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Oakland Housing Authority Blames Tenants, For Crimes Committed By Staff
In the topsy turvy world of the Oakland Housing Authority, the tenants are being blamed for the crimes of the Housing Authority staff members!
---Oakland Housing Authority Punishes Renters For The Crimes Of It's Staff---
34 Families Face Eviction After Having Their Security Deposits Stolen: See stories below...
In the April 28 San Francisco Chronicle:
David Lipsetz of the Oakland Housing Authority says;
"The story here is that we've got a clerk who committed 34 counts of fraud,'' Lipsetz said. "Police have confirmed that the former employee fled the state.''
"The 34 families never applied to our program,'' he said. "The way we see it is if you bought a stolen car, whether you knew it or not, you don't get to keep it,'' Lipsetz said. See SF Chronicle article below.
A stolen car? A car that was sold by the Oakland Housing Authority?
Has Lipsetz lost his mind? This is more analogous to the rape of 34 women, and the blaming of them for their rape because of the clothes they were wearing!
These poor low-income families all signed leases and other documents, and submitted everything that was asked of them before moving into their housing units before they ended up having their security deposits ripped off by an employee of the Housing Authority who then fled the state! See articles below...
So why does David Lipsetz and the executive management at the Oakland Housing Authority want to punish low-income renters for the crimes of their own employee/s?
Why should low-income renters be forced to pay for the crimes of others?
Why is the Oakland Housing Authority blaming others for the crimes committed by it's own staff?
---Oakland Housing Authority PR Campaign A Waste Of Money---
Lewis & Summers have been doing Public Relations work for the Oakland Housing Authority in an effort to polish up it's image and make them look good. In addition, the executive director and executive management team have been groomed by Lewis & Summers media training program, in an effort to put the best face possible on an agency run amuck.
Considering what has been going on lately at Oakland's Housing Authority, no amount of PR campaigns or media training can make the best out of a rotten situation.
In recent days it came to light that the staff at the Oakland Housing Authority have been caught up into a rent scam involving 29 families, and then it suddenly jumped to 34 families or more that have had their security deposits ripped off by someone in the employ of Housing Authority. See stories below...
And what is the response of the Housing Authority?
They are blaming the low-income victims that have been ripped off of their security deposits! And now, the Housing Authority is trying to evict them to boot! All 34 families! In addition, they have been sending cops out late at night to pound on the doors of the victims in an effort to frighten them out of their homes with scary notices!
These GESTAPO techniques have not silenced the victims and will never be acceptable by fair minded people! No PR campaign of Lewis & Summers or David Lipsetz can ever make such un-American activities look good in the eyes of the people or the City of Oakland!
It is time for the executive staff of the Oakland Housing Authority to take full responsibility for the actions of their own agency, and to stop terrorizing it's public housing population immediately!
The low-income people of Oakland need subsidized housing way too much to get caught up into the crosshairs of those in the Housing Authority who believe that it's o'k to rip off or terrorize the low-income renters out of their housing!
We in the community can only hope that the executives and staff at the Oakland Housing Authority will start paying closer attention to their own Administrative Plan which prohibits them from forcing their renters to prove their citizenship over and over again, or ripping off the tenants security deposits, or terrorizing the renters out of their housing units by sending cops to their homes late at night!
It's time for the City Officials in Oakland to investigate the happenings at the Oakland Housing Authority, and to put an end to the harassment of low-income renters by the Oakland Housing Authority!
We cannot remain silent in times like these!
Sincerely,
Lynda Carson
A Section 8 renter in Oakland.
See Lewis & Summers PR efforts...
[Lewis & Summers - Oakland Housing Authority PR Campaign]
Improving the Image of a Oakland, Calif. Housing Authority
This large public agency asked Lewis & Summers to provide a media training program for its executive director and executive management team. As part of our program, we successfully pitched good news stories about the Oakland Housing Authority to KPIX-TV News (San Francisco) and the Oakland Tribune.
Lewis & Summers
251 Lafayette Circle, # 340
Lafayette, CA 94549
FAX: 925-284-4861
http://www.prwebsite.com/casestudies.htm
Roll Back The Rents
In todays report...
[Rent Scam Hurts Tenants]
Mass Evictions From Oakland's Public Housing
A Nightmare At Hope Vl Project
By Lynda Carson April 27, 2006
Fear and panic have set in at some of East Oakland's public housing units, as Police agents from the Oakland Housing Authority have been making late night visits to the tenants recently, while demanding that the families pack up and move within a five day period.
