#150 Summer 2007 — Subprime Slide

Stripped of Duty

All 22 staff members of the Berkeley Housing Authority were fired in late spring after an investigation uncovered abuses within the agency, which receives $25 million in federal funds each […]

All 22 staff members of the Berkeley Housing Authority were fired in late spring after an investigation uncovered abuses within the agency, which receives $25 million in federal funds each year. Perhaps the most bizarre irregularity involved two years’ worth of rent subsidies paid on behalf of 15 deceased tenants. Other violations included overpaying subsidies for some tenants and allowing ineligible tenants to inherit Section 8 vouchers from family members. Agency director Steve Barton has resigned, and the city, which failed as the agency’s overseer, has been replaced with an independent board of commissioners. City attorney Manuela Albuquerque says the city’s managers and Barton dismissed her advice to conduct audits for years.

OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE

  • Taxation of Shared-Equity Homes

    June 12, 2008

    In 2004, the National Housing Institute launched an ongoing research project on shared-equity homeownership, focusing on three models of resale-restricted, owner-occupied housing: limited-equity cooperatives; community land trusts; and deed-restricted houses […]

  • Long Time Coming

    July 23, 2007

    After 40 years of abuse and neglect, will the residents of D.C.'s once-vibrant Shaw neighborhood succeed in redefining the value of people and place?

  • A Matter of Trust

    July 23, 2007

    Although a March 2007 Zogby International poll found that affordable housing was an important election issue, most elected officials have yet to place creating a housing trust fund at the […]