CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — When it comes to the bidding process for city low-income housing projects, city councilman Gil Hernandez says it appears that only one company, "Prospera" out of San Antonio, is getting those contracts.
"You have things to where in appears to be less than on the up and up, Hernandez said. "We are just begging for an FBI investigation."
The council member still has questions about the process used by the city to award Housing and Urban Development dollars for low-income housing projects like Prospera's the Palms at Blucher. Hernandez feels that the San Antonio based non profit has been favored by city staff over the years.
"There have been multiple occasions where the city has provided a benefit to Prospera that they have not provided to other companies," he said.
Others on council had questions about the process during Tuesday's council meeting. That, as Prospera sought the city's support to build a senior complex at 19th and Morris and another one along Williams drive.
Councilman Roland Barrera told 3NEWS that the city does business with other companies besides Prospera.
"We just recently did it where another property, Fishpond, where we actually gave them $1 million," Barrera said. "It wasn't a loan. So we could do that, we could provide a grant but in this particular case working with Prospera, the idea was to provide a loan, that at sometime could be paid back."
Daniel McGinn, the CIty's director of Planning and Community Development says these low income housing projects are awarded to a variety of companies, not just Prospera.
The non-profit's executive director, Jacque Woodring, says everything they do is out in the open.
"Everything is a public process," Woodring said. "Our application when we file with the state can be viewed at the state level. If we have home funds and properties in each community those are usually given by the City of Corpus Christi, that's a public process."
In the end, Council did vote to approve and give their support to both of the projects that Prospera is going to tackle. All agreed, however, that they would like a process that's clear and concise to everyone.
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