After refusing to pack up and run, nearly 30 families are facing mass eviction by the Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) from their public housing units on 65th Ave at Lockwood Gardens, a Hope Vl Project.
Click below for full story...
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/155096.php
**********
[Housing Authority Blames Victims]
Families may be evicted after paying public housing worker in scam
Patrick Hoge
San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, April 28, 2006
Thirty-four families are in danger of being evicted from public housing after the Oakland Housing Authority discovered they had been bumped to the top of a lengthy waiting list by an employee who charged them as much as $1,000 apiece to move in.
The Housing Authority will ask a judge today to allow the agency to begin evicting the families, but attorneys for many of them argue their clients should not be penalized for the housing authority's failure to prevent corruption within its ranks.
"The Housing Authority is dead set on blaming the victims,'' said Jorge Aguilar, a lawyer with the Eviction Defense Center in Oakland, which is representing nine families.
Housing Authority spokesman David Lipsetz said agency officials discovered last fall that an employee, whom he would not name, "took cash payments and then moved people into apartments." The Alameda County district attorney's office has joined the investigation.
"The story here is that we've got a clerk who committed 34 counts of fraud,'' Lipsetz said. "Police have confirmed that the former employee fled the state,'' he said.
The employee is believed to have taken payments of as much as $1,000 to move the families to the top of a waiting list with well over 1,000 names, and the families being evicted never completed the proper applications or went through the routine background checks, Lipsetz said.
"The 34 families never applied to our program,'' he said. "The way we see it is if you bought a stolen car, whether you knew it or not, you don't get to keep it.''
But Aguilar said his clients submitted the extensive documentation and signed leases that were approved by multiple housing authority employees.
Aguilar identified the housing authority clerk suspected in the scam as Carolyn Wilson. Lipsetz confirmed a woman by that name had worked at the agency but no longer does.
One of the people on the eviction list, Chanteel Holoman, said she got on the Housing Authority's waiting list in 2003. The 31-year-old temp worker, who has a 2-year-old daughter, called the Housing Authority last fall to inquire about her status.
To her surprise, Holoman said, Wilson told her there was a two-bedroom unit available at the agency's Lockwood Gardens, a 372-unit complex in East Oakland.
Holoman was overjoyed at the prospect of paying just $110 a month rent, as she had been having trouble making the $1,000 rent on the cottage she had been renting in Oakland. When Wilson asked for a $1,000 cash deposit, Holoman said she did not think it odd.
"A lot of places do cash,'' she said.
Holoman paid the money Nov. 15 and filled out paperwork that was signed by Wilson and another employee, apparently a supervisor, at the Oakland Housing Authority. The same day, Holoman moved into her new apartment, she said.
About a month later, a Housing Authority investigator came asking questions, and Holoman told him about the $1,000 deposit, she said.
Holoman said she heard nothing more about the matter until several weeks ago, when three housing authority security officers came to her door at 8 p.m. and served her with a notice giving her five days to vacate the premises because she was inhabiting it illegally.
"I was devastated because it would put me and my child out on the street,'' Holoman said.
Recently, Holoman has been working two days a week at an office in Santa Rosa and another two days at an office in San Rafael.
"It's emotionally challenging because you don't know if you're going to lose your place,'' she said.
Oakland Housing Authority Executive Director Jon Gresley said the apartment simply should have gone to someone else.
"There is a huge demand for affordable housing in Oakland, and we want to serve the families who have legitimately applied for help and waited their turn,'' Gresley said in a press release.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Housing Authority Police Chief Carel Duplessis at (510) 535-3104.
E-mail Patrick Hoge at phoge [at] sfchronicle.com.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/28/BAGLVIH3PP1.DTL&hw=Oakland+Housing+Authority&sn=001&sc=1000
***********
[April 26, 2006]
OAKLAND: Jim Vargas Reports On Families Facing Eviction By Oakland Housing Authority
Click below for video from Channel 2 news...
http://www.ktvu.com/video/9028844/index.html
KTVU News Channel 2
(See Video on Demand Section)
http://www.ktvu.com/index.html
**********
A nightmare at Hope Vl project
Mass evictions from Oakland’s public housing
by Lynda Carson 4/26/06
SF Bay View
Click below for full story...
http://www.sfbayview.com/042606/nightmare042606.shtml
For more see KPFA news archives for (sat) April 29 at, http://www.kpfa.org/
See Street Spirit coverage of this travesty during the Month of May when that issue comes on-line at; http://www.thestreetspirit.org/
34 Families Face Eviction After Having Their Security Deposits Stolen: See stories below...
In the April 28 San Francisco Chronicle:
David Lipsetz of the Oakland Housing Authority says;
"The story here is that we've got a clerk who committed 34 counts of fraud,'' Lipsetz said. "Police have confirmed that the former employee fled the state.''
