Richmond Public Housing Workers Reap Thousands in Dubious Overtime Pay
Hollywood-Style Surveillance Technology Inches Closer to Reality
As Policing Technology in California Advances, So Do Privacy Concerns
Abuse Findings Continue at California Centers for the Disabled, Despite Scrutiny
Treasure Island Cleanup Exposes Navy’s Mishandling of its Nuclear Past
Richmond Officials Take Action Amid Outcry Over Public Housing Conditions
Financial Abuse, Mismanagement Leave Richmond Housing Agency Near Takeover
Richmond Public Housing Residents Say They're Plagued With Filth, Vermin, Mold and Raw Sewage
Player sponsored by
window.__IS_SSR__=true
window.__INITIAL_STATE__={
"attachmentsReducer": {
"audio_0": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_0",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background0.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_1": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_1",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background1.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_2": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_2",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background2.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_3": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_3",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background3.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_4": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_4",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background4.jpg"
}
}
},
"placeholder": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "placeholder",
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-lrg": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-med": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-sm": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xxsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"small": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xlarge": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-32": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 32,
"height": 32,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-50": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 50,
"height": 50,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-64": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 64,
"height": 64,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-96": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 96,
"height": 96,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-128": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 128,
"height": 128,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"detail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
}
},
"news_126781": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_126781",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "126781",
"found": true
},
"parent": 126156,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_832_la1.jpg",
"width": 1200,
"height": 800
}
},
"publishDate": 1392689863,
"modified": 1392689863,
"caption": "The Hacienda public housing complex in Richmond. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\n",
"description": "Steve Muccular visits his family at the Hacienda public housing complex in Richmond. The building’s security guards don’t venture up to the sixth floor, he says, so he squatted in the laundry room for months. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)",
"title": "Richmond Public Housing-Hacienda",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"news_132174": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_132174",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "132174",
"found": true
},
"parent": 132161,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/RossMcNutt2.jpg",
"width": 1673,
"height": 941
}
},
"publishDate": 1397086603,
"modified": 1397086603,
"caption": "Ross McNutt views video footage of Compton. (Center for Investigative Reporting)",
"description": "Ross McNutt views video footage of Compton. (Center for Investigative Reporting)",
"title": "RossMcNutt2",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"news_132115": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_132115",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "132115",
"found": true
},
"parent": 132113,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/WomanArrest.jpg",
"width": 1000,
"height": 560
}
},
"publishDate": 1397077623,
"modified": 1397077623,
"caption": "Officer Rob Halverson of the Chula Vista police verifies the identity of a woman just arrest for possession of narcotics with facial recognition software.",
"description": "Officer Rob Halverson of the Chula Vista police verifies the identity of a woman just arrest for possession of narcotics with facial recognition software.",
"title": "WomanArrest",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"news_130703": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_130703",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "130703",
"found": true
},
"parent": 130697,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2014/03/F180097365.jpg",
"width": 664,
"height": 470
}
},
"publishDate": 1395957147,
"modified": 1395957147,
"caption": "California's Department of Public Health has been under scrutiny for overlooking obvious cases of abuse at the state's five developmental centers. (Adithya Sambamurthy/The Center for Investigative Reporting)",
"description": "California's Department of Public Health has been under scrutiny for overlooking obvious cases of abuse at the state's five developmental centers. (Adithya Sambamurthy/The Center for Investigative Reporting)",
"title": "Cal DPH",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"news_128086": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_128086",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "128086",
"found": true
},
"parent": 128077,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/CIRTreasureIsleCleanup.jpg",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1393624553,
"modified": 1393624553,
"caption": "Radioactive warning signs are posted on the fence surrounding a cleanup site on Treasure Island in 2012. (Michael Short/The Center for Investigative Reporting)",
"description": "Radioactive warning signs are posted on the fence surrounding a cleanup site on Treasure Island in 2012. (Michael Short/The Center for Investigative Reporting)",
"title": "CIRTreasureIsleCleanup",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"news_126465": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_126465",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "126465",
"found": true
},
"parent": 125978,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1568_la.jpg",
"width": 1200,
"height": 800
}
},
"publishDate": 1392406210,
"modified": 1392406210,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "richmondproject_1568_la",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
}
},
"audioPlayerReducer": {
"postId": "stream_live",
"isPaused": true,
"isPlaying": false,
"pfsActive": false,
"pledgeModalIsOpen": true,
"playerDrawerIsOpen": false,
"liveAudioPlayStartedAt": 0,
"liveAudioPlayContext": ""
},
"authorsReducer": {
"californiawatch": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "217",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "217",
"found": true
},
"name": "The Center for Investigative Reporting",
"firstName": "The Center for Investigative Reporting",
"lastName": null,
"slug": "californiawatch",
"email": "mfarnsworth@cironline.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": null,
"bio": null,
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3decbd1a641caa0185742db6828cb8e4?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"contributor"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "The Center for Investigative Reporting | KQED",
"description": null,
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3decbd1a641caa0185742db6828cb8e4?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3decbd1a641caa0185742db6828cb8e4?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/californiawatch"
}
},
"pagesReducer": {
"author_californiawatch": {
"type": "pages",
"id": "217",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "217",
"score": 6.9255953,
"site": "authors"
},
"name": "The Center for Investigative Reporting",
"firstName": "The Center for Investigative Reporting",
"lastName": null,
"slug": "californiawatch",
"email": "mfarnsworth@cironline.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": null,
"bio": null,
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3decbd1a641caa0185742db6828cb8e4?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"contributor"
]
}
],
"headData": {},
"isLoading": false,
"hasAllInfo": true,
"blocks": [
{
"blockName": "kqed/staff-member",
"attrs": {
"author": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "217",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "217",
"score": 6.9255953
},
"name": "The Center for Investigative Reporting",
"firstName": "The Center for Investigative Reporting",
"lastName": null,
"slug": "californiawatch",
"email": "mfarnsworth@cironline.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": "[Circular]",
"title": null,
"bio": null,
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3decbd1a641caa0185742db6828cb8e4?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": "[Circular]",
"headData": {
"title": "The Center for Investigative Reporting | KQED",
"description": null,
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3decbd1a641caa0185742db6828cb8e4?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3decbd1a641caa0185742db6828cb8e4?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/californiawatch",
"hasAllInfo": true
}
}
},
{
"blockName": "kqed/post-list",
"attrs": {
"query": "posts?author=217&authorName=The Center for Investigative Reporting",
"title": "By The Center for Investigative Reporting",
"layout": "cardArticle2",
"className": "wp-block--nomargintop",
"seeMore": true
}
}
]
}
},
"pfsSessionReducer": {},
"postsReducer": {
"stream_live": {
"type": "live",
"id": "stream_live",
"audioUrl": "https://streams.kqed.org/kqedradio",
"title": "Live Stream",
"excerpt": "Live Stream information currently unavailable.",
"link": "/radio",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "KQED Live",
"link": "/"
}
},
"stream_kqedNewscast": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "stream_kqedNewscast",
"audioUrl": "https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1",
"title": "KQED Newscast",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "88.5 FM",
"link": "/"
}
},
"news_135376": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_135376",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "135376",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1399561229000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news",
"term": 6944
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1399561229,
"format": "aside",
"disqusTitle": "Richmond Public Housing Workers Reap Thousands in Dubious Overtime Pay",
"title": "Richmond Public Housing Workers Reap Thousands in Dubious Overtime Pay",
"headTitle": "News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Amy Julia Harris\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126781\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/02/12/financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-on-verge-of-takeover/richmondproject_832_la-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-126781\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-126781\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_832_la1-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"The Hacienda public housing complex in Richmond. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle) \" width=\"640\" height=\"426\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Hacienda public housing complex in Richmond. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Each Saturday morning, a handyman is supposed to unlock a recreation room at the Richmond public housing complex called Friendship Manor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On one December day last year, Jeffery Likely said it was his job. He told his bosses he opened the rec room at 8 a.m. and closed it at 5 p.m. He charged \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155141-likelyopeningfriendship.html#document/p1/a156452\">six hours of overtime\u003c/a> for locking and unlocking one door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Allen Wheeler said he did the simple task of unlocking and locking that door \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155127-wheeler-opening-friendship.html#document/p1/a156450\">at nearly the same times\u003c/a> on the same day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t an isolated incident. The Richmond Housing Authority has paid tens of thousands of dollars in questionable overtime over the last four years to its two maintenance workers, a review of overtime records by The Center of Investigative Reporting has found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They double-billed for the same job, charged overtime during normal work hours and regularly invoked a union clause to get paid triple for hours worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Likely billed the agency for hundreds of overtime hours for driving an agency vehicle despite not having a valid driver’s license. His license has been suspended on and off since September 2012, once for drunken driving after registering a blood alcohol level of 0.22, nearly three times the legal limit. It is still suspended. His aunt, Kathleen Jones, bailed him out of jail, records show. She’s the No. 2 official at the housing agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost 30 percent of the 2,800 hours of overtime that Wheeler billed in the last four years occurred during his normal work hours. Wheeler and Likely both charged overtime for opening or closing the rec room at nearly the same time on 10 occasions in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Top Richmond Housing Authority officials signed off on all the time sheets, some of which contain glaring problems. For example, nearly every day in March 2012, Wheeler \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155142-ot-during-normal-work-hours.html\">charged six hours of overtime\u003c/a> for six hours of work helping with maintenance work — his job description — from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. His regular shift runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last four years, the Housing Authority paid Likely more than $67,000 in overtime. Wheeler received more than $58,000. They each make a base annual salary of $23,000 a year and live in Housing Authority apartments rent-free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The totals are a sliver of the agency’s $26 million annual budget, but they highlight the persistent management troubles that have led the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to label Richmond as one of the worst-run housing agencies in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judy Nadler, a government ethics specialist, said that in the best-case scenario, the overtime problems are the result of messy record keeping. At worst, she said, they show a pattern of abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it is taxpayer money, every dollar, every penny counts,” Nadler said. “They can’t afford to have this lack of oversight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency is about $7 million in debt and has \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/residents-live-filth-fear-mismanaged-bay-area-public-housing-5902\">failed to provide basic maintenance\u003c/a> to residents, who have lived among mice, mold and cockroaches. A lack of financial controls, meanwhile, allowed one top Housing Authority official to \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-verge-takeover-5904\">steer contracts to his brother\u003c/a> and others to abuse agency credit cards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While city officials have said the authority is getting its act together, the overtime problems underscore that the agency remains susceptible to abuse. Time sheets and other agency records show the overtime problems persisted into this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>No Comment\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wheeler and Likely declined to comment. The Housing Authority has forbidden its employees to talk to CIR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Lindsay, Richmond’s city manager, said the overtime was billed incorrectly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What it has shown is that they’re pretty sloppy with how they’re filling out their time sheets,” Lindsay said. “We’re having meetings to sort all this out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Housing Authority changed its overtime policy after CIR brought the billing problems to Lindsay's attention. In an April 23 memo, Executive Director Tim Jones banned Wheeler and Likely from receiving extra pay during their normal shifts and limited the amount of money they can charge for being called back to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\"> Expert: In the best-case scenario, the overtime problems are the result of messy record keeping. At worst, they show a pattern of abuse.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Likely clocked 27 hours of overtime \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155143-likely-driving-all-sites.html#document/p1/a156456\">specifically for driving\u003c/a> between the agency’s apartment complexes while his license was suspended. Most of the 500-plus hours of overtime he has billed since his license was revoked require driving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A valid driver’s license is one of the few job requirements for a Housing Authority maintenance worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_135407\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/05/likely.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-135407\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/05/likely-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"In the last four years, the Richmond Housing Authority paid maintenance worker Jeffery Likely more than $67,000 in overtime. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the last four years, the Richmond Housing Authority paid maintenance worker Jeffery Likely more than $67,000 in overtime. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From 5 to 6 p.m., Likely often finished the workday by sweeping and cleaning up around one of the five public housing complexes he maintains, according to his time sheets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each time, he got paid for three hours of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally, workers at the Richmond Housing Authority receive time and a half for each hour of overtime. But if they’re called back to work after going home, they get a minimum of three hours per call — a clause known as call-back pay.The rules apply even if workers live on-site, as Likely does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lisa Stephenson, Richmond’s human resources director, used a street flood to illustrate why the benefit exists. “Call-back pay is when public works folks have gone home and then need to come back to respond to the flooding,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Likely and Wheeler frequently used this union rule to bill for routine maintenance. Lindsay said call-back pay should not apply to regular maintenance work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost every week in the last four years, Likely charged three hours of overtime for cleaning the agency office for one hour. He also regularly charged triple the time he put in for sweeping the housing project where he lives, emptying dumpsters and assisting the agency with routine housing inspections after his normal shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of Likely’s overtime was done at Nevin Plaza\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>the housing complex where he lives, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wheeler, who lives at Triangle Court, appeared to regularly invoke call-back pay when he continued working after his shift ended. He stayed at work an extra half-hour and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155154-ot-vs-call-out.html#document/p1/a156549\">charged three\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155154-ot-vs-call-out.html#document/p1/a156549\">hours\u003c/a> of call-back time for maintenance work. It should have been billed as regular overtime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there were other questionable charges, like billing overtime for performing maintenance at different places at the same time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 17, 2012, Likely said he was inspecting an apartment while also responding to a call from 5 to 6 p.m. He \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155180-jeff-likely.html#document/p1/a156461\">charged three hours of overtime\u003c/a> for each job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 27, 2013, Likely double-billed the Housing Authority for cleaning the same apartment complex from 6 to 7 p.m., charging six hours of overtime for working one hour, according to agency records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his memo, Tim Jones said Wheeler and Likely now are limited to charging three hours of call-back pay when they receive multiple calls in the same three-hour window after hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The overtime charges violate the city’s policies, but it’s unclear whether they break any laws. That would likely depend on whether the men knowingly deceived the Housing Authority or simply misunderstood union rules, current and former prosecutors said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindsay said there could be an explanation for Wheeler billing during his regular work hours. It's possible, he said, that Wheeler could at times have been entitled to a 5 percent pay bump per day for doing work outside his normal job description. But Wheeler was instead billing the government for full extra hours and sometimes triple the time put in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one of the three top officials at the Housing Authority signed off on all the overtime: Tim Jones, Kathleen Jones or William Bounthon, a manager in the Section 8 department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/projects/subsidized-squalor\">a CIR investigation\u003c/a> revealed a history of leadership problems at the agency and squalid living conditions for residents of its two largest housing complexes. Since then, Kathleen Jones, who is not related to Tim Jones, has been on paid leave. Likely has been out on sick leave for several weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has asked HUD for permission to relocate the residents of its largest and worst complex, Hacienda. Private attorneys are working with residents to file claims for health problems and property damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was edited by Andrew Donohue. It was copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.\u003c/em> \u003cem>It was produced by an independent nonprofit, \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/\">The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>. Harris can be reached at aharris@cironline.org.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"disqusIdentifier": "135376 http://ww2.kqed.org/news/?p=135376",
"disqusUrl": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/05/08/public-housing-workers-reap-thousands-in-dubious-overtime-pay/",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1508,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 42
},
"modified": 1399569786,
"excerpt": "Two maintenance workers in agency charge extra hours for tasks like locking and unlocking one door.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Two maintenance workers in agency charge extra hours for tasks like locking and unlocking one door.",
"title": "Richmond Public Housing Workers Reap Thousands in Dubious Overtime Pay | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Richmond Public Housing Workers Reap Thousands in Dubious Overtime Pay",
"datePublished": "2014-05-08T08:00:29-07:00",
"dateModified": "2014-05-08T10:23:06-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "public-housing-workers-reap-thousands-in-dubious-overtime-pay",
"status": "publish",
"customPermalink": "2014/05/08/richmond-public-housing-workers-reap-thousands-in-dubious-overtime-pay/",
"path": "/news/135376/public-housing-workers-reap-thousands-in-dubious-overtime-pay",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Amy Julia Harris\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126781\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/02/12/financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-on-verge-of-takeover/richmondproject_832_la-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-126781\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-126781\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_832_la1-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"The Hacienda public housing complex in Richmond. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle) \" width=\"640\" height=\"426\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Hacienda public housing complex in Richmond. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Each Saturday morning, a handyman is supposed to unlock a recreation room at the Richmond public housing complex called Friendship Manor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On one December day last year, Jeffery Likely said it was his job. He told his bosses he opened the rec room at 8 a.m. and closed it at 5 p.m. He charged \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155141-likelyopeningfriendship.html#document/p1/a156452\">six hours of overtime\u003c/a> for locking and unlocking one door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Allen Wheeler said he did the simple task of unlocking and locking that door \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155127-wheeler-opening-friendship.html#document/p1/a156450\">at nearly the same times\u003c/a> on the same day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t an isolated incident. The Richmond Housing Authority has paid tens of thousands of dollars in questionable overtime over the last four years to its two maintenance workers, a review of overtime records by The Center of Investigative Reporting has found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They double-billed for the same job, charged overtime during normal work hours and regularly invoked a union clause to get paid triple for hours worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Likely billed the agency for hundreds of overtime hours for driving an agency vehicle despite not having a valid driver’s license. His license has been suspended on and off since September 2012, once for drunken driving after registering a blood alcohol level of 0.22, nearly three times the legal limit. It is still suspended. His aunt, Kathleen Jones, bailed him out of jail, records show. She’s the No. 2 official at the housing agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost 30 percent of the 2,800 hours of overtime that Wheeler billed in the last four years occurred during his normal work hours. Wheeler and Likely both charged overtime for opening or closing the rec room at nearly the same time on 10 occasions in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Top Richmond Housing Authority officials signed off on all the time sheets, some of which contain glaring problems. For example, nearly every day in March 2012, Wheeler \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155142-ot-during-normal-work-hours.html\">charged six hours of overtime\u003c/a> for six hours of work helping with maintenance work — his job description — from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. His regular shift runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last four years, the Housing Authority paid Likely more than $67,000 in overtime. Wheeler received more than $58,000. They each make a base annual salary of $23,000 a year and live in Housing Authority apartments rent-free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The totals are a sliver of the agency’s $26 million annual budget, but they highlight the persistent management troubles that have led the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to label Richmond as one of the worst-run housing agencies in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judy Nadler, a government ethics specialist, said that in the best-case scenario, the overtime problems are the result of messy record keeping. At worst, she said, they show a pattern of abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it is taxpayer money, every dollar, every penny counts,” Nadler said. “They can’t afford to have this lack of oversight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency is about $7 million in debt and has \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/residents-live-filth-fear-mismanaged-bay-area-public-housing-5902\">failed to provide basic maintenance\u003c/a> to residents, who have lived among mice, mold and cockroaches. A lack of financial controls, meanwhile, allowed one top Housing Authority official to \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-verge-takeover-5904\">steer contracts to his brother\u003c/a> and others to abuse agency credit cards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While city officials have said the authority is getting its act together, the overtime problems underscore that the agency remains susceptible to abuse. Time sheets and other agency records show the overtime problems persisted into this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>No Comment\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wheeler and Likely declined to comment. The Housing Authority has forbidden its employees to talk to CIR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Lindsay, Richmond’s city manager, said the overtime was billed incorrectly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What it has shown is that they’re pretty sloppy with how they’re filling out their time sheets,” Lindsay said. “We’re having meetings to sort all this out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Housing Authority changed its overtime policy after CIR brought the billing problems to Lindsay's attention. In an April 23 memo, Executive Director Tim Jones banned Wheeler and Likely from receiving extra pay during their normal shifts and limited the amount of money they can charge for being called back to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\"> Expert: In the best-case scenario, the overtime problems are the result of messy record keeping. At worst, they show a pattern of abuse.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Likely clocked 27 hours of overtime \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155143-likely-driving-all-sites.html#document/p1/a156456\">specifically for driving\u003c/a> between the agency’s apartment complexes while his license was suspended. Most of the 500-plus hours of overtime he has billed since his license was revoked require driving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A valid driver’s license is one of the few job requirements for a Housing Authority maintenance worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_135407\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/05/likely.