There’s no time like the black hole of a holiday weekend when folks aren’t paying any attention for a newspaper to bury bad news about government doing something wrong.
Back in olden times before the Obama administration tanked the news industry and the profession went to Hell, newspapers would regularly post stories about absurd government waste, spending, misuse, and abuse.
Now that journalists have been reeducated to protect and defend government at all costs while cheerleading tax hikes of all manners, we’re lucky to see at least one government-gone-bad reporting project a year.
But we digress.
The Denver auditor released a report Nov. 17 finding the city is neglecting to ensure the Denver Housing Authority is renting units dedicated to affordable housing at affordable rates.
The Denver Post didn’t get around to reporting it until Black Friday.
For those who missed the news, Denver Auditor Tim O’Brien found more than 200 units backed by taxpayer dollars are being rented at market rates and in violation with the city’s agreement with the authority, a quasi-governmental housing corporation that controls Denver’s 13,000 affordable housing units.
Auditors also found the authority is running short on its commitment to develop housing for people with very low incomes and more than 300 units short of the number agreed upon for people with moderate incomes.
“The city needs stronger oversight to confirm the affordable housing results (that) it promises,” O’Brien said in a news release. “It’s clear the city is too trusting in third-party partners and as a result, the people who need the most help could be left out.”
The auditor’s office also made surprise inspections of exterior units that were given a clean bill of health by inspectors and found that broken windows and doors, broken elevators and evidence of pest infestation had not been reported.
Numerous recommendations were made to the housing authority to correct problems, but all were rejected.
Seeing as how affordable housing and getting the homeless off the streets is Mayor Johnston’s top priority, he should be working harder to ensure the tens of millions of dollars voters insisted be committed to the Denver Housing Authority on affordable projects are in fact being spent on affordable housing projects.
The auditor’s office plans to investigate city homeless shelters next year that are overseen by Denver city officials, so Johnston better get cracking.