[Editor’s note: The following is an op-ed responding to one by Chris Barnett’s Bring $500M Proposal Before Legislature for Proper Scrutiny, Input from the People, which we published last week. Today’s response was sent to us by Tyler Matanane, public information officer for Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority. The document submitted notes the author is “GHURA,” and not any specific person.]
By Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority for Kandit News & Views
The management and distribution of over half a billion dollars in federal recovery funds is a not a simple nor easy task. Recognizing the long road to recovery, the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority (GHURA) has remained committed to transparency, accountability, and collaboration with our community and government stakeholders throughout the implementation of the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. The allocation to Guam was issued January 16, 2025, with a HUD prescribed due-date to submit the Action Plan by June 20, 2025 for their review and approval. GHURA worked with care and devotion to engage the public—in excess of the minimum requirements and drafted the Action Plan, all in 5-months.
We agree that the Legislature must play an active role in supporting long-term recovery plans. This is precisely why the Legislature was the very first stakeholder GHURA engaged with in this process. Our meeting with legislators on February 27, 2025, served as a comprehensive briefing—covering eligible uses of the funds, critical timelines, answering their questions, and seeking opportunities for legislative input. For example, a Senator requested that comments be published for public review; we not only posted them to our website, but also included most of them into the Draft Action Plan. Senator Barnett’s suggestions would have been given due consideration, had he been present to provide them; affording a reasonable time to plan and coordinate his request.
We share the view that public engagement should never be treated as a “check box”. That is why GHURA went above and beyond federal requirements—conducting six town halls while accepting public comments, in addition to the three mandated public hearings during the official comment period; extending it beyond the required 30 days. Our use of traditional media, radio, and television, was supplemented by a successful digital outreach campaign that generated more than one million combined views across Facebook and Instagram—ensuring that our messaging reached as many residents as possible.
We remain committed to open dialogue and collaboration with all leaders. However, genuine partnerships require showing up in good-faith to actively participate. The devastation left behind by Typhoon Mawar continues to affect many families across the island, even if those impacts are less visible today. Guam’s challenges are many and time is not on our side in our goal to Fix in Six.
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GHURA administers federal housing programs. Earlier this year the agency received notice that its CDBG-DR grant application for more than half-a-billion-dollars in funds was approved. The agency formulated an action plan with public input, and is due to submit that plan to the federal grantor for approval of its use.