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-135407\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/05/likely-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"In the last four years, the Richmond Housing Authority paid maintenance worker Jeffery Likely more than $67,000 in overtime. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the last four years, the Richmond Housing Authority paid maintenance worker Jeffery Likely more than $67,000 in overtime. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From 5 to 6 p.m., Likely often finished the workday by sweeping and cleaning up around one of the five public housing complexes he maintains, according to his time sheets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each time, he got paid for three hours of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally, workers at the Richmond Housing Authority receive time and a half for each hour of overtime. But if they’re called back to work after going home, they get a minimum of three hours per call — a clause known as call-back pay.The rules apply even if workers live on-site, as Likely does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lisa Stephenson, Richmond’s human resources director, used a street flood to illustrate why the benefit exists. “Call-back pay is when public works folks have gone home and then need to come back to respond to the flooding,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Likely and Wheeler frequently used this union rule to bill for routine maintenance. Lindsay said call-back pay should not apply to regular maintenance work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost every week in the last four years, Likely charged three hours of overtime for cleaning the agency office for one hour. He also regularly charged triple the time he put in for sweeping the housing project where he lives, emptying dumpsters and assisting the agency with routine housing inspections after his normal shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of Likely’s overtime was done at Nevin Plaza\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>the housing complex where he lives, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wheeler, who lives at Triangle Court, appeared to regularly invoke call-back pay when he continued working after his shift ended. He stayed at work an extra half-hour and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155154-ot-vs-call-out.html#document/p1/a156549\">charged three\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155154-ot-vs-call-out.html#document/p1/a156549\">hours\u003c/a> of call-back time for maintenance work. It should have been billed as regular overtime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there were other questionable charges, like billing overtime for performing maintenance at different places at the same time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 17, 2012, Likely said he was inspecting an apartment while also responding to a call from 5 to 6 p.m. He \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1155180-jeff-likely.html#document/p1/a156461\">charged three hours of overtime\u003c/a> for each job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 27, 2013, Likely double-billed the Housing Authority for cleaning the same apartment complex from 6 to 7 p.m., charging six hours of overtime for working one hour, according to agency records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his memo, Tim Jones said Wheeler and Likely now are limited to charging three hours of call-back pay when they receive multiple calls in the same three-hour window after hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The overtime charges violate the city’s policies, but it’s unclear whether they break any laws. That would likely depend on whether the men knowingly deceived the Housing Authority or simply misunderstood union rules, current and former prosecutors said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindsay said there could be an explanation for Wheeler billing during his regular work hours. It's possible, he said, that Wheeler could at times have been entitled to a 5 percent pay bump per day for doing work outside his normal job description. But Wheeler was instead billing the government for full extra hours and sometimes triple the time put in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one of the three top officials at the Housing Authority signed off on all the overtime: Tim Jones, Kathleen Jones or William Bounthon, a manager in the Section 8 department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/projects/subsidized-squalor\">a CIR investigation\u003c/a> revealed a history of leadership problems at the agency and squalid living conditions for residents of its two largest housing complexes. Since then, Kathleen Jones, who is not related to Tim Jones, has been on paid leave. Likely has been out on sick leave for several weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has asked HUD for permission to relocate the residents of its largest and worst complex, Hacienda. Private attorneys are working with residents to file claims for health problems and property damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was edited by Andrew Donohue. It was copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.\u003c/em> \u003cem>It was produced by an independent nonprofit, \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/\">The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>. Harris can be reached at aharris@cironline.org.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/135376/public-housing-workers-reap-thousands-in-dubious-overtime-pay",
"authors": [
"217"
],
"programs": [
"news_6944"
],
"categories": [
"news_6266"
],
"tags": [
"news_3921",
"news_152",
"news_854",
"news_5813",
"news_579",
"news_5771"
],
"featImg": "news_126781",
"label": "news_6944"
},
"news_132161": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_132161",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "132161",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1397221247000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news",
"term": 6944
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1397221247,
"format": "aside",
"disqusTitle": "Hollywood-Style Surveillance Technology Inches Closer to Reality",
"title": "Hollywood-Style Surveillance Technology Inches Closer to Reality",
"headTitle": "State of Surveillance | News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By G.W. Schulz and Amanda Pike, The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132174\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/RossMcNutt2.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-132174\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/RossMcNutt2-640x359.jpg\" alt=\"Ross McNutt views video footage of Compton. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"640\" height=\"359\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ross McNutt views video footage of Compton. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">W\u003c/span>hen sheriff’s deputies in Compton noticed an increase in necklace snatchings from women walking through town, they turned to an unlikely source to help solve the crimes: a retired Air Force veteran named Ross McNutt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McNutt and his Ohio-based company, \u003ca href=\"http://www.persistentsurveillance.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Persistent Surveillance Systems\u003c/a>, persuaded the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to use his surveillance technology to monitor Compton’s streets from the air and track suspects from the moment the snatching occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system, known as wide-area surveillance, is something of a time machine – the entire city is filmed and recorded in real time. Imagine Google Earth with a rewind button and the ability to play back the movement of cars and people as they scurry about the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We literally watched all of Compton during the time that we were flying, so we could zoom in anywhere within the city of Compton and follow cars and see people,” McNutt said. “Our goal was to basically jump to where reported crimes occurred and see what information we could generate that would help investigators solve the crimes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"e935a7f5a36a58f7efac3ca96fbdfd15\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McNutt, who holds a doctorate in rapid product development, helped build wide-area surveillance to \u003ca href=\"http://www.armytimes.com/article/20120416/NEWS/204160317/System-gives-troops-360-degree-eye-sky\" target=\"_blank\">hunt down bombing suspects\u003c/a> in Iraq and Afghanistan. He decided that clusters of high-powered surveillance cameras attached to the belly of small civilian aircraft could be a game-changer in U.S. law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our whole system costs less than the price of a single police helicopter and costs less for an hour to operate than a police helicopter,” McNutt said. “But at the same time, it watches 10,000 times the area that a police helicopter could watch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McNutt’s airborne cameras are just one part of a new digital movement in law enforcement. The Hollywood version of American policing is made up of darkened command centers where a wellspring of digital data about criminals always seems just a few clicks away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In cities across the country, that fiction is inching closer to reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Emerging Technologies Could Revolutionize Policing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FBI is rolling out a sprawling data complex that contains over 147 million mug shots and sets of fingerprints, many of which belong to people who are not criminals. Local law enforcement analysts are using surveillance centers to monitor video feeds and reported crimes minute by minute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Center for Investigative Reporting and KQED teamed up to take an inside look at the emerging technologies that could revolutionize policing – and how intrusively the public is monitored by the government. The technology is forcing the public and law enforcement to answer a central question: When have police crossed the line from safer streets to expansive surveillance that threatens to undermine the nation’s constitutional values?\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'We’re able to catch bad guys faster, and we’re able to get them off the streets a lot faster with the technologies we have.'\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In one city, law enforcement officials don’t need to see your identification: They just need your face. Police officers in Chula Vista, near San Diego, \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/facial-recognition-once-battlefield-tool-lands-san-diego-county-5502\">already have used mobile facial recognition technology\u003c/a> to confirm the identities of people they suspect of crimes. After using a tablet to capture the person’s image, an answer is delivered in eight seconds. (About 1 percent of the time, the system retrieves the wrong name, according to the manufacturer, FaceFirst.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chula Vista is now part of a larger trend in law enforcement to use unique biological markers like faces, palm prints, skin abnormalities and the iris of eyes to identify people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can lie about your name, you can lie about your date of birth, you can lie about your address,” said Officer Rob Halverson. “But tattoos, birthmarks, scars don’t lie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FBI, meanwhile, is finalizing plans this year to make 130 million fingerprints digital and searchable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the fingerprints belong to people who have not been not arrested but simply submitted their prints for background checks while seeking jobs. Civil libertarians worry that facial images for these individuals could be next. The FBI already maintains a collection of some 17 million mug shots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This personal information is now housed in a West Virginia-based storage facility the size of two football fields containing row after row of blinking and buzzing server stacks. These machines are the heart of the FBI’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/fingerprints_biometrics/ngi\">Next Generation Identification\u003c/a> program, which seeks to make it easier for police officers and investigators around the nation to distinguish one human being from another based on biological traits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What it potentially means is that we’re able to catch bad guys faster, and we’re able to get them off the streets a lot faster with the technologies we have so they don’t commit another crime,” said Jeremy Wiltz, acting assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such technology, he said, also could exonerate innocent people and keep them from being held in a jail cell for days or longer. Audits have been conducted to ensure Next Generation Identification isn’t accessed by local police for conducting inappropriate searches, Wiltz added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Potential for Misuse Troubles Civil Libertarians\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Lynch, a senior staff attorney at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.eff.org/\">Electronic Frontier Foundation\u003c/a>, said she’s concerned the government will eventually collect and store face images like it does now with the tens of millions of fingerprints submitted by people seeking certain jobs. She’s worried such data will be merged with criminal records that are currently kept separate – resulting in innocent people being placed under suspicion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once the nation has a facial recognition database, and once facial recognition capabilities improve to the point that we can identify faces in a crowd, it will become possible for authorities to identify people as they move through society,” Lynch said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for wide-area surveillance, McNutt said that ground-based cameras offer higher resolutions and that his technology cannot zoom in on faces or other particular details. But cameras on the ground are limited in range, and a seemingly infinite number would be necessary to blanket an entire city. McNutt believes his technology will be good enough in a few years to cover twice as much area – perhaps as large as the entire city of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132182\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 338px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/Screen-Shot-2014-04-09-at-5.22.31-PM.png\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-132182 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/Screen-Shot-2014-04-09-at-5.22.31-PM-640x358.png\" alt=\"Sgt. Doug Iketani of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"338\" height=\"189\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sgt. Doug Iketani of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the case of a Compton necklace-snatching, the suspects eventually drove out of camera range without being identified, said L.A. County sheriff’s Sgt. Doug Iketani, who supervised the project. He added that McNutt’s system can’t provide the kind of detailed, close-up images that would survive in court. But Iketani said the technology did give police useful leads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why have the people of Compton heard little about this experiment until now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The system was kind of kept confidential from everybody in the public,” Iketani said. “A lot of people do have a problem with the eye in the sky, the Big Brother, so in order to mitigate any of those kinds of complaints, we basically kept it pretty hush-hush.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elsewhere in the Los Angeles area, police are facing similar challenges at a command center near downtown where law enforcement analysts observe a video surveillance feed aimed at the iconic Hollywood sign, which police say is sometimes targeted by vandals and is vulnerable to fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Policing the Hollywood sign is one of many tasks of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.lapdonline.org/september_2009/news_view/42863\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Police Department’s Real-Time Analysis and Critical Response Division\u003c/a> – looking not unlike other high-tech law enforcement centers that have sprung up around the country as part of a post-9/11 trend known as predictive or intelligence-led policing. The goal: speed up reaction times or, better yet, intercede before new crimes, including potential precursors to terrorism, occur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The center has access to 1,000 surveillance cameras spread across the city. Also available, through a feed to the center, are social media sites, news broadcasts and data captured by license-plate recognition devices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also a wall-mounted digital map of real-time reported crimes around Los Angeles that could provide analysts with valuable insight into when and where crimes are most likely to occur, where trends are emerging and where officers should be patrolling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many cities around the country, Los Angeles is grappling with unease from residents over thousands of networked cameras that can peer into many corners of our lives, often without us being fully aware of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The center’s commanding officer, Capt. John Romero, recognizes the concerns but equates them with public resistance to street lights in America’s earliest days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People thought that this is the government trying to see what we’re doing at night, to spy on us,” Romero said. “And so over time, things shifted, and now if you try to take down street lights in Los Angeles or Boston or anywhere else, people will say no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VkKeM-OK6g]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-132136 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/cirlogo-640x267.jpg\" alt=\"cirlogo\" width=\"221\" height=\"92\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was edited by Robert Salladay and copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of a co-production by the independent, nonprofit \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/a>, the country’s largest investigative reporting team, and KQED. For more, visit cironline.org. Schulz can be reached at \u003ca href=\"mailto:gwschulz@cironline.org\">gwschulz@cironline.org\u003c/a>. Pike can be reached at apike@cironline.org.\u003c/em> Also, watch both the documentary and a roundtable discussion, on \"State of Surveillance,\" Friday at 8 p.m. on KQED Public Television 9. You can hear the program on Sundays at 6 p.m. on KQED Public Radio 88.5 FM and watch on demand here anytime.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"disqusIdentifier": "132161 http://ww2.kqed.org/news/?p=132161",
"disqusUrl": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/04/11/hollywood-style-surveillance-technology-inches-closer-to-reality/",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": true,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1688,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 41
},
"modified": 1398474955,
"excerpt": "Imagine Google Earth with a rewind button and the ability to play back movements of people and cars.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Imagine Google Earth with a rewind button and the ability to play back movements of people and cars.",
"title": "Hollywood-Style Surveillance Technology Inches Closer to Reality | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Hollywood-Style Surveillance Technology Inches Closer to Reality",
"datePublished": "2014-04-11T06:00:47-07:00",
"dateModified": "2014-04-25T18:15:55-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "hollywood-style-surveillance-technology-inches-closer-to-reality",
"status": "publish",
"customPermalink": "2014/04/11/surveillance-technology-improves/",
"path": "/news/132161/hollywood-style-surveillance-technology-inches-closer-to-reality",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By G.W. Schulz and Amanda Pike, The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132174\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/RossMcNutt2.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-132174\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/RossMcNutt2-640x359.jpg\" alt=\"Ross McNutt views video footage of Compton. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"640\" height=\"359\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ross McNutt views video footage of Compton. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">W\u003c/span>hen sheriff’s deputies in Compton noticed an increase in necklace snatchings from women walking through town, they turned to an unlikely source to help solve the crimes: a retired Air Force veteran named Ross McNutt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McNutt and his Ohio-based company, \u003ca href=\"http://www.persistentsurveillance.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Persistent Surveillance Systems\u003c/a>, persuaded the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to use his surveillance technology to monitor Compton’s streets from the air and track suspects from the moment the snatching occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system, known as wide-area surveillance, is something of a time machine – the entire city is filmed and recorded in real time. Imagine Google Earth with a rewind button and the ability to play back the movement of cars and people as they scurry about the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We literally watched all of Compton during the time that we were flying, so we could zoom in anywhere within the city of Compton and follow cars and see people,” McNutt said. “Our goal was to basically jump to where reported crimes occurred and see what information we could generate that would help investigators solve the crimes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McNutt, who holds a doctorate in rapid product development, helped build wide-area surveillance to \u003ca href=\"http://www.armytimes.com/article/20120416/NEWS/204160317/System-gives-troops-360-degree-eye-sky\" target=\"_blank\">hunt down bombing suspects\u003c/a> in Iraq and Afghanistan. He decided that clusters of high-powered surveillance cameras attached to the belly of small civilian aircraft could be a game-changer in U.S. law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our whole system costs less than the price of a single police helicopter and costs less for an hour to operate than a police helicopter,” McNutt said. “But at the same time, it watches 10,000 times the area that a police helicopter could watch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McNutt’s airborne cameras are just one part of a new digital movement in law enforcement. The Hollywood version of American policing is made up of darkened command centers where a wellspring of digital data about criminals always seems just a few clicks away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In cities across the country, that fiction is inching closer to reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Emerging Technologies Could Revolutionize Policing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FBI is rolling out a sprawling data complex that contains over 147 million mug shots and sets of fingerprints, many of which belong to people who are not criminals. Local law enforcement analysts are using surveillance centers to monitor video feeds and reported crimes minute by minute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Center for Investigative Reporting and KQED teamed up to take an inside look at the emerging technologies that could revolutionize policing – and how intrusively the public is monitored by the government. The technology is forcing the public and law enforcement to answer a central question: When have police crossed the line from safer streets to expansive surveillance that threatens to undermine the nation’s constitutional values?\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'We’re able to catch bad guys faster, and we’re able to get them off the streets a lot faster with the technologies we have.'\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In one city, law enforcement officials don’t need to see your identification: They just need your face. Police officers in Chula Vista, near San Diego, \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/facial-recognition-once-battlefield-tool-lands-san-diego-county-5502\">already have used mobile facial recognition technology\u003c/a> to confirm the identities of people they suspect of crimes. After using a tablet to capture the person’s image, an answer is delivered in eight seconds. (About 1 percent of the time, the system retrieves the wrong name, according to the manufacturer, FaceFirst.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chula Vista is now part of a larger trend in law enforcement to use unique biological markers like faces, palm prints, skin abnormalities and the iris of eyes to identify people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can lie about your name, you can lie about your date of birth, you can lie about your address,” said Officer Rob Halverson. “But tattoos, birthmarks, scars don’t lie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FBI, meanwhile, is finalizing plans this year to make 130 million fingerprints digital and searchable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the fingerprints belong to people who have not been not arrested but simply submitted their prints for background checks while seeking jobs. Civil libertarians worry that facial images for these individuals could be next. The FBI already maintains a collection of some 17 million mug shots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This personal information is now housed in a West Virginia-based storage facility the size of two football fields containing row after row of blinking and buzzing server stacks. These machines are the heart of the FBI’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/fingerprints_biometrics/ngi\">Next Generation Identification\u003c/a> program, which seeks to make it easier for police officers and investigators around the nation to distinguish one human being from another based on biological traits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What it potentially means is that we’re able to catch bad guys faster, and we’re able to get them off the streets a lot faster with the technologies we have so they don’t commit another crime,” said Jeremy Wiltz, acting assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such technology, he said, also could exonerate innocent people and keep them from being held in a jail cell for days or longer. Audits have been conducted to ensure Next Generation Identification isn’t accessed by local police for conducting inappropriate searches, Wiltz added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Potential for Misuse Troubles Civil Libertarians\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Lynch, a senior staff attorney at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.eff.org/\">Electronic Frontier Foundation\u003c/a>, said she’s concerned the government will eventually collect and store face images like it does now with the tens of millions of fingerprints submitted by people seeking certain jobs. She’s worried such data will be merged with criminal records that are currently kept separate – resulting in innocent people being placed under suspicion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once the nation has a facial recognition database, and once facial recognition capabilities improve to the point that we can identify faces in a crowd, it will become possible for authorities to identify people as they move through society,” Lynch said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for wide-area surveillance, McNutt said that ground-based cameras offer higher resolutions and that his technology cannot zoom in on faces or other particular details. But cameras on the ground are limited in range, and a seemingly infinite number would be necessary to blanket an entire city. McNutt believes his technology will be good enough in a few years to cover twice as much area – perhaps as large as the entire city of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132182\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 338px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/Screen-Shot-2014-04-09-at-5.22.31-PM.png\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-132182 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/Screen-Shot-2014-04-09-at-5.22.31-PM-640x358.png\" alt=\"Sgt. Doug Iketani of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"338\" height=\"189\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sgt. Doug Iketani of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the case of a Compton necklace-snatching, the suspects eventually drove out of camera range without being identified, said L.A. County sheriff’s Sgt. Doug Iketani, who supervised the project. He added that McNutt’s system can’t provide the kind of detailed, close-up images that would survive in court. But Iketani said the technology did give police useful leads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why have the people of Compton heard little about this experiment until now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The system was kind of kept confidential from everybody in the public,” Iketani said. “A lot of people do have a problem with the eye in the sky, the Big Brother, so in order to mitigate any of those kinds of complaints, we basically kept it pretty hush-hush.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elsewhere in the Los Angeles area, police are facing similar challenges at a command center near downtown where law enforcement analysts observe a video surveillance feed aimed at the iconic Hollywood sign, which police say is sometimes targeted by vandals and is vulnerable to fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Policing the Hollywood sign is one of many tasks of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.lapdonline.org/september_2009/news_view/42863\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Police Department’s Real-Time Analysis and Critical Response Division\u003c/a> – looking not unlike other high-tech law enforcement centers that have sprung up around the country as part of a post-9/11 trend known as predictive or intelligence-led policing. The goal: speed up reaction times or, better yet, intercede before new crimes, including potential precursors to terrorism, occur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The center has access to 1,000 surveillance cameras spread across the city. Also available, through a feed to the center, are social media sites, news broadcasts and data captured by license-plate recognition devices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also a wall-mounted digital map of real-time reported crimes around Los Angeles that could provide analysts with valuable insight into when and where crimes are most likely to occur, where trends are emerging and where officers should be patrolling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many cities around the country, Los Angeles is grappling with unease from residents over thousands of networked cameras that can peer into many corners of our lives, often without us being fully aware of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The center’s commanding officer, Capt. John Romero, recognizes the concerns but equates them with public resistance to street lights in America’s earliest days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People thought that this is the government trying to see what we’re doing at night, to spy on us,” Romero said. “And so over time, things shifted, and now if you try to take down street lights in Los Angeles or Boston or anywhere else, people will say no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/6VkKeM-OK6g'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/6VkKeM-OK6g'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-132136 alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/cirlogo-640x267.jpg\" alt=\"cirlogo\" width=\"221\" height=\"92\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was edited by Robert Salladay and copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of a co-production by the independent, nonprofit \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/a>, the country’s largest investigative reporting team, and KQED. For more, visit cironline.org. Schulz can be reached at \u003ca href=\"mailto:gwschulz@cironline.org\">gwschulz@cironline.org\u003c/a>. Pike can be reached at apike@cironline.org.\u003c/em> Also, watch both the documentary and a roundtable discussion, on \"State of Surveillance,\" Friday at 8 p.m. on KQED Public Television 9. You can hear the program on Sundays at 6 p.m. on KQED Public Radio 88.5 FM and watch on demand here anytime.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/132161/hollywood-style-surveillance-technology-inches-closer-to-reality",
