championship against the Georgia Bulldogs. Although the softball program was eliminated earlier than many expected, head coach Trisha Ford led the Aggies to the team's first-ever No. 1 ranking in school history. The men's basketball team also made the NCAA Tournament, while the Aggies football squad capped off a successful regular season with an appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl. Following an extensive amount of success and some bumps in the road along the way, Alberts gave his thoughts on the athletics year as a whole and what to expect moving forward. To put this all together, Texas A&M has achieved numerous successes in athletics this year. However, that does not mean that the train stops moving. It is going to continue to move rapidly down the tracks, and for many Aggie fans, that is why complacency is not accepted. In this day and age of collegiate athletics, the aspiration is to find ways to win or get run over in the process. One integral part of rebuilding rosters each year, especially in the day and age of the transfer portal, is finding ways to fundraise for NIL, athletics facilities, and the overall gameday experience for coaches, players, media, and fans alike. Following the meetings in Destin, Florida, Alberts spoke with the media about how Texas A&M is continuing to handle this new era in college athletics and what the Aggies are doing to provide fundraising for the respective programs. Time will tell what direction Texas A&M decides to go starting this fall, as a new academic and athletics season looms on the horizon. Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Dylan on X: @dylanmflippo.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
JHA: Prospect Homes rehabilitation project down to 'small' details, new Section 8 vouchers issued
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – All major construction is complete on the Prospect Homes rehabilitation project. The Johnstown Housing Authority-owned public housing units were repaired and upgraded after substantial deficiencies were discovered, particularly ceilings that were in danger of collapsing, requiring all tenants to vacate the units in the spring of 2023. 'While it's essentially complete, all three contractors are still working up there, finishing up small punch-list items,' JHA Executive Director Mike Alberts said Tuesday during the board's regular monthly meeting. 'This could be things like 'Hey, you missed a second coat of paint on this wall' or 'Hey, this electrical outlet isn't working,' small items like that.' Along with the remaining small-detail construction items, JHA workers are taking care of other final matters, such as installing appliances. 'Before they're 'ready ready' we still have some more work to do,' Alberts said. Right now, JHA is focusing on finishing apartments of former Prospect residents who have expressed a desire to return to the community. Up to 20 families have already returned to the public housing complex as apartments have passed inspection. Vouchers issued JHA issued 17 new Section 8 rental assistance vouchers in March. 'Those were the first vouchers that have been issued in the Section 8 program in about a year,' Alberts said. 'We felt we were comfortable enough with the (federal) HAP (Housing Assistance Payments) funding where we think we could put more vouchers on the streets and not feel too far upside down.' There are 960 Section 8 vouchers allotted to JHA with 769 in use.
