I cried the night Dale Strong, then Madison County Commission chair got elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Alabama’s 5th Congressional District. This was a man who was negligent and liable for a botched COVID Rental Assistance program, which he approved.
Afterwards, I proved this liability in my comprehensive October 2022 bamapolitics article, “Strong Reasons Why the Now Defunct Madison County Emergency Rental Assistance Program Was a Complete Debacle.” From this article,
“With Dale Strong at the helm, the Madison County Commission did their county funding administration separate from both the State of Alabama funding and the Huntsville City Government funding. First, Madison County Government started ERAP months later than Huntsville City Government and the State, which both started in March 2021. The Madison Co. ERAP was started on June 1, 2021, and ended abruptly in early November 2021. There was only a measly five months of coverage. By contrast, Huntsville City’s ERAP program has [had] been successful. It is [was] ongoing, providing over a year and a half of critical financial help so residents can avoid evictions. The Madison County Commission chose not to apply for a 2nd round of funding like Huntsville did. When Madison County’s Madison County Emergency Rental Assistance Program (MCERAP) website and phone number abruptly ended in Nov. 2021, there was no way for those landlords or tenants to follow up on the statuses of applications or fix pending issues.”
I know all the horrendous details of what happened to Madison County renters outside of Huntsville city limits because I was then a 211 Call Specialist for Crisis Services of North Alabama and was taking calls and assisting all Madison County residents. Both city and county renters get information about how to sign up for the rental help.
One elderly lady cried on the phone with me for 20 minutes because her friend in the city in her same circumstances got plenty of COVID rental assistance help while she in the county was thoroughly locked out of funding.
She was on the verge of eviction as were so many callers.
I had to explain the unexplainable over and over to thousands of callers. There was another young mother whose husband died of COVID. He had run a successful construction company that was suddenly in ruins. She called several times to follow up if the situation had improved but she ultimately got no help either.
Another caller did happen to get approval from the Madison County program but said that the landlord got an approval letter but the check never came from the government. Another caller (no lie) alleged that a check did come to the landlord but bounced.
The Madison County Commission did not have the case management infrastructure like Huntsville City to adequately administer the program, so they farmed it out to an out-of-state provider. Therefore, they had no oversight of the process. From my previous article:
“Their document entitled ‘Emergency Request For Proposals for Federal COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program Administration And Case Management’ shows that the commission didn’t even start calling for proposals for the project until March 24, 2021, with a submission deadline of April 7, 2021. This document is available on the Madison County Government website (www.madisoncountyal.gov). I’m no expert on administering government programs, but considering June 1, 2021, launch date, one could logically conclude that this was a major rush job once they did start.”
Dale Strong never answered any of my direct emails or phone calls to his office about it. With all his massively funded campaign, I doubt the rental assistance program even crossed his mind. He was very busy attending campaign prayer breakfasts and making other appearances.
One commissioner, Violet Edwards, was kind enough to email me back. She responded, “I hope it [State of AL ERAP] will consider bringing Madison County back into the fold.”
I made direct efforts to contact the customer service line of the State ERAP program. They were adamant that Madison County residents were NOT eligible for state funding nor would they be. To no avail, I emailed several local officials to make them aware of the problem. I emailed Governor Kay Ivey. No response.
Dale Strong could have made efforts to rectify the problem with the state but made zero effort to. After my initial article came out, he made a donation to the local homeless shelter. Dale Strong was liable, but he failed up to Congress anyway.
I wrote a skit about the problem and performed it on my friend Joy Johnson’s podcast HSV Progressive and local internet radio. I even wrote a rap song about it called Madison County ERAP. It felt like yelling into a void except for a few progressive friends.
Later in front of TV cameras and an audience, I spoke before the Madison County Commission meeting to explain the situation and its harm done to those evicted. The new Madison County Commission Chair Mac McCutcheon (obviously understanding Dale’s liability) told me that he had already read my article and would I speak to him directly after the meeting to further understand the situation and how they could make sure that nothing like this ever happened again.
Dale Strong successfully failed up to Congress and will soon be asking North Alabama voters for a third term in office. Hopefully, he will have the self-respect to respond to the truth of that sad situation. Hopefully, in 2026, I will not have to suffer more live news coverage of his gilded and lavish campaign victory party with that giant cake!
I grew up in Huntsville in the 1980s and 90s. My parents never taught me anything about “values.” Instead they taught me that there was a right and a wrong way to do things, and that I better figure it out. When Alabamians vote in November 2026, I hope they decide to skip the straight party ticket option and acknowledge that they do have choices on that ballot.