"authors": [
"217"
],
"programs": [
"news_6944"
],
"series": [
"news_6064"
],
"categories": [
"news_6188"
],
"tags": [
"news_152",
"news_116",
"news_4289"
],
"featImg": "news_132174",
"label": "news_6944"
},
"news_132113": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_132113",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "132113",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1397138427000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news",
"term": 6944
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1397138427,
"format": "aside",
"disqusTitle": "As Policing Technology in California Advances, So Do Privacy Concerns",
"title": "As Policing Technology in California Advances, So Do Privacy Concerns",
"headTitle": "Priced Out | News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Ali Winston, \u003cstrong> The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/strong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132115\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/WomanArrest.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-132115 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/WomanArrest-640x358.jpg\" alt=\"Officer Rob Halverson of the Chula Vista police verifies the identity of a woman just arrest for possession of narcotics with facial recognition software. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"640\" height=\"358\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Officer Rob Halverson of the Chula Vista police verifies the identity of a woman just arrested for possession of narcotics with facial recognition software. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">P\u003c/span>olice Officer Rob Halverson responds to a call for help with a parole check. When he arrives, he finds officers leading a young woman out of a house in handcuffs. Police say they have found narcotics in the house, a violation of her parole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Halverson pulls out a Samsung tablet and asks the woman to face him. He takes her picture. In the past, to verify her identity, Halverson would have had to drive her to the police station, take her picture, and run it through a San Diego County database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, the facial recognition software on Halverson’s tablet allows him to verify the woman’s identity as he stands on her front lawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So I look at her booking photos, and that's her,” said Halverson, pointing at the tablet. “So I’m able to verify that she’s the right person.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"91eed1a1b9b0c9f24048ef99f1464aa9\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The software on Halverson’s tablet is made by \u003ca href=\"http://www.facefirst.com/\" target=\"_blank\">FaceFirst\u003c/a>, a Camarillo-based company. In an interview, CEO Joe Rosenkrantz said his firm uses an algorithm to analyze facial images by comparing the distance between key points on a person’s face, like from chin to ear or between the eyes. He said the error rate is minimal – he claims it’s less than 1 percent of images scanned – and law-abiding people shouldn't feel threatened by the technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you are not in a database or somebody who's legitimately being sought out, whether it's a criminal database or some type of watch list, you really have nothing to worry about,” Rosenkrantz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Facial recognition is only part of a wider technological shift in policing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Law enforcement agencies around the state are creating databases of information gathered from license-plate readers, which are mounted on police cars or fixed objects and use high-resolution cameras to take pictures of vehicles. Police say license-plate databases help them track criminals and identify stolen cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Law Enforcement Data Collection Leads to Privacy Concerns\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nFor many, the rapid changes in law enforcement technology – and the huge amount of data now collected and stored by local police, private companies and governments – raise troubling questions. Peter Biebring, senior staff attorney for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.aclusocal.org/\" target=\"_blank\">American Civil Liberties Union\u003c/a> of Southern California, said the devices let police gather data about the personal lives of law-abiding citizens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not just obviously where they live and work, but if they go to a psychiatrist, if they go to AA meetings, if they go to political meetings – potentially, if they have a mistress or any manner of details about their personal life,” Bibring said.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'Technology developed for war and for foreign intelligence is being deployed in local communities – I think that's something that should give us pause.'\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>California law has no strict limits for how long police can keep such data. There also are few regulations governing the use of so-called stingray devices, which mimic cellphone towers and allow police to gather information from all wireless devices in the area. Police in San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego and Los Angeles have purchased such equipment, documents show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Privacy advocates say they are concerned not just about individual rights, but also about what happens when police are able to mine data from all these technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The concern that technology developed for war and for foreign intelligence is being deployed in local communities – I think that's something that should give us pause and is reason to scrutinize these technologies closely and ask if the technologies are really compatible with the kind of society we want to live in,” Bibring said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Convergence of Surveillance Technologies\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest trend in policing is to merge all of these technologies into one location where police can monitor and analyze the data using sophisticated software. Oakland's proposed Domain Awareness Center was scaled back in March after sustained protests. The Los Angeles Police Department has been running a similar center since 2009 called the \u003ca href=\"http://www.lapdonline.org/september_2009/news_view/42863\" target=\"_blank\">Real-Time Analysis and Critical Response Division\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the facility, police watch data from camera feeds, license-plate readers, crime reports and GPS ankle monitors worn by paroled sex offenders and gang members. The center also has access to the regional license-plate database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re constantly trying to keep a pulse on the city,” said Capt. John Romero, who runs the division. He describes it as a digital command post that enhances the department's “ready war-making capability” – or how they deploy officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ana Muniz, a researcher with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.youth4justice.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Youth Justice Coalition\u003c/a> in Inglewood, said the use of technology and tactics once reserved for the military has migrated from gang policing to entire police departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132142\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 322px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/networksurveillance.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-132142 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/networksurveillance-640x357.jpg\" alt=\"In Los Angeles, police monitor about 1,000 cameras in the city. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"322\" height=\"180\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Los Angeles, police monitor about 1,000 cameras in the city. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“People who haven't normally been targeted for surveillance are now starting to experience some portion of what poor communities of color have been experiencing their whole lives,” Muniz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Law enforcement officials say that in a technology-centric world, they need to collect and monitor far more information than before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mike Sena, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://ncric.org/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1\" target=\"_blank\">Northern California Regional Intelligence Center\u003c/a>, said such technologies need strict guidelines – and the public’s trust. Sena’s operation is one of the \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/what-fusion-center-2951\" target=\"_blank\">78 fusion centers\u003c/a> that were set up around the country after 9/11. While the center doesn't monitor cameras, it maintains a database of license-plate reader information and coordinates the use of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/03/13/129328/\" target=\"_blank\">stingrays\u003c/a> by local police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we don't have the trust of the public in what we do – information-sharing and intelligence – then we can't do information-sharing and intelligence,” Sena said. “The Constitution is in place for a reason, and the Bill of Rights is in place for a reason.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sena has his own concerns with the privacy challenges brought about by technological advances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody wants an Orwellian society where people are under constant surveillance,” he said. “I still have issues with – and many people do – with the fact that privacy has kind of been redefined in the last decade.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft wp-image-132136\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/cirlogo-640x267.jpg\" alt=\"cirlogo\" width=\"230\" height=\"96\">\u003c/a>This story was produced by the independent, nonprofit \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/a>, the country’s largest investigative reporting team, in collaboration with KQED. For more, visit\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org\" target=\"_blank\"> cironline.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"disqusIdentifier": "132113 http://ww2.kqed.org/news/?p=132113",
"disqusUrl": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/04/10/as-policing-technology-in-california-advances-so-do-privacy-concerns/",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1127,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 29
},
"modified": 1399488719,
"excerpt": "Profusion of new devices lets law enforcement gather data about personal lives of law-abiding citizens.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Profusion of new devices lets law enforcement gather data about personal lives of law-abiding citizens.",
"title": "As Policing Technology in California Advances, So Do Privacy Concerns | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "As Policing Technology in California Advances, So Do Privacy Concerns",
"datePublished": "2014-04-10T07:00:27-07:00",
"dateModified": "2014-05-07T11:51:59-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "as-policing-technology-in-california-advances-so-do-privacy-concerns",
"status": "publish",
"customPermalink": "2014/04/10/california-police-using-surveillance-tech/",
"path": "/news/132113/as-policing-technology-in-california-advances-so-do-privacy-concerns",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Ali Winston, \u003cstrong> The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/strong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132115\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/WomanArrest.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-132115 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/WomanArrest-640x358.jpg\" alt=\"Officer Rob Halverson of the Chula Vista police verifies the identity of a woman just arrest for possession of narcotics with facial recognition software. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"640\" height=\"358\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Officer Rob Halverson of the Chula Vista police verifies the identity of a woman just arrested for possession of narcotics with facial recognition software. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">P\u003c/span>olice Officer Rob Halverson responds to a call for help with a parole check. When he arrives, he finds officers leading a young woman out of a house in handcuffs. Police say they have found narcotics in the house, a violation of her parole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Halverson pulls out a Samsung tablet and asks the woman to face him. He takes her picture. In the past, to verify her identity, Halverson would have had to drive her to the police station, take her picture, and run it through a San Diego County database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, the facial recognition software on Halverson’s tablet allows him to verify the woman’s identity as he stands on her front lawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So I look at her booking photos, and that's her,” said Halverson, pointing at the tablet. “So I’m able to verify that she’s the right person.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The software on Halverson’s tablet is made by \u003ca href=\"http://www.facefirst.com/\" target=\"_blank\">FaceFirst\u003c/a>, a Camarillo-based company. In an interview, CEO Joe Rosenkrantz said his firm uses an algorithm to analyze facial images by comparing the distance between key points on a person’s face, like from chin to ear or between the eyes. He said the error rate is minimal – he claims it’s less than 1 percent of images scanned – and law-abiding people shouldn't feel threatened by the technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you are not in a database or somebody who's legitimately being sought out, whether it's a criminal database or some type of watch list, you really have nothing to worry about,” Rosenkrantz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Facial recognition is only part of a wider technological shift in policing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Law enforcement agencies around the state are creating databases of information gathered from license-plate readers, which are mounted on police cars or fixed objects and use high-resolution cameras to take pictures of vehicles. Police say license-plate databases help them track criminals and identify stolen cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Law Enforcement Data Collection Leads to Privacy Concerns\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nFor many, the rapid changes in law enforcement technology – and the huge amount of data now collected and stored by local police, private companies and governments – raise troubling questions. Peter Biebring, senior staff attorney for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.aclusocal.org/\" target=\"_blank\">American Civil Liberties Union\u003c/a> of Southern California, said the devices let police gather data about the personal lives of law-abiding citizens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not just obviously where they live and work, but if they go to a psychiatrist, if they go to AA meetings, if they go to political meetings – potentially, if they have a mistress or any manner of details about their personal life,” Bibring said.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'Technology developed for war and for foreign intelligence is being deployed in local communities – I think that's something that should give us pause.'\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>California law has no strict limits for how long police can keep such data. There also are few regulations governing the use of so-called stingray devices, which mimic cellphone towers and allow police to gather information from all wireless devices in the area. Police in San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego and Los Angeles have purchased such equipment, documents show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Privacy advocates say they are concerned not just about individual rights, but also about what happens when police are able to mine data from all these technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The concern that technology developed for war and for foreign intelligence is being deployed in local communities – I think that's something that should give us pause and is reason to scrutinize these technologies closely and ask if the technologies are really compatible with the kind of society we want to live in,” Bibring said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Convergence of Surveillance Technologies\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest trend in policing is to merge all of these technologies into one location where police can monitor and analyze the data using sophisticated software. Oakland's proposed Domain Awareness Center was scaled back in March after sustained protests. The Los Angeles Police Department has been running a similar center since 2009 called the \u003ca href=\"http://www.lapdonline.org/september_2009/news_view/42863\" target=\"_blank\">Real-Time Analysis and Critical Response Division\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the facility, police watch data from camera feeds, license-plate readers, crime reports and GPS ankle monitors worn by paroled sex offenders and gang members. The center also has access to the regional license-plate database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re constantly trying to keep a pulse on the city,” said Capt. John Romero, who runs the division. He describes it as a digital command post that enhances the department's “ready war-making capability” – or how they deploy officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ana Muniz, a researcher with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.youth4justice.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Youth Justice Coalition\u003c/a> in Inglewood, said the use of technology and tactics once reserved for the military has migrated from gang policing to entire police departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132142\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 322px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/networksurveillance.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-132142 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/networksurveillance-640x357.jpg\" alt=\"In Los Angeles, police monitor about 1,000 cameras in the city. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"322\" height=\"180\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Los Angeles, police monitor about 1,000 cameras in the city. (Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“People who haven't normally been targeted for surveillance are now starting to experience some portion of what poor communities of color have been experiencing their whole lives,” Muniz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Law enforcement officials say that in a technology-centric world, they need to collect and monitor far more information than before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mike Sena, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://ncric.org/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1\" target=\"_blank\">Northern California Regional Intelligence Center\u003c/a>, said such technologies need strict guidelines – and the public’s trust. Sena’s operation is one of the \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/what-fusion-center-2951\" target=\"_blank\">78 fusion centers\u003c/a> that were set up around the country after 9/11. While the center doesn't monitor cameras, it maintains a database of license-plate reader information and coordinates the use of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/03/13/129328/\" target=\"_blank\">stingrays\u003c/a> by local police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we don't have the trust of the public in what we do – information-sharing and intelligence – then we can't do information-sharing and intelligence,” Sena said. “The Constitution is in place for a reason, and the Bill of Rights is in place for a reason.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sena has his own concerns with the privacy challenges brought about by technological advances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody wants an Orwellian society where people are under constant surveillance,” he said. “I still have issues with – and many people do – with the fact that privacy has kind of been redefined in the last decade.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft wp-image-132136\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/cirlogo-640x267.jpg\" alt=\"cirlogo\" width=\"230\" height=\"96\">\u003c/a>This story was produced by the independent, nonprofit \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/a>, the country’s largest investigative reporting team, in collaboration with KQED. For more, visit\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org\" target=\"_blank\"> cironline.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/132113/as-policing-technology-in-california-advances-so-do-privacy-concerns",
"authors": [
"217"
],
"programs": [
"news_6944"
],
"series": [
"news_18549"
],
"categories": [
"news_1758",
"news_6188"
],
"tags": [
"news_212",
"news_787",
"news_740",
"news_19904",
"news_1859",
"news_4289"
],
"featImg": "news_132115",
"label": "news_6944"
},
"news_130697": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_130697",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "130697",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1395961768000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news",
"term": 6944
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1395961768,
"format": "aside",
"disqusTitle": "Abuse Findings Continue at California Centers for the Disabled, Despite Scrutiny",
"title": "Abuse Findings Continue at California Centers for the Disabled, Despite Scrutiny",
"headTitle": "News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130703\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/03/F180097365.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/03/F180097365-640x453.jpg\" alt=\"California's Department of Public Health has been under scrutiny for overlooking obvious cases of abuse at the state's five developmental centers. (Adithya Sambamurthy/The Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"640\" height=\"453\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-130703\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California's Department of Public Health has been under scrutiny for overlooking obvious cases of abuse at the state's five developmental centers. (Adithya Sambamurthy/The Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Rachael Bale\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is known in public records as Client 98, a disabled woman living at the Lanterman Developmental Center, a state-run board-and-care facility in Los Angeles County that houses roughly 100 men and women with disorders such as cerebral palsy and severe autism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the morning of Nov. 6, 2012, an aide was helping Client 98 from the shower to the bed when the aide noticed drops of blood on the floor. A health services specialist found that the woman had a tear in her genital area. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An on-site physician examined Client 98, whose age was not included in public records, and concluded that someone might have sexually assaulted her. She was taken to the hospital for a full examination. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was some type of blunt force trauma, but I cannot tell what,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p121/a150083\">said a nurse\u003c/a> who examined her, according to public records. The nurse confirmed an assault had occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unsolved case of Client 98 was in \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/LnC/Pages/DevelopmentalCenterActions.aspx\">reports\u003c/a> by the California Department of Public Health documenting life inside Lanterman Developmental Center and another state board-and-care facility, the Fairview Developmental Center in Orange County. Totaling more than 500 pages, these reports offer a dispiriting glimpse into alleged violence and other misconduct harming severely developmentally disabled residents in these two facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The facility’s emergency notification system went off: code blue -- patient in need of resuscitation.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The violations include suspicious deaths, poor treatment and improper supervision. Inspectors visiting Lanterman in September, for example, recorded incidents of staff giving \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p86/a9\">unnecessary drugs\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p93/a5\">providing incontinence care in view of others\u003c/a> and inadequately supervising residents, during which times one person \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p111/a8\">assaulted another with a wooden stick\u003c/a> and another was suspected of \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p109/a7\">ingesting foreign objects\u003c/a>, among other incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state inspectors, who complete the compliance surveys on behalf of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, focused on about 30 residents at the facilities, which together house more than 400 residents. Although the reports are public, the names and other identifying information about patients were kept confidential for privacy reasons. The surveys occur no more than 15.9 months apart, according to federal guidelines. On average, they occur 12 months apart, according to a state Department of Public Health spokesman. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the Department of Public Health, which inspects the state’s five developmental centers, and the state Department of Developmental Services, which runs them, have been under intense scrutiny for overlooking obvious cases of abuse at the facilities, which collectively house more than 1,300 men and women. A \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/broken-shield\">series of reports\u003c/a> from The Center for Investigative Reporting found the developmental centers’ on-site police force, the Office of Protective Services, has failed to conduct thorough investigations into claims of abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that they're finding all of these problems at all of these facilities now really suggests they have not been doing thorough survey investigations over a number of years at these facilities,” said Leslie Morrison, director of the investigations unit at Disability Rights California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, a spokesman for the health department said all surveys are conducted according to a process laid out by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “Each survey is dynamic, and findings from surveys stand independently,” Corey Egel said in a written statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since December 2012, federal regulators have penalized all four of California's large developmental centers, located in Sonoma, Orange, Los Angeles and Tulare counties. A fifth, smaller developmental center in Riverside County was found to have compliance violations in 2012, but it faced no state or federal penalties. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, the health department began removing Medicaid funding for Fairview, Lanterman and the Porterville Developmental Center in the Central Valley for failing the compliance surveys, but recent agreements between the Department of Developmental Services and the California Department of Public Health to improve conditions halted the decertification process. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nancy Lungren, a spokeswoman for the Department of Developmental Services, said in a written statement that the facilities “responded to each incident noted and developed plans of correction immediately to provide the necessary care and services, and to address any system issues.” In addition, Lungren said independent reviewers are expected to start visiting the facilities in April to “examine the root cause of the deficiencies” and offer an improvement plan. \u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Client 12 'refused to move her legs' for two days. It turned out that she had a broken neck.