20 Feb Mayor Calls for Independent Investigation to Address Problems of the Richmond Housing Authority

Press Release • February 20, 2014

Richmond, CA. Earlier this week, the news media reflected some serious issues in regard to public housing of the Richmond Housing Authority. I would like to thank the news media for bringing this important matter to the City Council’s attention. We are fortunate to have a free and investigative press bringing focus to such an important issue.

Our City Manager, Bill Lindsay, has provided the City Council with a specific outline of the actions they are taking to address the problems in the Richmond housing developments. In terms of immediate steps, every residential housing unit in all five Richmond Housing Authority properties will be inspected. This process has already begun and will conclude within approximately one week. A full reporting of data will be presented to the City Council and the public. I can assure the residents of Richmond that I will monitor progress on this with a diligence that reflects the seriousness of this matter.

One of the priorities of my office will be to determine exactly what led to these problems and address them. We know there are some very serious conditions that need rectifying and require immediate steps. We don’t know the extent of the problems nor the systemic cause. We need to know why these problems exist and what we need to do to prevent them from happening again. To that end, I am calling for an independent investigation to be conducted by a neutral party that will answer directly to the City Council.

Lastly, the Richmond City Council is in the processing of determining a date in the very near term to hold a special meeting where we will get a full report on this matter and to take appropriate action.