There are more than 6,500 Mainers on the waiting list for affordable housing and the low income heating assistance fund is out of money. Meanwhile, Maine State Housing Authority has authorized all kinds of questionable spending, from luxury hotels, to contributions to political organizations, to $300,000 for single-unit apartments. This is just plain unacceptable.

However, there seems to be no accountability for MSHA spending. Even the governor or the MSHA Board of Commissioners can’t make a change in management.

Recently, legislative leaders put in a bill that would help make MaineHousing more directly accountable for its operations. Unfortunately, several Democratic legislators, including Sen. Margaret Craven from Lewiston, tried to block the bill from even getting a hearing.

The bill did make it through, despite the efforts of progressives in the Legislature, and, I hope, it will pass, bringing more accountability to an agency that is clearly in need of additional oversight.

This isn’t some political game. This is about hard-earned public dollars being wasted by frivolous management at MaineHousing, while needy Mainers are left out in the cold.

It is wrong, and it is time for a change.

Diana Holcomb, Norway