Two veteran Vicksburg Planning Department program administrators said Wednesday they’ve been told the city is “getting out of the housing business” and they will no longer have jobs after Dec. 31.

Mayor Laurence Leyens countered that no one had been authorized to tell Leona Stringer, who has 31 years with the city, and Beatrice Moore, who has 30 years, they are being terminated. Leyens, joined by South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman, said no decisions have been made about the employees’ future, but that transitional ideas are being explored.

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said his understanding was different. “Why would you wipe out a department that has produced results?” Mayfield said. “I don’t feel like the majority of this board is using common sense in its decision.”

While changes in the department have been the object of speculation since the Sept. 19 departure of City Planner Wayne Mansfield to become executive director of the Warren County Port Commission, no board discussions have been held and no votes taken in open sessions.

“Because the county expressed interest last spring in duplicating the program so that all Warren County homes can be included,” Leyens said, ” Mansfield is going to try to get his board and the supervisors to allow him to move the program over to the Economic Development Foundation. We agreed to hold our decision about the future of offering this program until the end of the year.

Leyens said that will assure all pending clients are served. “We will honor all participants to date and will issue whatever grant money is still in place regardless.”

Stringer, housing coordinator, and Moore, program director for housing Community Development Block Grants, said, however, signs have been increasing that city programs will end. For example, an application for renewal of $100,000 grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas was prepared in advance of the Sept. 15 deadline and sent to City Hall for official signatures before mailing. But it was not signed and was not submitted.

Leyens has not talked directly with either program specialist, they said. Instead, word has been passed to them through Human Resources Director Lamar Horton that the mayor “wants to get out of the housing business.”

“It’s not prudent to keep applying for matching money until a decision is made,” Leyens said. “The next round of funds will be next spring with applications due early next year. Sid and I have real concerns about this program’s benefits versus the cost as well as the additional service that somehow we have managed to include that should be the banks’ responsibility as well as (real estate) agents.

“City services are far extended and payroll continues to eat up our revenue,” Leyens said. “We must decide what services are really meaningful to the majority of our taxpayers.”

While potential homebuyers will still be able to receive down payment assistance and other benefits through private banks and other government sources, there are some grant programs that may only be administered by municipalities or nonprofits. “An important point,” Moore said, “is that the money we get from the state of Mississippi from federal funds is actually taxpayer money appropriated for these programs. That money is going to continue to go somewhere, Jackson or Natchez or somewhere else. If it doesn’t come here, it’s still going somewhere.”

It’s hard to calculate the effect of the city’s housing assistance programs because grant periods vary, not always tracking calendar years. A guess, the administrators said, would be 10 to 12 families complete the process and receive $5,000 down payment assistance grants in a year in just one of the housing programs. Many more apply and, they said, a typical day includes 15 to 20 calls or inquiries about myriad housing programs that have varying purposes, terms and funding.

Another aspect is that while Vicksburg’s staff can only complete applications for properties in the city, the department conducts financial management and other education programs required for applicants to some programs, regardless of where they live or what entity is providing the funds. No other area agency offers the courses, which 289 people attended in 2006.

The city’s new fiscal year began Oct. 1. Leyens indicated the reason for not signing the renewal application due in Dallas was based on the budget that went into effect then. “We aren’t writing grant applications because we have don’t have money budgeted for a local match,” Leyens said.

Mayfield was clear, however that the whole planning department is being dismantled, with other members of its eight-person staff slated for transfer to other city departments. The department, in the past, has also had oversight of zoning and inspections operations. The decision, he said, followed more than a year of on-again, off-again talks.

Most of the housing programs Moore and Stringer have dealt with helping lower-income workers qualify for conventional mortgages. Private banks and Realtors, they said, can perform some of those services, but not all of them. The department has also overseen the World Changers Program, in which youth volunteers from other areas travel to Vicksburg to repair homes.