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The state has eight enforcement actions pending against Lanterman and Fairview, but neither facility paid any fines in 2013. And after agreeing to the plans of correction, neither faced sanctions for failing the surveys. Had the Medicare decertification actions for Lanterman, Fairview and Porterville gone through, California taxpayers would have been on the hook for about $4.1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case of Client 98, the investigation was handed over the day after the assault to the California Highway Patrol, which has jurisdiction over potentially criminal cases that occur at Lanterman. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A CHP investigator interviewed all four staff members who had contact with the client the night of the incident. But after DNA tests returned negative, the highway patrol concluded the investigation nine months after the assault occurred. The primary suspect, an aide who was in charge of the shift on the night the client was injured, died of an unspecified medical condition during the course of the investigation. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspectors also found little evidence that the Office of Protective Services had followed up with its own internal investigation as required. It was unclear whether it had tracked down other clients with whom the suspected aide had contact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The OPS Commander was unable to provide a clear and concise answer, stating that it might have been documented in the report,” the inspectors \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p149/a4\">wrote\u003c/a>. The commander \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p148/a3\">suggested\u003c/a> at one point that the injury could have been a result of a loose arm on a chair, according to the compliance survey. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to failing to protect a client from sexual assault, Lanterman was \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p58/a150079\">cited\u003c/a> for neglect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 4:30 p.m. Jan. 5, 2013 – about two months after the suspected sexual assault – another Lanterman resident, known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p58/a4\">Client 97\u003c/a>, lay down for a nap. The afternoon nap was out of character, but the aide assigned to monitor this resident at all times nonetheless left the room after a few minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 10 minutes later, the facility’s emergency notification system went off: code blue – patient in need of resuscitation. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The aide returned to the room and began CPR. More staff arrived to help. Paramedics came soon after. But by 5:15 p.m., the code was canceled. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Client 97 was dead. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coincidentally, a surveyor from the Department of Public Health was on-site that day to conduct a compliance inspection. The surveyor noticed that Client 97 was supposed to be on enhanced supervision, so the surveyor and another employee went to check on him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We found Client 97 in his bed, laying on his side,” the surveyor \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p59/a150080\">wrote\u003c/a> in the inspection report. He had no pulse. “I called a code and 911.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eight months later, the health department found that this incident – and several others relating to lack of supervision – put the Lanterman Developmental Center \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p58/a5\">on track\u003c/a> to lose its Medicaid funding. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspectors also found serious problems at the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa. In fact, they noted Fairview had accumulated more violations between surveys in May and August of 2013, ranging from \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068161-fairview-developmental-center-survey-2-of-3.html#document/p6/a2\">verbal abuse\u003c/a> to restricting \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p38/a3\">access to the telephone\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p39/a4\">recreational activities\u003c/a> to not being alert about \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068161-fairview-developmental-center-survey-2-of-3.html#document/p8/a150147\">unexplained injuries\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one illustrative case, Client 12 “refused to move her legs” for two days. It turned out that she had a broken neck and needed surgery. Doctors also \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p96/a9\">found\u003c/a> a broken rib, a bruise on her neck and a blood clot under her scalp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The surgery was the culmination of about a month of unexplained bruises and a hard fall after a seizure. It is unclear or unknown exactly what caused the neck fracture, but inspectors noted her \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p91/a150138\">worn-out\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p92/a150139\">cracked\u003c/a> helmet and heard from staff members who \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p96/a150116\">said\u003c/a> she had complained of back pain at least a week before the paralysis began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the resident first “refused to move,” several sets of X-rays failed to reveal any injuries. However, as the radiologist later \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p93/a150114\">told\u003c/a> inspectors, several vertebrae in her neck could not be scanned because of the placement of her shoulder. He recommended a CT scan, but Client 12 returned to Fairview without one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After two days of being unable to move her legs, she received a CT scan. It showed her broken neck, as well as a broken right rib. Client 12 needed surgery. She is now \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p29/a151211\">paralyzed and requires a breathing tube\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lanterman and Fairview continue to operate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Reporter Ryan Gabrielson contributed to this story. It was edited by Robert Salladay and copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This story was produced by the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, the country’s largest investigative reporting team. For more, visit cironline.org. Bale can be reached at rbale@cironline.org.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"disqusIdentifier": "130697 http://ww2.kqed.org/news/?p=130697",
"disqusUrl": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/03/27/abuse-findings-continue-at-california-centers-for-the-disabled-despite-scrutiny/",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1570,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 37
},
"modified": 1395961768,
"excerpt": "Sexual violence and suspicious deaths are among the violations alleged in new reports on the state of care in California's facilities for the developmentally disabled.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Sexual violence and suspicious deaths are among the violations alleged in new reports on the state of care in California's facilities for the developmentally disabled.",
"title": "Abuse Findings Continue at California Centers for the Disabled, Despite Scrutiny | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Abuse Findings Continue at California Centers for the Disabled, Despite Scrutiny",
"datePublished": "2014-03-27T16:09:28-07:00",
"dateModified": "2014-03-27T16:09:28-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "abuse-findings-continue-at-california-centers-for-the-disabled-despite-scrutiny",
"status": "publish",
"customPermalink": "2014/03/27/130697/abuse-findings-continue-California-developmental-centers/",
"path": "/news/130697/abuse-findings-continue-at-california-centers-for-the-disabled-despite-scrutiny",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_130703\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/03/F180097365.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/03/F180097365-640x453.jpg\" alt=\"California's Department of Public Health has been under scrutiny for overlooking obvious cases of abuse at the state's five developmental centers. (Adithya Sambamurthy/The Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"640\" height=\"453\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-130703\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California's Department of Public Health has been under scrutiny for overlooking obvious cases of abuse at the state's five developmental centers. (Adithya Sambamurthy/The Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Rachael Bale\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is known in public records as Client 98, a disabled woman living at the Lanterman Developmental Center, a state-run board-and-care facility in Los Angeles County that houses roughly 100 men and women with disorders such as cerebral palsy and severe autism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the morning of Nov. 6, 2012, an aide was helping Client 98 from the shower to the bed when the aide noticed drops of blood on the floor. A health services specialist found that the woman had a tear in her genital area. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An on-site physician examined Client 98, whose age was not included in public records, and concluded that someone might have sexually assaulted her. She was taken to the hospital for a full examination. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was some type of blunt force trauma, but I cannot tell what,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p121/a150083\">said a nurse\u003c/a> who examined her, according to public records. The nurse confirmed an assault had occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unsolved case of Client 98 was in \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/LnC/Pages/DevelopmentalCenterActions.aspx\">reports\u003c/a> by the California Department of Public Health documenting life inside Lanterman Developmental Center and another state board-and-care facility, the Fairview Developmental Center in Orange County. Totaling more than 500 pages, these reports offer a dispiriting glimpse into alleged violence and other misconduct harming severely developmentally disabled residents in these two facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The facility’s emergency notification system went off: code blue -- patient in need of resuscitation.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The violations include suspicious deaths, poor treatment and improper supervision. Inspectors visiting Lanterman in September, for example, recorded incidents of staff giving \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p86/a9\">unnecessary drugs\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p93/a5\">providing incontinence care in view of others\u003c/a> and inadequately supervising residents, during which times one person \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p111/a8\">assaulted another with a wooden stick\u003c/a> and another was suspected of \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p109/a7\">ingesting foreign objects\u003c/a>, among other incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state inspectors, who complete the compliance surveys on behalf of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, focused on about 30 residents at the facilities, which together house more than 400 residents. Although the reports are public, the names and other identifying information about patients were kept confidential for privacy reasons. The surveys occur no more than 15.9 months apart, according to federal guidelines. On average, they occur 12 months apart, according to a state Department of Public Health spokesman. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the Department of Public Health, which inspects the state’s five developmental centers, and the state Department of Developmental Services, which runs them, have been under intense scrutiny for overlooking obvious cases of abuse at the facilities, which collectively house more than 1,300 men and women. A \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/broken-shield\">series of reports\u003c/a> from The Center for Investigative Reporting found the developmental centers’ on-site police force, the Office of Protective Services, has failed to conduct thorough investigations into claims of abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that they're finding all of these problems at all of these facilities now really suggests they have not been doing thorough survey investigations over a number of years at these facilities,” said Leslie Morrison, director of the investigations unit at Disability Rights California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, a spokesman for the health department said all surveys are conducted according to a process laid out by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “Each survey is dynamic, and findings from surveys stand independently,” Corey Egel said in a written statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since December 2012, federal regulators have penalized all four of California's large developmental centers, located in Sonoma, Orange, Los Angeles and Tulare counties. A fifth, smaller developmental center in Riverside County was found to have compliance violations in 2012, but it faced no state or federal penalties. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, the health department began removing Medicaid funding for Fairview, Lanterman and the Porterville Developmental Center in the Central Valley for failing the compliance surveys, but recent agreements between the Department of Developmental Services and the California Department of Public Health to improve conditions halted the decertification process. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nancy Lungren, a spokeswoman for the Department of Developmental Services, said in a written statement that the facilities “responded to each incident noted and developed plans of correction immediately to provide the necessary care and services, and to address any system issues.” In addition, Lungren said independent reviewers are expected to start visiting the facilities in April to “examine the root cause of the deficiencies” and offer an improvement plan. \u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Client 12 'refused to move her legs' for two days. It turned out that she had a broken neck.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The state has eight enforcement actions pending against Lanterman and Fairview, but neither facility paid any fines in 2013. And after agreeing to the plans of correction, neither faced sanctions for failing the surveys. Had the Medicare decertification actions for Lanterman, Fairview and Porterville gone through, California taxpayers would have been on the hook for about $4.1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case of Client 98, the investigation was handed over the day after the assault to the California Highway Patrol, which has jurisdiction over potentially criminal cases that occur at Lanterman. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A CHP investigator interviewed all four staff members who had contact with the client the night of the incident. But after DNA tests returned negative, the highway patrol concluded the investigation nine months after the assault occurred. The primary suspect, an aide who was in charge of the shift on the night the client was injured, died of an unspecified medical condition during the course of the investigation. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspectors also found little evidence that the Office of Protective Services had followed up with its own internal investigation as required. It was unclear whether it had tracked down other clients with whom the suspected aide had contact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The OPS Commander was unable to provide a clear and concise answer, stating that it might have been documented in the report,” the inspectors \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p149/a4\">wrote\u003c/a>. The commander \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p148/a3\">suggested\u003c/a> at one point that the injury could have been a result of a loose arm on a chair, according to the compliance survey. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to failing to protect a client from sexual assault, Lanterman was \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p58/a150079\">cited\u003c/a> for neglect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 4:30 p.m. Jan. 5, 2013 – about two months after the suspected sexual assault – another Lanterman resident, known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p58/a4\">Client 97\u003c/a>, lay down for a nap. The afternoon nap was out of character, but the aide assigned to monitor this resident at all times nonetheless left the room after a few minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 10 minutes later, the facility’s emergency notification system went off: code blue – patient in need of resuscitation. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The aide returned to the room and began CPR. More staff arrived to help. Paramedics came soon after. But by 5:15 p.m., the code was canceled. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Client 97 was dead. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coincidentally, a surveyor from the Department of Public Health was on-site that day to conduct a compliance inspection. The surveyor noticed that Client 97 was supposed to be on enhanced supervision, so the surveyor and another employee went to check on him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We found Client 97 in his bed, laying on his side,” the surveyor \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p59/a150080\">wrote\u003c/a> in the inspection report. He had no pulse. “I called a code and 911.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eight months later, the health department found that this incident – and several others relating to lack of supervision – put the Lanterman Developmental Center \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068159-lanterman-developmental-center-survey-1of-2.html#document/p58/a5\">on track\u003c/a> to lose its Medicaid funding. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspectors also found serious problems at the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa. In fact, they noted Fairview had accumulated more violations between surveys in May and August of 2013, ranging from \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068161-fairview-developmental-center-survey-2-of-3.html#document/p6/a2\">verbal abuse\u003c/a> to restricting \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p38/a3\">access to the telephone\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p39/a4\">recreational activities\u003c/a> to not being alert about \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068161-fairview-developmental-center-survey-2-of-3.html#document/p8/a150147\">unexplained injuries\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one illustrative case, Client 12 “refused to move her legs” for two days. It turned out that she had a broken neck and needed surgery. Doctors also \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p96/a9\">found\u003c/a> a broken rib, a bruise on her neck and a blood clot under her scalp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The surgery was the culmination of about a month of unexplained bruises and a hard fall after a seizure. It is unclear or unknown exactly what caused the neck fracture, but inspectors noted her \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p91/a150138\">worn-out\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p92/a150139\">cracked\u003c/a> helmet and heard from staff members who \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p96/a150116\">said\u003c/a> she had complained of back pain at least a week before the paralysis began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the resident first “refused to move,” several sets of X-rays failed to reveal any injuries. However, as the radiologist later \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p93/a150114\">told\u003c/a> inspectors, several vertebrae in her neck could not be scanned because of the placement of her shoulder. He recommended a CT scan, but Client 12 returned to Fairview without one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After two days of being unable to move her legs, she received a CT scan. It showed her broken neck, as well as a broken right rib. Client 12 needed surgery. She is now \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1068163-fairview-developmental-center-survey-1-of-3.html#document/p29/a151211\">paralyzed and requires a breathing tube\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lanterman and Fairview continue to operate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Reporter Ryan Gabrielson contributed to this story. It was edited by Robert Salladay and copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This story was produced by the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, the country’s largest investigative reporting team. For more, visit cironline.org. Bale can be reached at rbale@cironline.org.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/130697/abuse-findings-continue-at-california-centers-for-the-disabled-despite-scrutiny",
"authors": [
"217"
],
"programs": [
"news_6944"
],
"categories": [
"news_6188"
],
"tags": [
"news_3144",
"news_18538",
"news_152"
],
"featImg": "news_130703",
"label": "news_6944"
},
"news_128077": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_128077",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "128077",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1393627531000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "treasure-island-cleanup-exposes-navys-mishandling-of-its-nuclear-past",
"title": "Treasure Island Cleanup Exposes Navy’s Mishandling of its Nuclear Past",
"publishDate": 1393627531,
"format": "aside",
"headTitle": "Treasure Island Cleanup Exposes Navy’s Mishandling of its Nuclear Past | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"term": 6944,
"site": "news"
},
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128086\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128086\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/CIRTreasureIsleCleanup.jpg\" alt=\"Radioactive warning signs are posted on the fence surrounding a cleanup site on Treasure Island in 2012. (Michael Short/The Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Radioactive warning signs are posted on the fence surrounding a cleanup site on Treasure Island in 2012. (Michael Short/The Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Matt Smith and Katharine Mieszkowski, The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Halfway across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, an abrupt exit leads to Treasure Island, a seven-sided plain with spectacular views that inspire grandiose dreams. The Army Corps of Engineers created the island for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, encircling 400 acres of bay shoals with rock walls, draining them, filling the void with sand and soil, and naming it after the famous adventure novel. Today, the city of San Francisco has set its sights on erecting a second downtown there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Treasure Island’s fate in the intervening decades – and a long-secret legacy of radioactive waste left behind – has complicated those plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the exposition, the island was set to become a civilian airport – until the United States entered World War II. The Navy seized the land for the Treasure Island Naval Station and demolished the expo’s Art Moderne structures, leaving just the terminal and two hangars. In the spaces around them rose a little village of beige one- and two-story sheds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, the base served its purpose until, in 1993, it landed on a decommission list. The military decamped, dismantling and cleanup began, and a few years later some former Navy housing was turned into city-subsidized rentals. By 2007, the Navy was well into the process of preparing the land for full transfer to civilian control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That year, cleanup operations shifted from removing Navy industrial toxics and sludge to identifying any lingering radioactive waste. New World Environmental, a contractor working for the Navy, assigned specialist Robert McLean to conduct a preliminary radiation survey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was how McLean found himself cruising through neighborhoods built near former U.S. Navy training academies, with a Ludlum radiation meter poked out of his truck window. He did not expect to find much; just the year before, a Navy-commissioned historical report had suggested there was little likelihood that significant radioactive waste would be found on the island. And by then hundreds of San Franciscans were living in modest townhouses on Treasure Island and neighboring Yerba Buena Island – with the Navy’s assurances that doing so was perfectly safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, the sensor needle hopped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We picked up readings from inside the truck, without even getting out of the vehicle,” said McLean, speaking publicly about his discovery for the first time. That first detection was not the last.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/treasure-island-cleanup-exposes-navy%E2%80%99s-mishandling-its-nuclear-past-5986\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full story (CIROnline.org)\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting. It was published with the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/treasure-island-cleanup-exposes-navy%E2%80%99s-mishandling-its-nuclear-past-5986\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reporters Matt Smith and Katharine Mieszkowski joined \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201402280930\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KQED’s “Forum\u003c/a>” this morning to discuss their yearlong investigation, which questions whether Treasure Island is safe for current residents and explores the implications for San Francisco’s plans to build thousands of new units there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/137266023&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "At the former Treasure Island naval base, a discovery of radioactive material has led to the bureaucratic equivalent of warfare.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1726009620,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": true,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 15,
"wordCount": 512
},
"headData": {
"title": "Treasure Island Cleanup Exposes Navy’s Mishandling of its Nuclear Past | KQED",
"description": "At the former Treasure Island naval base, a discovery of radioactive material has led to the bureaucratic equivalent of warfare.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Treasure Island Cleanup Exposes Navy’s Mishandling of its Nuclear Past",
"datePublished": "2014-02-28T14:45:31-08:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-10T16:07:00-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"sticky": false,
"customPermalink": "2014/02/28/treasure-island-cleanup-exposes-navy-mishandling-of-its-nuclear-past/",
"path": "/news/128077/treasure-island-cleanup-exposes-navys-mishandling-of-its-nuclear-past",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_128086\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-128086\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/CIRTreasureIsleCleanup.jpg\" alt=\"Radioactive warning signs are posted on the fence surrounding a cleanup site on Treasure Island in 2012. (Michael Short/The Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Radioactive warning signs are posted on the fence surrounding a cleanup site on Treasure Island in 2012. (Michael Short/The Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Matt Smith and Katharine Mieszkowski, The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Halfway across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, an abrupt exit leads to Treasure Island, a seven-sided plain with spectacular views that inspire grandiose dreams. The Army Corps of Engineers created the island for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, encircling 400 acres of bay shoals with rock walls, draining them, filling the void with sand and soil, and naming it after the famous adventure novel. Today, the city of San Francisco has set its sights on erecting a second downtown there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Treasure Island’s fate in the intervening decades – and a long-secret legacy of radioactive waste left behind – has complicated those plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the exposition, the island was set to become a civilian airport – until the United States entered World War II. The Navy seized the land for the Treasure Island Naval Station and demolished the expo’s Art Moderne structures, leaving just the terminal and two hangars. In the spaces around them rose a little village of beige one- and two-story sheds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, the base served its purpose until, in 1993, it landed on a decommission list. The military decamped, dismantling and cleanup began, and a few years later some former Navy housing was turned into city-subsidized rentals. By 2007, the Navy was well into the process of preparing the land for full transfer to civilian control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That year, cleanup operations shifted from removing Navy industrial toxics and sludge to identifying any lingering radioactive waste. New World Environmental, a contractor working for the Navy, assigned specialist Robert McLean to conduct a preliminary radiation survey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was how McLean found himself cruising through neighborhoods built near former U.S. Navy training academies, with a Ludlum radiation meter poked out of his truck window. He did not expect to find much; just the year before, a Navy-commissioned historical report had suggested there was little likelihood that significant radioactive waste would be found on the island. And by then hundreds of San Franciscans were living in modest townhouses on Treasure Island and neighboring Yerba Buena Island – with the Navy’s assurances that doing so was perfectly safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, the sensor needle hopped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We picked up readings from inside the truck, without even getting out of the vehicle,” said McLean, speaking publicly about his discovery for the first time. That first detection was not the last.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/treasure-island-cleanup-exposes-navy%E2%80%99s-mishandling-its-nuclear-past-5986\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full story (CIROnline.org)\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting. It was published with the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/treasure-island-cleanup-exposes-navy%E2%80%99s-mishandling-its-nuclear-past-5986\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reporters Matt Smith and Katharine Mieszkowski joined \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201402280930\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KQED’s “Forum\u003c/a>” this morning to discuss their yearlong investigation, which questions whether Treasure Island is safe for current residents and explores the implications for San Francisco’s plans to build thousands of new units there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/137266023&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/128077/treasure-island-cleanup-exposes-navys-mishandling-of-its-nuclear-past",