"The 34 families never applied to our program,'' he said. "The way we see it is if you bought a stolen car, whether you knew it or not, you don't get to keep it,'' Lipsetz said. See SF Chronicle article below.
A stolen car? A car that was sold by the Oakland Housing Authority?
Has Lipsetz lost his mind? This is more analogous to the rape of 34 women, and the blaming of them for their rape because of the clothes they were wearing!
These poor low-income families all signed leases and other documents, and submitted everything that was asked of them before moving into their housing units before they ended up having their security deposits ripped off by an employee of the Housing Authority who then fled the state! See articles below...
So why does David Lipsetz and the executive management at the Oakland Housing Authority want to punish low-income renters for the crimes of their own employee/s?
Why should low-income renters be forced to pay for the crimes of others?
Why is the Oakland Housing Authority blaming others for the crimes committed by it's own staff?
---Oakland Housing Authority PR Campaign A Waste Of Money---
Lewis & Summers have been doing Public Relations work for the Oakland Housing Authority in an effort to polish up it's image and make them look good. In addition, the executive director and executive management team have been groomed by Lewis & Summers media training program, in an effort to put the best face possible on an agency run amuck.
Considering what has been going on lately at Oakland's Housing Authority, no amount of PR campaigns or media training can make the best out of a rotten situation.
In recent days it came to light that the staff at the Oakland Housing Authority have been caught up into a rent scam involving 29 families, and then it suddenly jumped to 34 families or more that have had their security deposits ripped off by someone in the employ of Housing Authority. See stories below...
And what is the response of the Housing Authority?
They are blaming the low-income victims that have been ripped off of their security deposits! And now, the Housing Authority is trying to evict them to boot! All 34 families! In addition, they have been sending cops out late at night to pound on the doors of the victims in an effort to frighten them out of their homes with scary notices!
These GESTAPO techniques have not silenced the victims and will never be acceptable by fair minded people! No PR campaign of Lewis & Summers or David Lipsetz can ever make such un-American activities look good in the eyes of the people or the City of Oakland!
It is time for the executive staff of the Oakland Housing Authority to take full responsibility for the actions of their own agency, and to stop terrorizing it's public housing population immediately!
The low-income people of Oakland need subsidized housing way too much to get caught up into the crosshairs of those in the Housing Authority who believe that it's o'k to rip off or terrorize the low-income renters out of their housing!
We in the community can only hope that the executives and staff at the Oakland Housing Authority will start paying closer attention to their own Administrative Plan which prohibits them from forcing their renters to prove their citizenship over and over again, or ripping off the tenants security deposits, or terrorizing the renters out of their housing units by sending cops to their homes late at night!
It's time for the City Officials in Oakland to investigate the happenings at the Oakland Housing Authority, and to put an end to the harassment of low-income renters by the Oakland Housing Authority!
We cannot remain silent in times like these!
Sincerely,
Lynda Carson
A Section 8 renter in Oakland.
See Lewis & Summers PR efforts...
[Lewis & Summers - Oakland Housing Authority PR Campaign]
Improving the Image of a Oakland, Calif. Housing Authority
This large public agency asked Lewis & Summers to provide a media training program for its executive director and executive management team. As part of our program, we successfully pitched good news stories about the Oakland Housing Authority to KPIX-TV News (San Francisco) and the Oakland Tribune.
Lewis & Summers
251 Lafayette Circle, # 340
Lafayette, CA 94549
FAX: 925-284-4861
http://www.prwebsite.com/casestudies.htm
Roll Back The Rents
In todays report...
[Rent Scam Hurts Tenants]
Mass Evictions From Oakland's Public Housing
A Nightmare At Hope Vl Project
By Lynda Carson April 27, 2006
Fear and panic have set in at some of East Oakland's public housing units, as Police agents from the Oakland Housing Authority have been making late night visits to the tenants recently, while demanding that the families pack up and move within a five day period.
