When the Government Is the Slum Lord

The Center for Investigative Reporting has an
excellent analysis of the absolutely reprehensible housing
agency for Richmond, Calif, up in the Oakland area. The Richmond
Housing Agency management would be called slum lords if they were
private landowners:

The Richmond Housing Authority is running a nearly $7 million
deficit and has to repay $2.2 million for past contracting
mistakes. The federal government is threatening to take control of
the housing authority this year if key financial benchmarks are not
met.

In 2012, Richmond failed to collect more than $157,000 in rent
from tenants, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development’s most recent inspection.

As its finances spiraled out of control and residents’ basic
needs went ignored, the authority spent lavishly, records show.

Its executive director, Tim Jones, charged hundreds of dollars
on meals in New York and Washington, including a roughly $400 meal
at an upscale midtown Manhattan restaurant where a strip steak with
truffle fries runs $41.

The meals cost as much as many public housing tenants pay each
month in rent.

Jones’ pay also increased about 30 percent over three years as
the authority ran up debt.

Amy Julia Harris goes into detail about all the contracting
problems, the resident complaints, the frustrations of the federal
government over the mismanagement and the defenses by the city’s
mayor, who would no doubt be calling for the owners head on a plate
if these were private apartments and not publicly subsidized
housing. Instead it’s Barack Obama’s fault for spending money on
wars and bailing out banks. No, really; if you don’t want to read
all of Harris’ reporting, watch the KQED segment below: