During the summer of 2021, City of DeKalb did a favor for the Housing Authority of the County of DeKalb (HACD) by approving a plan to make a segment of North Sixth Street one-way to relieve the housing authority’s parking problem.
There was no evidence of any parking issue. Meeting minutes and requests for information turned up no documentation of HACD’s board tackling anything of the sort. It was a flex, a show of clout generated by family and business ties between appointed and elected officers of the housing authority and the city.
Since then, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and personal observations have yielded a variety of examples of HACD’s preferential treatment of vendors, disregard of regulations, subversion of the FOIA response process, and violations of the Open Meetings Act. Special treatment for some and contempt for others constitute a red flag in social services — I wonder what tenants have to put up with, and I hope DeKalb County and/or HUD shares that concern enough to investigate at some point.
Meanwhile, below is a list of the blog articles published about HACD since early August 2021. There is still no end of material and we’ll keep this listing current with each new post.
Find other series by City Barbs here.
How the DeKalb Housing Authority violates the Open Meetings Act
The avaricious romance of the local housing authority & our mayor
Housing authority helped Cohen Barnes with marketing his company
Documents continue to suggest housing authority’s pattern of partiality toward its IT vendor
Housing authority’s listing of payments to Sundog is not complete
Housing authority’s dealings with Morningstar Media
Letter requests oversight of housing authority’s business travel
Letter informs DeKalb County of an illegal stipend paid to a housing authority commissioner
Letter urges investigation of the housing authority’s contracts with the mayor’s IT firm
Opinion: housing authority should avoid promoting from within
Serious issues evident in the housing authority’s procedures for debt collection
Housing authority sends termination notice over alleged unreported income
Determination: housing authority must release complaints against its employee
A sexual harassment complaint against a housing authority employee