After refusing to pack up and run, nearly 30 families are facing mass eviction by the Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) from their public housing units on 65th Ave at Lockwood Gardens, a Hope Vl Project.
Click below for full story...
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/155096.php
**********
[Housing Authority Blames Victims]
Families may be evicted after paying public housing worker in scam
Patrick Hoge
San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, April 28, 2006
Thirty-four families are in danger of being evicted from public housing after the Oakland Housing Authority discovered they had been bumped to the top of a lengthy waiting list by an employee who charged them as much as $1,000 apiece to move in.
The Housing Authority will ask a judge today to allow the agency to begin evicting the families, but attorneys for many of them argue their clients should not be penalized for the housing authority's failure to prevent corruption within its ranks.
"The Housing Authority is dead set on blaming the victims,'' said Jorge Aguilar, a lawyer with the Eviction Defense Center in Oakland, which is representing nine families.
Housing Authority spokesman David Lipsetz said agency officials discovered last fall that an employee, whom he would not name, "took cash payments and then moved people into apartments." The Alameda County district attorney's office has joined the investigation.
"The story here is that we've got a clerk who committed 34 counts of fraud,'' Lipsetz said. "Police have confirmed that the former employee fled the state,'' he said.
The employee is believed to have taken payments of as much as $1,000 to move the families to the top of a waiting list with well over 1,000 names, and the families being evicted never completed the proper applications or went through the routine background checks, Lipsetz said.
"The 34 families never applied to our program,'' he said. "The way we see it is if you bought a stolen car, whether you knew it or not, you don't get to keep it.''
But Aguilar said his clients submitted the extensive documentation and signed leases that were approved by multiple housing authority employees.
Aguilar identified the housing authority clerk suspected in the scam as Carolyn Wilson. Lipsetz confirmed a woman by that name had worked at the agency but no longer does.
One of the people on the eviction list, Chanteel Holoman, said she got on the Housing Authority's waiting list in 2003. The 31-year-old temp worker, who has a 2-year-old daughter, called the Housing Authority last fall to inquire about her status.
To her surprise, Holoman said, Wilson told her there was a two-bedroom unit available at the agency's Lockwood Gardens, a 372-unit complex in East Oakland.
Holoman was overjoyed at the prospect of paying just $110 a month rent, as she had been having trouble making the $1,000 rent on the cottage she had been renting in Oakland. When Wilson asked for a $1,000 cash deposit, Holoman said she did not think it odd.
"A lot of places do cash,'' she said.
Holoman paid the money Nov. 15 and filled out paperwork that was signed by Wilson and another employee, apparently a supervisor, at the Oakland Housing Authority. The same day, Holoman moved into her new apartment, she said.
About a month later, a Housing Authority investigator came asking questions, and Holoman told him about the $1,000 deposit, she said.
Holoman said she heard nothing more about the matter until several weeks ago, when three housing authority security officers came to her door at 8 p.m. and served her with a notice giving her five days to vacate the premises because she was inhabiting it illegally.
"I was devastated because it would put me and my child out on the street,'' Holoman said.
Recently, Holoman has been working two days a week at an office in Santa Rosa and another two days at an office in San Rafael.
"It's emotionally challenging because you don't know if you're going to lose your place,'' she said.
Oakland Housing Authority Executive Director Jon Gresley said the apartment simply should have gone to someone else.
"There is a huge demand for affordable housing in Oakland, and we want to serve the families who have legitimately applied for help and waited their turn,'' Gresley said in a press release.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Housing Authority Police Chief Carel Duplessis at (510) 535-3104.
E-mail Patrick Hoge at phoge [at] sfchronicle.com.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/28/BAGLVIH3PP1.DTL&hw=Oakland+Housing+Authority&sn=001&sc=1000
***********
[April 26, 2006]
OAKLAND: Jim Vargas Reports On Families Facing Eviction By Oakland Housing Authority
Click below for video from Channel 2 news...
http://www.ktvu.com/video/9028844/index.html
KTVU News Channel 2
(See Video on Demand Section)
http://www.ktvu.com/index.html
**********
A nightmare at Hope Vl project
Mass evictions from Oakland’s public housing
by Lynda Carson 4/26/06
SF Bay View
Click below for full story...
http://www.sfbayview.com/042606/nightmare042606.shtml
For more see KPFA news archives for (sat) April 29 at, http://www.kpfa.org/
See Street Spirit coverage of this travesty during the Month of May when that issue comes on-line at; http://www.thestreetspirit.org/
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