"authors": [
"217"
],
"programs": [
"news_6944"
],
"categories": [
"news_19906",
"news_457",
"news_8",
"news_356"
],
"tags": [
"news_18543",
"news_80"
],
"featImg": "news_128086",
"label": "news_6944"
},
"news_127266": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_127266",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "127266",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1393027999000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "richmond-officials-take-action-amid-outcry-over-public-housing-conditions",
"title": "Richmond Officials Take Action Amid Outcry Over Public Housing Conditions",
"publishDate": 1393027999,
"format": "aside",
"headTitle": "Richmond Officials Take Action Amid Outcry Over Public Housing Conditions | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"term": 6944,
"site": "news"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Amy Julia Harris\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"single-video\">\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"//www.youtube.com/embed/6Ye6jkqsnCU\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Richmond’s city manager has ordered inspections of all 715 public housing units in the city following an investigation that found elderly and disabled residents living in deplorable conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Manager Bill Lindsay also said he will fire the security firm in charge of patrolling the two worst public housing complexes. There, drug dealers and squatters have easy access, as security guards regularly stay glued to their cellphone screens and rarely patrol the properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindsay made the decisions just days after The Center for Investigative Reporting detailed \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/projects/subsidized-squalor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filth and vermin in Richmond Housing Authority properties\u003c/a> and the agency’s failure to respond to residents’ complaints. For years, tenants say, they’ve stayed quiet, often cowed by a fear of retribution from housing authority staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the residents emerged in full force this week at a City Council hearing following the publication of the series. They recited horror story after horror story: Leaking sewage. Mice and cockroach infestations. Poor treatment by staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Additional Reporting:\n\u003cdiv style=\"font-size: 12pt\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/02/11/residents-live-in-filth-in-mismanaged-richmond-public-housing/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Richmond Public Housing Residents Say They’re Plagued With Filth, Vermin, Mold and Raw Sewage\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/02/12/financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-on-verge-of-takeover/\">Financial Abuse, Mismanagement Leave Richmond Housing Agency Near Takeover\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In the coming weeks, an outside contractor will ask residents whether they have made maintenance requests in the past and whether staff responded. They also will ask about any current problems in residents’ apartments. CIR found numerous cases in which housing authority contractors marked problems as being fixed when they weren’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The basic purpose of the inspection will be to determine whether each unit is meeting a high standard for decent, safe and sanitary housing,” Lindsay said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2009, Richmond has been on the federal government’s list of the worst housing agencies in the country. The agency is currently about $7 million in debt and owes the federal government $2.2 million for past contracting mistakes. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has called Tim Jones, the executive director, ineffective. HUD has \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-verge-takeover-5904\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">threatened to take control\u003c/a> of the Richmond agency if it doesn’t improve its management and finances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For months, Jones, who has been the executive director for almost nine years, blamed problems on his predecessor and the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, he did an abrupt about-face. Jones stared down a horde of angry residents and City Council members Tuesday night, and he apologized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To all our program participants, accept our personal and professional apologies,” he said. “There is absolutely room for improvement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most severe problems are at Hacienda, a 150-unit high-rise in central Richmond built in 1966. The building’s foundation is splitting apart, according to federal auditors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cracks snake their way along walkways and floors. Contractors have been hired to fix the leaking roof since at least 2006, but it is still leaking, according to authority records. Black and green mold and stalactites hang from Hacienda’s sixth-floor ceiling. In its most recent inspection, nearly a fifth of the units were infested with cockroaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones conceded that Hacienda is uninhabitable. He said the building should be torn down because “it just doesn’t make sense to put that much money into that structure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126444\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 323px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1661_la.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126444 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1661_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Geneva Eaton says she has lost any hope that the Richmond Housing Authority will help with problems at its Hacienda apartment complex.“I wanna go someplace else, but I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she says. “They treat us like animals here.” (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"323\" height=\"215\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Geneva Eaton says she has lost any hope that the Richmond Housing Authority will help with problems at its Hacienda apartment complex.“I wanna go someplace else, but I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she says. “They treat us like animals here.” (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jones said he is meeting with HUD soon to ask for permission to demolish or shut down Hacienda. HUD must sign off before the housing authority can give residents vouchers to find alternative housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city said it hopes to have a plan for Hacienda’s future within three months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents, who in the meantime continue to live amid the poor conditions, say the changes are a long time coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a travesty that they let it get this bad,” said Connie Gary, 71, a Hacienda resident. “When we complained before, it was like we didn’t exist. They just didn’t care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For five years, Gary lived in a leaky apartment on Hacienda’s top floor that was overrun with mold. She complained repeatedly and described how water seeped in from her roof and dripped on her belongings. She was forced to put pots all over her floors to catch the water. The mold was so thick, she said, that she could barely open her door. She eventually moved out after calling HUD directly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Council members expressed concern that housing authority staff were rude to tenants, making them afraid to come forward with complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In 2014, I would never have thought that we would have a housing authority that is predominantly African-American-supervised that would treat their own people with so much disrespect,” said Councilman\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Nathaniel Bates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the blame was pointed at Kathleen Jones, the agency’s asset operations manager. Tim Jones admitted at the hearing that he knew Kathleen Jones (the two are not related) has been disrespectful to residents. “Her delivery lacks tact,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD auditors in the past faulted Tim Jones for not disciplining his staff. “Overall management of staff is poor and staff who do not perform adequately are not disciplined,” auditors wrote in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#/h\">2012 review\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kathleen Jones is a top official at the agency. She deals day to day with tenant issues, including lease enforcement and rent collection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She did not return calls for comment. But the one time she talked to CIR, months ago, she likened her job to being “an unemancipated public slave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the City Council meeting, Tim Jones sent an email to all his staff demanding that they be courteous to the people they are paid to serve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126781\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 307px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_832_la1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126781 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_832_la1-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Steve Muccular visits his family at the Hacienda public housing complex in Richmond. The building’s security guards don’t venture up to the sixth floor, he says, so he squatted in the laundry room for months. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"307\" height=\"205\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Muccular visits his family at the Hacienda public housing complex in Richmond. The building’s security guards don’t venture up to the sixth floor, he says, so he squatted in the laundry room for months. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Concerns have been expressed that Housing Authority Staff members have been verbally abusive and rude in their interactions with program participants and the general public,” Jones wrote. “Anything less than exemplary customer service will not be tolerated and will be cause for disciplinary action up to and including termination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Resident Jaycine Scott said that security has been a constant issue in Nevin Plaza, another housing authority development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We deserve safe and sanitary housing,” Scott told the City Council. “Let me address the safe aspect. It doesn’t exist. Our security guards are a joke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company that runs security at Hacienda and Nevin Plaza, Cypress Private Security, didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some Richmond officials also are considering reaching out to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee to hear how the city cleaned house after it landed on HUD’s list of troubled housing agencies. San Francisco and Richmond were the only two California cities on the list of 44 troubled agencies nationwide last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many City Council members have wondered why the maintenance and security problems were allowed to reach a breaking point after residents had complained about the problems for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Bring in some people who are professional, who know what they’re doing, and clean up the whole mess,” Bates said. “When you have the people who created the mess trying to clean it up, it’s going to be inadequate. If heads have to roll, so be it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was edited by Andrew Donohue. It was copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This story was produced by the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, the country’s largest investigative reporting team. For more, visit cironline.org. Harris can be reached at aharris@cironline.org.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Moves prompted by disclosures that housing agency did not respond to complaints of filth, vermin, crime.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1725927786,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": true,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 37,
"wordCount": 1370
},
"headData": {
"title": "Richmond Officials Take Action Amid Outcry Over Public Housing Conditions | KQED",
"description": "Moves prompted by disclosures that housing agency did not respond to complaints of filth, vermin, crime.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Richmond Officials Take Action Amid Outcry Over Public Housing Conditions",
"datePublished": "2014-02-21T16:13:19-08:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-09T17:23:06-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"sticky": false,
"customPermalink": "2014/02/21/richmond-public-housing-authority-inspections-ordered/",
"path": "/news/127266/richmond-officials-take-action-amid-outcry-over-public-housing-conditions",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Amy Julia Harris\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"single-video\">\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"//www.youtube.com/embed/6Ye6jkqsnCU\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Richmond’s city manager has ordered inspections of all 715 public housing units in the city following an investigation that found elderly and disabled residents living in deplorable conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Manager Bill Lindsay also said he will fire the security firm in charge of patrolling the two worst public housing complexes. There, drug dealers and squatters have easy access, as security guards regularly stay glued to their cellphone screens and rarely patrol the properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindsay made the decisions just days after The Center for Investigative Reporting detailed \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/projects/subsidized-squalor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filth and vermin in Richmond Housing Authority properties\u003c/a> and the agency’s failure to respond to residents’ complaints. For years, tenants say, they’ve stayed quiet, often cowed by a fear of retribution from housing authority staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the residents emerged in full force this week at a City Council hearing following the publication of the series. They recited horror story after horror story: Leaking sewage. Mice and cockroach infestations. Poor treatment by staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Additional Reporting:\n\u003cdiv style=\"font-size: 12pt\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/02/11/residents-live-in-filth-in-mismanaged-richmond-public-housing/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Richmond Public Housing Residents Say They’re Plagued With Filth, Vermin, Mold and Raw Sewage\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/02/12/financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-on-verge-of-takeover/\">Financial Abuse, Mismanagement Leave Richmond Housing Agency Near Takeover\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In the coming weeks, an outside contractor will ask residents whether they have made maintenance requests in the past and whether staff responded. They also will ask about any current problems in residents’ apartments. CIR found numerous cases in which housing authority contractors marked problems as being fixed when they weren’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The basic purpose of the inspection will be to determine whether each unit is meeting a high standard for decent, safe and sanitary housing,” Lindsay said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2009, Richmond has been on the federal government’s list of the worst housing agencies in the country. The agency is currently about $7 million in debt and owes the federal government $2.2 million for past contracting mistakes. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has called Tim Jones, the executive director, ineffective. HUD has \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/reports/financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-verge-takeover-5904\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">threatened to take control\u003c/a> of the Richmond agency if it doesn’t improve its management and finances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For months, Jones, who has been the executive director for almost nine years, blamed problems on his predecessor and the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, he did an abrupt about-face. Jones stared down a horde of angry residents and City Council members Tuesday night, and he apologized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To all our program participants, accept our personal and professional apologies,” he said. “There is absolutely room for improvement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most severe problems are at Hacienda, a 150-unit high-rise in central Richmond built in 1966. The building’s foundation is splitting apart, according to federal auditors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cracks snake their way along walkways and floors. Contractors have been hired to fix the leaking roof since at least 2006, but it is still leaking, according to authority records. Black and green mold and stalactites hang from Hacienda’s sixth-floor ceiling. In its most recent inspection, nearly a fifth of the units were infested with cockroaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones conceded that Hacienda is uninhabitable. He said the building should be torn down because “it just doesn’t make sense to put that much money into that structure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126444\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 323px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1661_la.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126444 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1661_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Geneva Eaton says she has lost any hope that the Richmond Housing Authority will help with problems at its Hacienda apartment complex.“I wanna go someplace else, but I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she says. “They treat us like animals here.” (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"323\" height=\"215\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Geneva Eaton says she has lost any hope that the Richmond Housing Authority will help with problems at its Hacienda apartment complex.“I wanna go someplace else, but I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she says. “They treat us like animals here.” (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jones said he is meeting with HUD soon to ask for permission to demolish or shut down Hacienda. HUD must sign off before the housing authority can give residents vouchers to find alternative housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city said it hopes to have a plan for Hacienda’s future within three months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents, who in the meantime continue to live amid the poor conditions, say the changes are a long time coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a travesty that they let it get this bad,” said Connie Gary, 71, a Hacienda resident. “When we complained before, it was like we didn’t exist. They just didn’t care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For five years, Gary lived in a leaky apartment on Hacienda’s top floor that was overrun with mold. She complained repeatedly and described how water seeped in from her roof and dripped on her belongings. She was forced to put pots all over her floors to catch the water. The mold was so thick, she said, that she could barely open her door. She eventually moved out after calling HUD directly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Council members expressed concern that housing authority staff were rude to tenants, making them afraid to come forward with complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In 2014, I would never have thought that we would have a housing authority that is predominantly African-American-supervised that would treat their own people with so much disrespect,” said Councilman\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Nathaniel Bates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the blame was pointed at Kathleen Jones, the agency’s asset operations manager. Tim Jones admitted at the hearing that he knew Kathleen Jones (the two are not related) has been disrespectful to residents. “Her delivery lacks tact,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD auditors in the past faulted Tim Jones for not disciplining his staff. “Overall management of staff is poor and staff who do not perform adequately are not disciplined,” auditors wrote in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#/h\">2012 review\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kathleen Jones is a top official at the agency. She deals day to day with tenant issues, including lease enforcement and rent collection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She did not return calls for comment. But the one time she talked to CIR, months ago, she likened her job to being “an unemancipated public slave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the City Council meeting, Tim Jones sent an email to all his staff demanding that they be courteous to the people they are paid to serve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126781\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 307px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_832_la1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126781 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_832_la1-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Steve Muccular visits his family at the Hacienda public housing complex in Richmond. The building’s security guards don’t venture up to the sixth floor, he says, so he squatted in the laundry room for months. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"307\" height=\"205\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Muccular visits his family at the Hacienda public housing complex in Richmond. The building’s security guards don’t venture up to the sixth floor, he says, so he squatted in the laundry room for months. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Concerns have been expressed that Housing Authority Staff members have been verbally abusive and rude in their interactions with program participants and the general public,” Jones wrote. “Anything less than exemplary customer service will not be tolerated and will be cause for disciplinary action up to and including termination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Resident Jaycine Scott said that security has been a constant issue in Nevin Plaza, another housing authority development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We deserve safe and sanitary housing,” Scott told the City Council. “Let me address the safe aspect. It doesn’t exist. Our security guards are a joke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company that runs security at Hacienda and Nevin Plaza, Cypress Private Security, didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some Richmond officials also are considering reaching out to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee to hear how the city cleaned house after it landed on HUD’s list of troubled housing agencies. San Francisco and Richmond were the only two California cities on the list of 44 troubled agencies nationwide last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many City Council members have wondered why the maintenance and security problems were allowed to reach a breaking point after residents had complained about the problems for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Bring in some people who are professional, who know what they’re doing, and clean up the whole mess,” Bates said. “When you have the people who created the mess trying to clean it up, it’s going to be inadequate. If heads have to roll, so be it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was edited by Andrew Donohue. It was copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This story was produced by the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, the country’s largest investigative reporting team. For more, visit cironline.org. Harris can be reached at aharris@cironline.org.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/127266/richmond-officials-take-action-amid-outcry-over-public-housing-conditions",
"authors": [
"217"
],
"programs": [
"news_6944"
],
"categories": [
"news_6266"
],
"tags": [
"news_3921",
"news_18544",
"news_829",
"news_854",
"news_5813",
"news_579",
"news_5771",
"news_5814"
],
"featImg": "news_126781",
"label": "news_6944"
},
"news_126156": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_126156",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "126156",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1392710466000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-on-verge-of-takeover",
"title": "Financial Abuse, Mismanagement Leave Richmond Housing Agency Near Takeover",
"publishDate": 1392710466,
"format": "aside",
"headTitle": "Financial Abuse, Mismanagement Leave Richmond Housing Agency Near Takeover | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"term": 6944,
"site": "news"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Amy Julia Harris\u003cbr>\nThe Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126791\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-126791\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_3561_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Jones (center), executive director of the Richmond Housing Authority, looks over a housing report with Jackie Thompson, president of the Friendship Manor residents council. Friendship Manor is one five public housing complexes owned by the housing authority. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tim Jones (center), executive director of the Richmond Housing Authority, looks over a housing report with Jackie Thompson, president of the Friendship Manor residents council. Friendship Manor is one five public housing complexes owned by the housing authority. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The public housing agency in the East Bay city of Richmond has been racked by years of mismanagement, financial abuse and conflicts of interest, The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Richmond Housing Authority is running a nearly $7 million deficit and has to repay $2.2 million for past contracting mistakes. The federal government is threatening to take control of the housing authority this year if key financial benchmarks are not met.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, Richmond failed to collect more than $157,000 in rent from tenants, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015658-richmond-2012-mass-subindicator.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most recent inspection\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As its finances spiraled out of control and residents’ basic needs went ignored, the authority spent lavishly, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”710c32e9e0a80855a25dd284662579aa”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its executive director, Tim Jones, charged hundreds of dollars on meals in New York and Washington, including a roughly $400 meal at an upscale midtown Manhattan restaurant\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>where a strip steak with truffle fries runs $41.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meals cost as much as many public housing tenants pay each month in rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones’ pay also increased about 30 percent over three years as the authority ran up debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the housing authority’s finance manager improperly used public money for personal use, putting gas and meals on the agency credit card, records show. Federal inspectors in 2012 called his financial knowledge \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p12/a144143\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">inadequate\u003c/a>, saying he routinely failed to provide basic paperwork detailing the authority’s finances. He’s still working at the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority also made several late payments on the agency credit card, triggering late fees,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD discovered that the No. 2 man at the agency had steered contracts to his brother and wanted him banned from doing work with the federal government. Two years later, the housing authority paid for his retirement party, violating city rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These revelations come on top of CIR’s findings of deplorable conditions for residents who occupy the authority’s two largest housing complexes. Residents there\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>are dealing with severe rodent and insect infestations, mold-ridden walls and a slow reaction to fix basic maintenance problems like plumbing leaks and broken heaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lax security has enabled squatters to take up residence in some of the authority’s vacant units. Richmond now ranks among the nation’s worst public housing authorities, according to federal data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126783\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126783 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/mice-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Ruffus Carter disposes of dead mice and roaches caught on a sticky pad in Geneva Eaton’s apartment. Eaton sleeps with the lights on, afraid that the vermin she hears chewing through her walls will bite her in her sleep. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ruffus Carter disposes of dead mice and roaches caught on a sticky pad in Geneva Eaton’s apartment. Eaton sleeps with the lights on, afraid that the vermin she hears chewing through her walls will bite her in her sleep. