Supervisor, Administrator Clash Over Future Of SF Housing Authority

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— San Francisco Supervisor David Campos is calling for the creation of a public housing collaborative in the wake of a scathing audit of the city's housing authority. But the acting head of the authority would rather have the money spent on the properties themselves.

The audit found 2,800 requests for housing authority maintenance.

"We're seeking $1 million through the 'add-back' process to create a public housing collaborative that is modeled after the (single room occupancy) collaborative," Campos said.

Barbara Smith, the acting head of the San Francisco Housing Authority, who was appointed following the firing of former Housing Chief Henry Alvarez, said if there's extra money it should be spent on property improvements as two umbrella organizations elected by residents of properties that already exist. However, she did say that she agrees with the audit's findings.

Former Sunnydale resident Amber Orantes said, aside from violence in the area that has left 10 people she went to high school with dead, there are health issues living in the housing authority units as well.

"There is so much mold in the units that you can smell it," Orantes said.

"Their financial problems, The Housing Authority, midway through the year, identified an enormous deficit in part due to poor budgeting, high costs and low federal subsidies," Smith said.

Sequestration has resulted in a more than 20 percent drop in funding for the housing authority. She added that the federal government reduced the funding level to 77 percent of what the federal government agrees is needed to operate the housing authority.

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