Features

Berkeley Public Housing tenants showed up at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to rally against the loss of public housing.  

The Berkeley Housing Authority, which has been a separate entity from the city of Berkeley since 2007, approved the sale of 61 units of federal housing scattered around the city to a private developer so that BHA can focus on its Section 8 voucher program. 

BHA Director Tia Ingram contends that as a “troubled” housing authority, the agency had been given a Dec. 31, 2009, deadline by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to either create a plan to fix its public housing or get out of it entirely.  

Although current BHA tenants will receive relocation vouchers and some will even be able to return, the group is not giving up without a fight. 

“The housing has been allowed to deteriorate due to neglect,” said Keith Carlisle, a tenant. “Now that the mismanagement of the BHA administration and its board are being called into question by HUD, the BHA director and board want to sell off the problem that they have created. We say no. We say you messed up, you take responsibility and clean it up.” 

Carlisle and other tenants complained about mistreatment, mismanagement of funds and called for Ingram and BHS chair Carole Norris to be fired. 

Carlisle, who is leading a non-profit called Residents Awareness in Action, said that the group wanted a new business model which would place the tenants in partnership with BHA and HUD. 

Some councilmembers called for an investigation into the matter and asked for a report from BHA detailing the disposition plan.