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To tell this story, CIR reviewed hundreds of pages of HUD audits, internal memos and report cards dating back a decade\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>that show the troubled housing authority veering further and further out of control. Until now, the story of the housing authority’s financial abuses has not been told.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The place is being badly managed, poorly managed, and something has got to change,” said Jackie Thompson, a resident who serves on the authority’s tenant advisory commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones has been in charge since 2005. He blames the housing authority’s troubles on his predecessor. He said the authority\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>has cut its staff significantly, has a plan to get out of debt and is working closely with HUD to make fixes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I arrived, we had a staff of 65,” Jones said. “Now there’s a staff of about 28. We are lean here. There is no fat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones did not respond to numerous requests for follow-up interviews once the extent of the authority’s financial abuses became clear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Lindsay, Richmond’s city manager, has asked HUD to give Jones a chance to turn the authority around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He inherited some terrible staff that he can’t unload,” he said. “He took something that was in dismal shape, and he made cuts and stopped this place from really heading for financial disaster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the documents show how the financial problems and mismanagement have festered on Jones’ watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The current executive director has been there approximately 6 years, but few improvements have been made,” according to a June 18, 2012, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p2/a144141\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HUD memo\u003c/a>. “The financial condition of the authority has gotten worse by the year, and based on audit findings from as far back as 2009 … the total lack of internal controls has contributed significantly to the authority’s current condition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/135520676&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The abuses weighed on the minds of HUD officials, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p13/a144144\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wondered in memos\u003c/a> whether firing Jones would solve the problems. But the memos say that Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and the City Council likely would oppose such a move and that there was no qualified successor in the organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s now do-or-die for the Richmond Housing Authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After years of being warned about money and bookkeeping problems, it is being forced to overhaul its public housing operation. HUD says that so far, Richmond is making progress. But officials there have threatened to seize control of the authority if key benchmarks – such as turning in audits on time and getting out of debt – are not met this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get out of debt and pay fines, Richmond is selling an apartment complex that was supposed to be a long-term source of funding for the agency. Officials also said they have a more permanent solution. They have a $65 million plan to refurbish four of the authority’s five public housing complexes and turn them over to private management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fate of its worst complex, Hacienda, is still undecided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Improper contracts\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Richmond Housing Authority gets about $26 million a year from the federal government to provide safe and decent housing for the needy. In addition to its 715 housing units for poor, elderly and disabled residents, the authority provides Section 8 vouchers to 1,750 Richmond residents who can use these subsidies to pay rent anywhere in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2005, the authority\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>was in trouble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The executive director lacked basic skills, its files were in shambles and staff couldn’t carry out rudimentary bookkeeping, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/846796-rha-doc-6-richmond-moa-part-b-2005-2.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">documents show\u003c/a>. Federal auditors swooped in and came up with a 250-point plan on how to turn around the agency. One of their solutions: Hire a qualified executive director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126785\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126785 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/jones-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Richmond Housing Authority Executive Director Tim Jones hands out copies of notes from a previous meeting to residential council leaders from the city’s public housing properties. Jones blames years of federal funding cuts for the problems plaguing the authority. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richmond Housing Authority Executive Director Tim Jones hands out copies of notes from a previous meeting to residential council leaders from the city’s public housing properties. Jones blames years of federal funding cuts for the problems plaguing the authority. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Richmond brought in Jones, the Oakland Housing Authority’s housing management director, to fix the broken agency. For a few years, it looked like he’d turned the place around. Employees got basic training. A new activist mayor,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>McLaughlin, made economic injustice a rallying cry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>HUD got a tip that something was amiss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Manuel Rosario, Jones’ No. 2 man at the agency, had steered $61,000 in contracts to his brother in 2008 and 2009, \u003ca href=\"http://www.hud.gov/offices/oig/reports/files/ig0991020.pdf\"> HUD\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"http://www.hud.gov/offices/oig/reports/files/ig0991020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">’s inspector general found.\u003c/a> Rosario sat on a committee that gave his brother’s company an inspection contract. Months later, the contract was renewed for a year even though it didn’t have an option to be extended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosario, HUD documents say, also arranged for his brother to get more housing authority work. Jones was supposed to sign off on these documents. But he didn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a properly run system, the absence of these basic functions would have raised red flags. HUD wanted Rosario banned from working with the federal government in 2009. Jones wouldn’t say whether he fired Rosario, but the agency did pay for his retirement pizza party with taxpayer funds, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p8/a144421\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">records show\u003c/a>. City policies prohibit spending public money on these kinds of events. It’s unclear from the records how much the party cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosario could not be reached for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, the federal investigation found the agency had misspent $2.4 million on contracts over the previous decade. While some of that activity occurred under the previous leadership, the report uncovered a host of misdeeds by the new management team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority messed up its competitive bidding process for contracts, and it approved payments to contractors without proof that the work had been done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD trained authority staff on how to write and manage contracts. Jones, meanwhile, began overseeing contracts. But the problems continued. In 2012, seven out of 25 housing authority payments \u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/27344\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reviewed by auditors\u003c/a> didn’t have documents that backed up the work that was done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The executive director claims he is now the procurement officer, but despite attending procurement training, he lacks the procurement knowledge required to comply with requirements and disregards many requirements,” according to a 2012 \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#/h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">internal HUD memo.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>who by this point had been on the job for more than six years, continued to blame the previous administration for\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the breakdown in contracts. “We’re trying to find a way to fix it,” he said\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>in an interview with CIR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority is in the process of repaying $2.2 million for its contracting\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>mistakes. It made its first payment in July. The agency told HUD that\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the payments would “severely undermine the Housing Authority’s fiscal stability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Excessive expenses\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD delivers an annual\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>report card on each of the more than 4,000 housing agencies across the country. And Richmond’s low marks have placed it among the nation’s worst housing authorities every year since 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Richmond authority repeatedly has missed its deadlines to file annual financial reports with HUD.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>If it had turned in the audits on time, federal officials would have\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>seen sooner that Richmond was running out of money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has overspent its budget\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>nearly every year since 2007. Instead of making ends meet, the housing authority regularly went to the city to help pay its workers’ salaries, gradually piling up debts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Richmond got low financial marks again in 2011,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>HUD sent in a team of specialists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The specialists found that as the housing authority was going deeper into a financial hole, top officials were loading up the expense accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126786\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126786 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/listen-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"John Oliver, 76, a 10-year Nevin Plaza resident, listens as Richmond Housing Authority Executive Director Tim Jones explains issues at a Housing Advisory Commission meeting Oct. 22, 2013. Residents say their pleas for basic maintenance often are ignored by officials paid to provide services to the poor. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Oliver, 76, a 10-year Nevin Plaza resident, listens as Richmond Housing Authority Executive Director Tim Jones explains issues at a Housing Advisory Commission meeting Oct. 22, 2013. Residents say their pleas for basic maintenance often are ignored by officials paid to provide services to the poor. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a trip to New York in November 2009, Jones got the authority to pay for a $417.34 meal at Fabio Piccolo Fiore, a high-end Italian restaurant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p8/a144149\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HUD documents show\u003c/a>. In Washington, he had taxpayers fund $130.60 and $279.90 meals at an upscale soul-food restaurant called Georgia Brown’s in 2008 and 2010.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD found the charges to be excessive, according to a review that stretched from 2008 to 2011. In addition to charging the meals, Jones appears to have billed taxpayers a $40 stipend each day he traveled, records show. Government officials are supposed to limit their meals to the per diem costs, so they shouldn’t be charging meals at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones also charged taxpayers for meals closer to home. He took his\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>staff to the Italian restaurant Salute E Vita, which overlooks the Richmond marina, three times in three weeks, racking up tabs as high as $195.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>In the three years reviewed by\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>auditors, Jones charged 23 meals from this restaurant at an average of about $80 a meal, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p8/a144423\">H\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p8/a144423\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UD records show\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City of Richmond’s policy specifically prohibits employees from expensing work lunches with other city employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones approved all his own credit card charges with no outside oversight. “There were no internal controls to ensure that such activity does not occur,” auditors wrote. Jones declined to comment on the credit cards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the few people who could have\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>spotted the abuse was the finance manager. But he also was abusing his credit card, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p8/a144424\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">documents show\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tony Taplin, the housing authority’s finance manager, used the card to fix his car, fill it with gas and buy personal meals. The city said all unauthorized purchases were eventually repaid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taplin didn’t respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority also catered its Board of Commissioners meetings, which consist of the City Council and advisory commission members. One catering bill in 2008 came to $2,142.24.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials have since canceled the agency credit cards.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">After the housing authority first was labeled one of the worst in the country, Jones made $205,000 in salary and benefits.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>As the finances worsened, Jones’ salary kept rising. The city’s community and economic development director gave Jones a total of 31 percent in raises from 2008 to 2011, at a time when the agency didn’t have enough money to make payroll, HUD auditors found. Auditors described the raises as aggressive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the year after the housing authority first was labeled one of the worst in the country, Jones made $205,000 in salary and benefits, according to a survey four years ago\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>of\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>housing authority executives in California. He was in the top third of the highest-paid housing heads in the state, according to the HUD survey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His pay since has dropped as the housing authority’s budget has gone down. In 2012, he made almost $187,000 a year in salary and benefits, according to city payroll records. HUD no longer ranks executive director pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, the agency ran $5.8 million into the red. By 2013, it owed the city almost $7 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones would not answer questions about his pay or his expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the agency’s finances are getting better. “Our mission is our mission. It can be done as long as we’re trending north,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD found problems beyond the staff. Its inspectors faulted the board, which includes the mayor, for allowing the agency to rack up debt year after year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Board of Commissioners do not appear to have sufficient knowledge of Housing Authority operations, programs, financial condition, or activities, and as a result, have not provided proper oversight of the Executive Director,” according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p11/a144157\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2013 HUD document\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside>\u003ca href=\"//cironline.org/richmondhousing/partner?partnername=KQED\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2014/02/14/CIRsmall.png\" alt=\"\" align=\"middle\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nThis story was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting in partnership with the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED. \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/richmondhousing/partner?partnername=KQED\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more about CIR’s work.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The executive director reports directly to the city manager. The City Council occupies seven seats on the nine-member authority board. An advisory board of residents and community members can make recommendations. And HUD inspectors audit and inspect the housing units annually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindsay took over the housing authority’s finances in 2012. McLaughlin, who as mayor serves as board chairwoman, said she was not aware of the financial abuses at the agency or Jones’ pay increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said once Richmond completes the sale of one of its buildings, it will be debt-free and off HUD’s troubled list. She also pointed the finger at HUD for cutting public housing budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“HUD needs to realize that the federal government is being negligent in its responsibility to provide public housing funds for cities that have experienced decades of economic injustices,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When later confronted with questions about Jones’ expenses and pay, McLaughlin deferred to Lindsay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is only one other housing authority in California that is currently on the troubled list: San Francisco. After it was labeled troubled, Mayor Ed Lee cleaned house. He replaced most of the members of the board of commissioners and hired a new executive director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There has been no such change in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Troubles with rent collection \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richmond’s most recent federal report card is its worst yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing agencies are rated on a 100-point system, and Richmond got a 47 on its \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015477-richmonds-federal-scorecard.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report released in 2013\u003c/a>. Anything below 60 is failing. In addition to financial problems, HUD gave the authority failing marks for its\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority is essentially a landlord: It’s supposed to collect tenants’ rent, ensure properties aren’t in disrepair and make sure that people in public housing qualify for the subsidy. But hundreds of thousands of dollars of rent has gone uncollected. The authority also has fallen behind on checking residents’ incomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the Richmond Housing Authority was one of the only agencies in California that hadn’t completed the minimum number of income checks for residents, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015709-delinquency-report-9aph-ph-20131108-6.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to federal data\u003c/a>. Without checking these finances, tenants could be charged too much rent, or they\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>might\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>make too much money to qualify for public housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dysfunction trickles down to tenants living in the housing projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents say the agency routinely\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>misplaces their checks and slaps residents with a $25 late fee even when they pay on time. For residents on a fixed income, they say that can mean five meals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126784\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126784 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/hasnat-640x418.jpg\" alt=\"Juanita Hasnat, 47, cleans a wound on her leg in her Nevin Plaza apartment. Hasnat, whose legs were amputated after she contracted the flesh-eating bacteria MRSA, gave herself sponge baths out of her bathroom sink for months because her bathtub didn’t have a safety bar. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"251\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juanita Hasnat, 47, cleans a wound on her leg in her Nevin Plaza apartment. Hasnat, whose legs were amputated after she contracted the flesh-eating bacteria MRSA, gave herself sponge baths out of her bathroom sink for months because her bathtub didn’t have a safety bar. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Juanita Hasnat is a double amputee and former nurse. She has lived in Richmond public housing for more than three years. She said she’s paid her $233-a-month rent on time each month since she moved in. But last month and this month, she got a note from the housing agency that she was late on rent\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>and had to pay a penalty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If your people put it in late, it’s not on me,” Hasnat said at a public meeting in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones told her that he’d look into the issue and, if Hasnat was correct, he’d give her an apology in writing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Housing Advisory Commission, a group of tenants and community members that airs resident complaints, repeatedly has brought up the late rent issue to no avail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s management,” said Commissioner Sylvia Gray-White. “They don’t seem to have a clue what they’re doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was edited by Andrew Donohue and Mark Katches. It was copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This story was produced by the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, the country’s largest investigative reporting team. For more, visit cironline.org. Harris can be reached at aharris@cironline.org.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Executive director spent lavishly, including a $400 meal, as residents' needs were continually ignored.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1725923340,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": true,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 92,
"wordCount": 3271
},
"headData": {
"title": "Financial Abuse, Mismanagement Leave Richmond Housing Agency Near Takeover | KQED",
"description": "Executive director spent lavishly, including a $400 meal, as residents' needs were continually ignored.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Financial Abuse, Mismanagement Leave Richmond Housing Agency Near Takeover",
"datePublished": "2014-02-18T00:01:06-08:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-09T16:09:00-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"sticky": false,
"customPermalink": "2014/02/12/financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-on-verge-of-takeover/",
"path": "/news/126156/financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-on-verge-of-takeover",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Amy Julia Harris\u003cbr>\nThe Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126791\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-126791\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_3561_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Jones (center), executive director of the Richmond Housing Authority, looks over a housing report with Jackie Thompson, president of the Friendship Manor residents council. Friendship Manor is one five public housing complexes owned by the housing authority. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tim Jones (center), executive director of the Richmond Housing Authority, looks over a housing report with Jackie Thompson, president of the Friendship Manor residents council. Friendship Manor is one five public housing complexes owned by the housing authority. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The public housing agency in the East Bay city of Richmond has been racked by years of mismanagement, financial abuse and conflicts of interest, The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Richmond Housing Authority is running a nearly $7 million deficit and has to repay $2.2 million for past contracting mistakes. The federal government is threatening to take control of the housing authority this year if key financial benchmarks are not met.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, Richmond failed to collect more than $157,000 in rent from tenants, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015658-richmond-2012-mass-subindicator.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most recent inspection\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As its finances spiraled out of control and residents’ basic needs went ignored, the authority spent lavishly, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its executive director, Tim Jones, charged hundreds of dollars on meals in New York and Washington, including a roughly $400 meal at an upscale midtown Manhattan restaurant\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>where a strip steak with truffle fries runs $41.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meals cost as much as many public housing tenants pay each month in rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones’ pay also increased about 30 percent over three years as the authority ran up debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the housing authority’s finance manager improperly used public money for personal use, putting gas and meals on the agency credit card, records show. Federal inspectors in 2012 called his financial knowledge \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p12/a144143\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">inadequate\u003c/a>, saying he routinely failed to provide basic paperwork detailing the authority’s finances. He’s still working at the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority also made several late payments on the agency credit card, triggering late fees,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD discovered that the No. 2 man at the agency had steered contracts to his brother and wanted him banned from doing work with the federal government. Two years later, the housing authority paid for his retirement party, violating city rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These revelations come on top of CIR’s findings of deplorable conditions for residents who occupy the authority’s two largest housing complexes. Residents there\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>are dealing with severe rodent and insect infestations, mold-ridden walls and a slow reaction to fix basic maintenance problems like plumbing leaks and broken heaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lax security has enabled squatters to take up residence in some of the authority’s vacant units. Richmond now ranks among the nation’s worst public housing authorities, according to federal data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126783\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126783 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/mice-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Ruffus Carter disposes of dead mice and roaches caught on a sticky pad in Geneva Eaton’s apartment. Eaton sleeps with the lights on, afraid that the vermin she hears chewing through her walls will bite her in her sleep. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ruffus Carter disposes of dead mice and roaches caught on a sticky pad in Geneva Eaton’s apartment. Eaton sleeps with the lights on, afraid that the vermin she hears chewing through her walls will bite her in her sleep. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To tell this story, CIR reviewed hundreds of pages of HUD audits, internal memos and report cards dating back a decade\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>that show the troubled housing authority veering further and further out of control. Until now, the story of the housing authority’s financial abuses has not been told.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The place is being badly managed, poorly managed, and something has got to change,” said Jackie Thompson, a resident who serves on the authority’s tenant advisory commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones has been in charge since 2005. He blames the housing authority’s troubles on his predecessor. He said the authority\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>has cut its staff significantly, has a plan to get out of debt and is working closely with HUD to make fixes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I arrived, we had a staff of 65,” Jones said. “Now there’s a staff of about 28. We are lean here. There is no fat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones did not respond to numerous requests for follow-up interviews once the extent of the authority’s financial abuses became clear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Lindsay, Richmond’s city manager, has asked HUD to give Jones a chance to turn the authority around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He inherited some terrible staff that he can’t unload,” he said. “He took something that was in dismal shape, and he made cuts and stopped this place from really heading for financial disaster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the documents show how the financial problems and mismanagement have festered on Jones’ watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The current executive director has been there approximately 6 years, but few improvements have been made,” according to a June 18, 2012, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p2/a144141\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HUD memo\u003c/a>. “The financial condition of the authority has gotten worse by the year, and based on audit findings from as far back as 2009 … the total lack of internal controls has contributed significantly to the authority’s current condition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/135520676&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The abuses weighed on the minds of HUD officials, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p13/a144144\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wondered in memos\u003c/a> whether firing Jones would solve the problems. But the memos say that Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and the City Council likely would oppose such a move and that there was no qualified successor in the organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s now do-or-die for the Richmond Housing Authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After years of being warned about money and bookkeeping problems, it is being forced to overhaul its public housing operation. HUD says that so far, Richmond is making progress. But officials there have threatened to seize control of the authority if key benchmarks – such as turning in audits on time and getting out of debt – are not met this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get out of debt and pay fines, Richmond is selling an apartment complex that was supposed to be a long-term source of funding for the agency. Officials also said they have a more permanent solution. They have a $65 million plan to refurbish four of the authority’s five public housing complexes and turn them over to private management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fate of its worst complex, Hacienda, is still undecided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Improper contracts\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Richmond Housing Authority gets about $26 million a year from the federal government to provide safe and decent housing for the needy. In addition to its 715 housing units for poor, elderly and disabled residents, the authority provides Section 8 vouchers to 1,750 Richmond residents who can use these subsidies to pay rent anywhere in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2005, the authority\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>was in trouble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The executive director lacked basic skills, its files were in shambles and staff couldn’t carry out rudimentary bookkeeping, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/846796-rha-doc-6-richmond-moa-part-b-2005-2.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">documents show\u003c/a>. Federal auditors swooped in and came up with a 250-point plan on how to turn around the agency. One of their solutions: Hire a qualified executive director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126785\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126785 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/jones-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Richmond Housing Authority Executive Director Tim Jones hands out copies of notes from a previous meeting to residential council leaders from the city’s public housing properties. Jones blames years of federal funding cuts for the problems plaguing the authority. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richmond Housing Authority Executive Director Tim Jones hands out copies of notes from a previous meeting to residential council leaders from the city’s public housing properties. Jones blames years of federal funding cuts for the problems plaguing the authority. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Richmond brought in Jones, the Oakland Housing Authority’s housing management director, to fix the broken agency. For a few years, it looked like he’d turned the place around. Employees got basic training. A new activist mayor,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>McLaughlin, made economic injustice a rallying cry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>HUD got a tip that something was amiss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Manuel Rosario, Jones’ No. 2 man at the agency, had steered $61,000 in contracts to his brother in 2008 and 2009, \u003ca href=\"http://www.hud.gov/offices/oig/reports/files/ig0991020.pdf\"> HUD\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"http://www.hud.gov/offices/oig/reports/files/ig0991020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">’s inspector general found.\u003c/a> Rosario sat on a committee that gave his brother’s company an inspection contract. Months later, the contract was renewed for a year even though it didn’t have an option to be extended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosario, HUD documents say, also arranged for his brother to get more housing authority work. Jones was supposed to sign off on these documents. But he didn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a properly run system, the absence of these basic functions would have raised red flags. HUD wanted Rosario banned from working with the federal government in 2009. Jones wouldn’t say whether he fired Rosario, but the agency did pay for his retirement pizza party with taxpayer funds, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p8/a144421\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">records show\u003c/a>. City policies prohibit spending public money on these kinds of events. It’s unclear from the records how much the party cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosario could not be reached for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, the federal investigation found the agency had misspent $2.4 million on contracts over the previous decade. While some of that activity occurred under the previous leadership, the report uncovered a host of misdeeds by the new management team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority messed up its competitive bidding process for contracts, and it approved payments to contractors without proof that the work had been done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD trained authority staff on how to write and manage contracts. Jones, meanwhile, began overseeing contracts. But the problems continued. In 2012, seven out of 25 housing authority payments \u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/27344\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reviewed by auditors\u003c/a> didn’t have documents that backed up the work that was done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The executive director claims he is now the procurement officer, but despite attending procurement training, he lacks the procurement knowledge required to comply with requirements and disregards many requirements,” according to a 2012 \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#/h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">internal HUD memo.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>who by this point had been on the job for more than six years, continued to blame the previous administration for\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the breakdown in contracts. “We’re trying to find a way to fix it,” he said\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>in an interview with CIR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority is in the process of repaying $2.2 million for its contracting\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>mistakes. It made its first payment in July. The agency told HUD that\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the payments would “severely undermine the Housing Authority’s fiscal stability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Excessive expenses\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD delivers an annual\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>report card on each of the more than 4,000 housing agencies across the country. And Richmond’s low marks have placed it among the nation’s worst housing authorities every year since 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Richmond authority repeatedly has missed its deadlines to file annual financial reports with HUD.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>If it had turned in the audits on time, federal officials would have\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>seen sooner that Richmond was running out of money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has overspent its budget\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>nearly every year since 2007. Instead of making ends meet, the housing authority regularly went to the city to help pay its workers’ salaries, gradually piling up debts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Richmond got low financial marks again in 2011,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>HUD sent in a team of specialists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The specialists found that as the housing authority was going deeper into a financial hole, top officials were loading up the expense accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126786\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126786 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/listen-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"John Oliver, 76, a 10-year Nevin Plaza resident, listens as Richmond Housing Authority Executive Director Tim Jones explains issues at a Housing Advisory Commission meeting Oct. 22, 2013. Residents say their pleas for basic maintenance often are ignored by officials paid to provide services to the poor. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Oliver, 76, a 10-year Nevin Plaza resident, listens as Richmond Housing Authority Executive Director Tim Jones explains issues at a Housing Advisory Commission meeting Oct. 22, 2013. Residents say their pleas for basic maintenance often are ignored by officials paid to provide services to the poor. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a trip to New York in November 2009, Jones got the authority to pay for a $417.34 meal at Fabio Piccolo Fiore, a high-end Italian restaurant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p8/a144149\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HUD documents show\u003c/a>. In Washington, he had taxpayers fund $130.60 and $279.90 meals at an upscale soul-food restaurant called Georgia Brown’s in 2008 and 2010.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD found the charges to be excessive, according to a review that stretched from 2008 to 2011. In addition to charging the meals, Jones appears to have billed taxpayers a $40 stipend each day he traveled, records show. Government officials are supposed to limit their meals to the per diem costs, so they shouldn’t be charging meals at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones also charged taxpayers for meals closer to home. He took his\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>staff to the Italian restaurant Salute E Vita, which overlooks the Richmond marina, three times in three weeks, racking up tabs as high as $195.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>In the three years reviewed by\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>auditors, Jones charged 23 meals from this restaurant at an average of about $80 a meal, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p8/a144423\">H\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p8/a144423\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UD records show\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City of Richmond’s policy specifically prohibits employees from expensing work lunches with other city employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones approved all his own credit card charges with no outside oversight. “There were no internal controls to ensure that such activity does not occur,” auditors wrote. Jones declined to comment on the credit cards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the few people who could have\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>spotted the abuse was the finance manager. But he also was abusing his credit card, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p8/a144424\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">documents show\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tony Taplin, the housing authority’s finance manager, used the card to fix his car, fill it with gas and buy personal meals. The city said all unauthorized purchases were eventually repaid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taplin didn’t respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority also catered its Board of Commissioners meetings, which consist of the City Council and advisory commission members. One catering bill in 2008 came to $2,142.24.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials have since canceled the agency credit cards.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">After the housing authority first was labeled one of the worst in the country, Jones made $205,000 in salary and benefits.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>As the finances worsened, Jones’ salary kept rising. The city’s community and economic development director gave Jones a total of 31 percent in raises from 2008 to 2011, at a time when the agency didn’t have enough money to make payroll, HUD auditors found. Auditors described the raises as aggressive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the year after the housing authority first was labeled one of the worst in the country, Jones made $205,000 in salary and benefits, according to a survey four years ago\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>of\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>housing authority executives in California. He was in the top third of the highest-paid housing heads in the state, according to the HUD survey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His pay since has dropped as the housing authority’s budget has gone down. In 2012, he made almost $187,000 a year in salary and benefits, according to city payroll records. HUD no longer ranks executive director pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, the agency ran $5.8 million into the red. By 2013, it owed the city almost $7 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones would not answer questions about his pay or his expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the agency’s finances are getting better. “Our mission is our mission. It can be done as long as we’re trending north,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD found problems beyond the staff. Its inspectors faulted the board, which includes the mayor, for allowing the agency to rack up debt year after year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Board of Commissioners do not appear to have sufficient knowledge of Housing Authority operations, programs, financial condition, or activities, and as a result, have not provided proper oversight of the Executive Director,” according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015652-june-18-2012-hud-memo.html#document/p11/a144157\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2013 HUD document\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside>\u003ca href=\"//cironline.org/richmondhousing/partner?partnername=KQED\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2014/02/14/CIRsmall.png\" alt=\"\" align=\"middle\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nThis story was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting in partnership with the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED. \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/richmondhousing/partner?partnername=KQED\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more about CIR’s work.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The executive director reports directly to the city manager. The City Council occupies seven seats on the nine-member authority board. An advisory board of residents and community members can make recommendations. And HUD inspectors audit and inspect the housing units annually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindsay took over the housing authority’s finances in 2012. McLaughlin, who as mayor serves as board chairwoman, said she was not aware of the financial abuses at the agency or Jones’ pay increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said once Richmond completes the sale of one of its buildings, it will be debt-free and off HUD’s troubled list. She also pointed the finger at HUD for cutting public housing budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“HUD needs to realize that the federal government is being negligent in its responsibility to provide public housing funds for cities that have experienced decades of economic injustices,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When later confronted with questions about Jones’ expenses and pay, McLaughlin deferred to Lindsay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is only one other housing authority in California that is currently on the troubled list: San Francisco. After it was labeled troubled, Mayor Ed Lee cleaned house. He replaced most of the members of the board of commissioners and hired a new executive director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There has been no such change in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Troubles with rent collection \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richmond’s most recent federal report card is its worst yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing agencies are rated on a 100-point system, and Richmond got a 47 on its \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015477-richmonds-federal-scorecard.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report released in 2013\u003c/a>. Anything below 60 is failing. In addition to financial problems, HUD gave the authority failing marks for its\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority is essentially a landlord: It’s supposed to collect tenants’ rent, ensure properties aren’t in disrepair and make sure that people in public housing qualify for the subsidy. But hundreds of thousands of dollars of rent has gone uncollected. The authority also has fallen behind on checking residents’ incomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the Richmond Housing Authority was one of the only agencies in California that hadn’t completed the minimum number of income checks for residents, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015709-delinquency-report-9aph-ph-20131108-6.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to federal data\u003c/a>. Without checking these finances, tenants could be charged too much rent, or they\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>might\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>make too much money to qualify for public housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dysfunction trickles down to tenants living in the housing projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents say the agency routinely\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>misplaces their checks and slaps residents with a $25 late fee even when they pay on time. For residents on a fixed income, they say that can mean five meals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126784\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-126784 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/hasnat-640x418.jpg\" alt=\"Juanita Hasnat, 47, cleans a wound on her leg in her Nevin Plaza apartment. Hasnat, whose legs were amputated after she contracted the flesh-eating bacteria MRSA, gave herself sponge baths out of her bathroom sink for months because her bathtub didn’t have a safety bar. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"251\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juanita Hasnat, 47, cleans a wound on her leg in her Nevin Plaza apartment. Hasnat, whose legs were amputated after she contracted the flesh-eating bacteria MRSA, gave herself sponge baths out of her bathroom sink for months because her bathtub didn’t have a safety bar. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Juanita Hasnat is a double amputee and former nurse. She has lived in Richmond public housing for more than three years. She said she’s paid her $233-a-month rent on time each month since she moved in. But last month and this month, she got a note from the housing agency that she was late on rent\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>and had to pay a penalty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If your people put it in late, it’s not on me,” Hasnat said at a public meeting in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones told her that he’d look into the issue and, if Hasnat was correct, he’d give her an apology in writing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Housing Advisory Commission, a group of tenants and community members that airs resident complaints, repeatedly has brought up the late rent issue to no avail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s management,” said Commissioner Sylvia Gray-White. “They don’t seem to have a clue what they’re doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was edited by Andrew Donohue and Mark Katches. It was copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This story was produced by the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, the country’s largest investigative reporting team. For more, visit cironline.org. Harris can be reached at aharris@cironline.org.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/126156/financial-abuse-mismanagement-leave-housing-agency-on-verge-of-takeover",
"authors": [
"217"
],
"programs": [
"news_6944"
],
"categories": [
"news_6266"
],
"tags": [
"news_3921",
"news_1775",
"news_829",
"news_854",
"news_579",
"news_5771"
],
"featImg": "news_126781",
"label": "news_6944"
},
"news_125978": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_125978",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "125978",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1392624085000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news",
"term": 6944
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1392624085,
"format": "aside",
"disqusTitle": "Richmond Public Housing Residents Say They're Plagued With Filth, Vermin, Mold and Raw Sewage",
"title": "Richmond Public Housing Residents Say They're Plagued With Filth, Vermin, Mold and Raw Sewage",
"headTitle": "News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"single-video\">\u003ciframe src=\"//www.youtube.com/embed/6Ye6jkqsnCU?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Amy Julia Harris, The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>RICHMOND, Calif. –\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Geneva Eaton has learned to deal with life in Hacienda: the stench of mold from the stairwell in front of her door, the winter she spent huddled at her stove for heat, the broken security gate that allows drug dealers and squatters to walk past the paid security guards and urinate on her doorstep. But the mice were too much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For eight months, the 73-year-old woke to handfuls of half-dead mice wriggling in the glue traps lining the floors and cupboard of her apartment. In the space of a few hours, she caught 12. She put her nicest family belongings into storage. She went to bed with the lights on, afraid that the vermin she heard chewing through her walls would bite her in her sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at the Richmond Housing Authority know the Hacienda high-rise, one of its five public housing projects, is infested with mice and roaches. Residents have filed more than 80 complaints about it in the past year, according to agency records. But maintenance workers had done little\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>to fix the problem. So for months, Eaton lived a daily routine: She threw out food she could barely afford. She called a maintenance line for help. She bathed her walls in bleach in the hopes of scaring away the insects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126440\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-126440 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1635_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"For months, Geneva Eaton woke to handfuls of half-dead mice wriggling in her glue traps. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For months, Geneva Eaton woke to handfuls of half-dead mice wriggling in her glue traps. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eaton lives in one of the worst apartment buildings managed by one of the worst public housing agencies in the country. Here in Richmond, some of the poorest, oldest and most vulnerable people in the Bay Area live in squalor and fear due to the housing agency’s mismanagement and neglect, The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were at least \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015486-life-threatening-health-and-safety-violations.html\" target=\"_blank\">16 life-threatening health and safety violations\u003c/a> at the five public housing projects managed by the housing authority, according to the two most recent years of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports. Seniors and disabled residents lived amid exposed wiring and missing smoke detectors and fire alarms. Most well-kempt housing projects don’t have these major health and safety violations, HUD says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority’s executive director, Tim Jones, said he’s “running an operation on life support.” He blamed years of budget cuts from the federal government for the problems plaguing the housing authority and insisted that the agency is on the road to recovery. He said the problems come down to money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly one in five apartments in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015471-hacienda-2012-inspection.html\" target=\"_blank\">Hacienda\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015470-nevin-plaza-2012-inspection.html\" target=\"_blank\">Nevin Plaza\u003c/a> complexes are infested with insects and cockroaches, inspection records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there are the indignities that don’t show up in formal government reports: A woman with no legs giving herself sponge baths from her bathroom sink because maintenance workers didn’t install a simple safety bar in her shower. The fire department rescuing a paralyzed veteran from his third-floor apartment because the elevators didn’t work for three days. A disabled man who watched in horror for nearly a month as raw sewage slowly dripped from the neighbor’s bathroom upstairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents say their pleas for basic maintenance are ignored by officials paid to provide services to the poor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"0312c09089c41dea6b45b637d1913024\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CIR also found a number of cases in which housing authority workers claimed in official documents to have fixed problems. But they hadn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just continual chaos here,” said Everett Dennis Lewis, a disabled resident of Hacienda. “The housing authority doesn’t give a crap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are 4,055 public housing agencies in the United States, all overseen by HUD. Last year, the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/885507-operational-troubled-list-2013-06-05-3.html\">labeled 44 \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/885507-operational-troubled-list-2013-06-05-3.html\" target=\"_blank\">as “t\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/885507-operational-troubled-list-2013-06-05-3.html\">roubled”\u003c/a> -- housing authorities that had such severe problems with their finances, management or living\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>conditions that the government was on the brink of shutting them down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richmond was one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the most recent federal assessment reports, released in 2013, Richmond received a score of \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015477-richmonds-federal-scorecard.html\">47 out of 100\u003c/a>, one of the lowest rankings in the country. It received failing marks for running up debt and failing to track its finances. Its executive director was deemed ineffective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richmond managed to receive a passing grade for the condition of most of its apartments. For the most part, the projects in Richmond aren’t as dilapidated as those in Detroit and New Orleans. But the breakdown in finances and leadership manifests itself daily at Richmond’s two largest\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>– and worst – complexes as residents struggle with rodents, filth and security problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are a dysfunctional organization,” said Gerard Windt, division director of the HUD office that oversees Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Richmond Housing Authority got $26 million in 2013 from the federal government to provide safe and decent housing for the needy. Richmond has 715 units of public housing for the poor, elderly and disabled. It also gives out Section 8 vouchers to subsidize rent for an additional\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>1,750 residents on the private market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126444\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-126444 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1661_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Geneva Eaton says she has lost any hope that the Richmond Housing Authority will help with problems at its Hacienda apartment complex.“I wanna go someplace else, but I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she says. “They treat us like animals here.” (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Geneva Eaton says she has lost any hope that the Richmond Housing Authority will help with problems at its Hacienda apartment complex.“I wanna go someplace else, but I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she says. “They treat us like animals here.” (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Residents who end up in Richmond’s public housing are predominantly old or disabled African Americans.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>More than three-quarters of them make less than 30 percent of Contra Costa County’s median income, or $18,750 a year, according to HUD. Many of them used to have jobs as grocery baggers, janitors and food service workers until they got old or sick. Some lived on the streets, and others struggle with addiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents don’t get their apartments for free. Almost 90 percent pay between $200 and $500 a month in rent, according to HUD. Eaton pays $262 a month to the housing authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All 4,000-plus housing authorities across America face these same slashed budgets. About 1 percent of those agencies find themselves on HUD’s troubled list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maintenance complaints neglected\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Juanita Hasnat moved into Nevin Plaza in 2011, the housing authority\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>knew she was disabled. But her apartment didn’t have a simple disabled access fixture: a safety bar in the bathtub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hasnat told the housing authority\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>about the oversight, thinking it would be a quick fix. But it took the agency nine months to install the safety bar, a fixture that costs less than $40 at The Home Depot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-bottom: 10px\" src=\"//www.youtube.com/embed/iwIxrJNgdtI\" frameborder=\"0\" align=\"right\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 47-year-old gave herself sponge baths out of her bathroom sink for months because she couldn’t maneuver out of her wheelchair and into her bathtub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hasnat said she repeatedly called the housing authority, and Jones directly, to ask for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They all said, ‘We’re gonna get it taken care of,’ ” she said. “But I didn’t believe them. These people say one thing and do the opposite.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not too long ago, it was Hasnat who\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>was taking care of the sick and elderly. She worked as a certified nursing assistant at hospitals in Richmond and El Cerrito, cleaning patients’ wounds and giving them sponge baths. She didn’t expect\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>to be in the same position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hasnat was infected with the flesh-eating bacteria MRSA while on the job. It wormed its way through her body and destroyed the life she had known. Her left leg was\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>amputated in 2010,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>and she lost her right leg three years later. Her doctor told her that she would never walk again. Her nursing career was over\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wanted to die,” Hasnat said. “That was my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With no job, Hasnat found herself on disability and in need of a cheap apartment. That’s how she ended up in Richmond’s seven-story\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Nevin Plaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its 142 units are\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>down the street from Richmond City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For three years, Hasnat has lived in a fifth-floor\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>apartment\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>that has no disability access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her hands bear scars from grating between the door frame and her wheelchair each time she comes and goes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records provided by the housing authority say that it has responded in a timely manner to resident complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority’s\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>version stands in stark contrast to that of its tenants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126457\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-126457 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_161_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Eddie Williams, 62, glues items such as video cassettes to his walls to stop mice from getting into his Nevin Plaza apartment. Williams, whose rent is $251 a month, asked the Richmond Housing Authority to fix the problem, but he says nothing happened.(Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eddie Williams, 62, glues items such as videocassettes to his walls to stop mice from getting into his Nevin Plaza apartment. Williams, whose rent is $251 a month, asked the Richmond Housing Authority to fix the problem, but he says nothing happened.(Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most residents don’t keep track of when they file a complaint; they get no receipt. Some verbally tell staff about their maintenance problems, but those reports don’t always make it into written records. To tell this story, CIR focused on the recent complaints of three residents who kept track of when they first notified housing authority officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It appears the agency is marking resident complaints as being addressed when they’re not. In all three cases,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the authority’s records indicate that problems in their apartments were fixed. Residents say the issues were not resolved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wardell Jones is a blind Air Force veteran. He’s 83 years old.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>His Nevin Plaza apartment is covered in canvases he has learned to paint at the local blind center. They are full of brightly colored landscapes. His daughter comes by almost every day to fill his palette with paint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His heater has been broken for more than a year, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority said it\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>fixed his heat in October, paying $140 for new parts, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015478-work-orders-from-july-to-december-2013.html#document/p2/a144025\" target=\"_blank\">according to records\u003c/a>. But Jones says his heat hasn’t worked since he first complained more than a year ago. As the temperature dipped near freezing, he would feel\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>his way to his kitchen and\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>use\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>his open oven to combat the cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones lives about 10 feet from the apartment of the housing authority’s live-in maintenance worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Eaton, the housing authority said it eliminated the swarms of cockroaches in her\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>apartment on Oct. 8. However, a CIR reporter visited Eaton that day and saw the housing authority contractor enter her apartment. He walked around and acknowledged the problem. He left and didn’t come back. That maintenance visit was marked as a completed work order, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015478-work-orders-from-july-to-december-2013.html#document/p8/a144023\" target=\"_blank\">housing authority records\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Everett Dennis\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Lewis had mice infesting his apartment in January last year, the housing authority’s records say it sent an exterminator within two weeks of his complaint. But Lewis said exterminators never came, and he ended up buying traps himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe style=\"margin-right: 20px;margin-bottom: 10px\" src=\"//www.youtube.com/embed/nRvnzau8gTM\" frameborder=\"0\" align=\"right\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lewis, who is 61, said he has had nothing but problems since moving into Hacienda almost two years ago. Last year, the toilet in the room above him leaked raw sewage\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>through the ceiling into his bathroom. It dripped on him from above.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He called the housing authority’s emergency maintenance line, and a worker told Lewis that they would fix it. But when nothing had happened after a week, Lewis called the same maintenance hotline five or six times a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really annoyed them,” he said. “I just got tired of the poop falling on me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the leak finally was repaired after almost a month of multiple daily complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/885634-hacienda-work-order-completion-report-2013.html#document/p21/a144022\" target=\"_blank\">housing authority’s records\u003c/a>, Lewis’ complaint shows up once, and it says the agency fixed the problem the day after he complained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tim Jones, the agency’s executive director, declined to answer questions about the resident complaints and many other specifics about conditions at Hacienda and Nevin Plaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other residents tell similar stories. A caregiver for a 68-year-old man said water dripped for months in his living room from a corroded exposed pipe in the ceiling. The lock on one woman’s front door hasn’t worked for four years. Another resident tried to get his leaky shower handle fixed. He ended up with a hole in his wall, no water in his shower for two months and a $50 bill for asbestos removal that he had to pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Failed promises, fading hopes\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Hacienda complex is a tan, six-story\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>high-rise in central Richmond, off Roosevelt and Barrett avenues. Public housing residents in Richmond call it the most problematic of the city’s five complexes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feral cats mill around the ivy that surrounds Hacienda, feasting on the mice that infest the building. Drug dealers glide through a perpetually broken security gate at the front of the complex and roam around with impunity. Squatters break locks and occupy the abandoned apartments on the sixth floor.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Chronic roof leaks have allowed blue and green mold to spread on the outer walls, covering the ceilings of Hacienda’s sixth-floor walkways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drug\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>dealers and prostitutes routinely sneak into the building from three different entrances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hacienda has paid security guards, but they admit that the place intimidates them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m scared to do my patrols,” said Arielle Jackson, a security guard for Cypress Private Security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority pays Cypress $300,000 a year to secure both Nevin Plaza and Hacienda. Richmond police Officer Giulia Colbacchini said, “The security guards here are a joke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cypress declined to comment for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126464\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-126464 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1019_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Rhonda Marshall, 58, waves to visitors outside the Hacienda public housing complex. She’s been living on the high-rise’s first floor for years and has watched the building deteriorate. She says sees cracks in the walls running from the sixth floor to the ground and smells mold in the hallways and stairwells. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rhonda Marshall, 58, waves to visitors outside the Hacienda public housing complex. She’s been living on the high-rise’s first floor for years and has watched the building deteriorate. She says she sees cracks in the walls running from the sixth floor to the ground and smells mold in the hallways and stairwells. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There are a dozen light posts in Hacienda’s courtyard, but for more than two years, none worked. At night, Rhonda Marshall stumbled in her wheelchair getting from her apartment to a back gate across the courtyard, rolling off uneven paths in the darkness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so dark you can’t see your hands in front of you,” the 58-year-old said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority paid $1,850 to a contractor to install new light fixtures in Hacienda’s courtyard in August 2011. But residents say the lights worked for only two or three days, and after that, they tolerated the pitch black. The housing authority finally fixed the lights in the courtyard in December. Residents say they have\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>complained since 2011. CIR has records going back one year, which verify the complaints stretch back at least that far.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the sixth floor, exposed wires dangle from an abandoned electrical closet, a few feet from an inhabited unit. The wires are within reach of children who visit their grandparents in the complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents call Hacienda the “Haci-hellhole”\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>or “Bedbug City.” Nearly everyone has a story of bedbugs, and residents collect them in mason jars to show to housing authority maintenance workers, in an attempt to prove they aren’t making up the source of their pockmarked arms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost one-fifth of the apartments in Hacienda were infested with bedbugs, according to the most recent federal inspection in 2012. Exterminators have been called at least nine times in the last year, but residents say the place still is overrun with the blood-sucking pests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents used to have more hope. In 2009, the bedbug situation became so dire at Hacienda that residents signed a petition, stormed the City Council chamber and “raised so much hell” that the housing authority was forced to fumigate the entire building, said Eaton, the Hacienda resident who struggled with mice and cockroaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No one wants to do that now. Walk around Hacienda and Nevin Plaza, and almost every resident will tell you a personal anecdote about the housing authority’s failed promises to provide the basics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eaton has lost any hope that the agency will help. After months of complaints, contractors gave\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>her a few sticky pads for the mice in her apartment. She bought her own mouse poison, and the infestation has improved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who even wants to try anymore?” she said. “I wanna go someplace else, but I don’t have anywhere else to go. They treat us like animals here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a feeling shared by many residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m afraid that the building’s going to come down on me,” Marshall said. “I want out of here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Structural dangers noted\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal inspectors worried about the building’s foundation, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cracks snake their way along the seams of Hacienda. In early January, reporters\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>saw the walkway on Hacienda’s sixth floor separating from the main building by almost 2 inches. The cracks are so large that you can see down to the fifth floor. These were some of the same problems inspectors warned of years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126462\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-126462 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1083_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Many residents of the Hacienda housing complex call it “Haci-hellhole”or “Bedbug City.” One-fifth of the building’s apartments were infested with bedbugs, according to a 2012 federal inspection. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many residents of the Hacienda housing complex call it “Haci-hellhole”or “Bedbug City.” One-fifth of the building’s apartments were infested with bedbugs, according to a 2012 federal inspection. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2009, HUD noted\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>that Hacienda’s foundation was separating from the walls.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>One- to 4-inch\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>gaps were cited on all six floors, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/805482-hacienda-inspection-2009.html#document/p3/a144026\" target=\"_blank\">federal reports\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD officials gave the separated foundation its most extreme rating on the books. Major foundation problems can lead to the instability of an entire building. It’s unclear whether Richmond has a plan to make repairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal inspectors in 2009 and then again in 2011 also\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>warned of severe problems with the roof. In 2009, an entire electrical closet’s walls were “saturated with water mold and mildew” due to the leaking roof, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/805482-hacienda-inspection-2009.html#document/p3/a144027\" target=\"_blank\">they said\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority has hired contractors to stop the roof from leaking since 2006, but it hasn’t gotten\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>fixed. Even after the housing authority paid the most recent contractor $8,000 a few months ago, the roof still was leaking, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015483-all-seasons-invoice.html\" target=\"_blank\">a housing authority receipt\u003c/a>. One contractor didn’t even finish the job years before, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/885398-all-seasons-contract-hacienda-roof-repair-copy.html#document/p38/a144029\" target=\"_blank\">housing authority records\u003c/a>.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The damage proved to be a blessing for squatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe style=\"margin-right: 20px;margin-bottom: 10px\" src=\"//www.youtube.com/embed/w3t-Bktr7R4\" frameborder=\"0\" align=\"left\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, the housing authority had cleared out residents on the sixth floor. Security is almost nonexistent, so squatters have a practically guaranteed place to crash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A squatter named Steve Muccular recently took reporters through the building, showing them how to break into Hacienda through a busted security gate in the front of the building. Security guards don’t\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>bother to venture up to the sixth floor, he said, so he camped in the laundry room for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one was supposed to be up here,” Muccular said. “But they don’t check. This is a fucked-up building for sure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An abandoned unit on the sixth floor had clear signs of squatting in January – a broken security door and an apartment full of old birthday cake, beer bottles and tattered clothes. Months earlier, workers said they had secured that very unit to prevent squatting, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unable to get basic help from the housing authority, residents often turn to prayer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent Tuesday, about 15 Nevin Plaza residents gathered in the first-floor common room for their afternoon prayer group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a lot of things going on in here that people’s unhappy with but they don’t want to say because they don’t want to get kicked out,” said Eddie Williams, the resident pastor who lives on the second floor. “But since we started praying, people’s not as scared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents go around in a circle giving testimonials and recounting their challenges during the week. One woman thanks God for helping her overcome a painkiller addiction. Another is grateful for a successful hip surgery. Then it’s 81-year-old Helen “Mama” Hall’s turn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thank God for giving me discernments and opening my eyes to see more stuff going on in here,” Hall said. She is a self-appointed volunteer security guard who has taken it upon herself to police Nevin Plaza against criminals sneaking into the building. “I thank God for giving me strength to look out for this place every day, because no one else is going to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was a chorus of amens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all gotta look up to God for help,” Williams said. “Because when you look down, it ain’t good where we are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The piece was edited by Andrew Donohue and Mark Katches and copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee. Reporter Amy Julia Harris can be reached at \u003ca href=\"mailto:aharris@cironline.org\">aharris@cironline.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting in partnership with the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED. \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/richmondhousing/partner?partnername=KQED\" target=\"_blank\">Learn more about CIR's work.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"disqusIdentifier": "125978 http://ww2.kqed.org/news/?p=125978",
"disqusUrl": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/02/17/richmond-public-housing-residents-say-theyre-plagued-with-filth-vermin-mold-and-raw-sewage/",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": true,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 3582,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 98
},
"modified": 1392741056,
"excerpt": "Mice, mold, bedbugs, cockroaches, squatters and prostitutes are just a few of the problems in some units.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Mice, mold, bedbugs, cockroaches, squatters and prostitutes are just a few of the problems in some units.",
"title": "Richmond Public Housing Residents Say They're Plagued With Filth, Vermin, Mold and Raw Sewage | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Richmond Public Housing Residents Say They're Plagued With Filth, Vermin, Mold and Raw Sewage",
"datePublished": "2014-02-17T00:01:25-08:00",
"dateModified": "2014-02-18T08:30:56-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "richmond-public-housing-residents-say-theyre-plagued-with-filth-vermin-mold-and-raw-sewage",
"status": "publish",
"customPermalink": "2014/02/11/residents-live-in-filth-in-mismanaged-richmond-public-housing/",
"path": "/news/125978/richmond-public-housing-residents-say-theyre-plagued-with-filth-vermin-mold-and-raw-sewage",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cdiv class=\"single-video\">\u003ciframe src=\"//www.youtube.com/embed/6Ye6jkqsnCU?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Amy Julia Harris, The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>RICHMOND, Calif. –\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Geneva Eaton has learned to deal with life in Hacienda: the stench of mold from the stairwell in front of her door, the winter she spent huddled at her stove for heat, the broken security gate that allows drug dealers and squatters to walk past the paid security guards and urinate on her doorstep. But the mice were too much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For eight months, the 73-year-old woke to handfuls of half-dead mice wriggling in the glue traps lining the floors and cupboard of her apartment. In the space of a few hours, she caught 12. She put her nicest family belongings into storage. She went to bed with the lights on, afraid that the vermin she heard chewing through her walls would bite her in her sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at the Richmond Housing Authority know the Hacienda high-rise, one of its five public housing projects, is infested with mice and roaches. Residents have filed more than 80 complaints about it in the past year, according to agency records. But maintenance workers had done little\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>to fix the problem. So for months, Eaton lived a daily routine: She threw out food she could barely afford. She called a maintenance line for help. She bathed her walls in bleach in the hopes of scaring away the insects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126440\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-126440 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1635_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"For months, Geneva Eaton woke to handfuls of half-dead mice wriggling in her glue traps. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For months, Geneva Eaton woke to handfuls of half-dead mice wriggling in her glue traps. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eaton lives in one of the worst apartment buildings managed by one of the worst public housing agencies in the country. Here in Richmond, some of the poorest, oldest and most vulnerable people in the Bay Area live in squalor and fear due to the housing agency’s mismanagement and neglect, The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were at least \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015486-life-threatening-health-and-safety-violations.html\" target=\"_blank\">16 life-threatening health and safety violations\u003c/a> at the five public housing projects managed by the housing authority, according to the two most recent years of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports. Seniors and disabled residents lived amid exposed wiring and missing smoke detectors and fire alarms. Most well-kempt housing projects don’t have these major health and safety violations, HUD says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority’s executive director, Tim Jones, said he’s “running an operation on life support.” He blamed years of budget cuts from the federal government for the problems plaguing the housing authority and insisted that the agency is on the road to recovery. He said the problems come down to money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly one in five apartments in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015471-hacienda-2012-inspection.html\" target=\"_blank\">Hacienda\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015470-nevin-plaza-2012-inspection.html\" target=\"_blank\">Nevin Plaza\u003c/a> complexes are infested with insects and cockroaches, inspection records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there are the indignities that don’t show up in formal government reports: A woman with no legs giving herself sponge baths from her bathroom sink because maintenance workers didn’t install a simple safety bar in her shower. The fire department rescuing a paralyzed veteran from his third-floor apartment because the elevators didn’t work for three days. A disabled man who watched in horror for nearly a month as raw sewage slowly dripped from the neighbor’s bathroom upstairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents say their pleas for basic maintenance are ignored by officials paid to provide services to the poor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CIR also found a number of cases in which housing authority workers claimed in official documents to have fixed problems. But they hadn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just continual chaos here,” said Everett Dennis Lewis, a disabled resident of Hacienda. “The housing authority doesn’t give a crap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are 4,055 public housing agencies in the United States, all overseen by HUD. Last year, the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/885507-operational-troubled-list-2013-06-05-3.html\">labeled 44 \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/885507-operational-troubled-list-2013-06-05-3.html\" target=\"_blank\">as “t\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/885507-operational-troubled-list-2013-06-05-3.html\">roubled”\u003c/a> -- housing authorities that had such severe problems with their finances, management or living\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>conditions that the government was on the brink of shutting them down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richmond was one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the most recent federal assessment reports, released in 2013, Richmond received a score of \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015477-richmonds-federal-scorecard.html\">47 out of 100\u003c/a>, one of the lowest rankings in the country. It received failing marks for running up debt and failing to track its finances. Its executive director was deemed ineffective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richmond managed to receive a passing grade for the condition of most of its apartments. For the most part, the projects in Richmond aren’t as dilapidated as those in Detroit and New Orleans. But the breakdown in finances and leadership manifests itself daily at Richmond’s two largest\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>– and worst – complexes as residents struggle with rodents, filth and security problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are a dysfunctional organization,” said Gerard Windt, division director of the HUD office that oversees Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Richmond Housing Authority got $26 million in 2013 from the federal government to provide safe and decent housing for the needy. Richmond has 715 units of public housing for the poor, elderly and disabled. It also gives out Section 8 vouchers to subsidize rent for an additional\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>1,750 residents on the private market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126444\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-126444 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1661_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Geneva Eaton says she has lost any hope that the Richmond Housing Authority will help with problems at its Hacienda apartment complex.“I wanna go someplace else, but I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she says. “They treat us like animals here.” (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Geneva Eaton says she has lost any hope that the Richmond Housing Authority will help with problems at its Hacienda apartment complex.“I wanna go someplace else, but I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she says. “They treat us like animals here.” (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Residents who end up in Richmond’s public housing are predominantly old or disabled African Americans.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>More than three-quarters of them make less than 30 percent of Contra Costa County’s median income, or $18,750 a year, according to HUD. Many of them used to have jobs as grocery baggers, janitors and food service workers until they got old or sick. Some lived on the streets, and others struggle with addiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents don’t get their apartments for free. Almost 90 percent pay between $200 and $500 a month in rent, according to HUD. Eaton pays $262 a month to the housing authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All 4,000-plus housing authorities across America face these same slashed budgets. About 1 percent of those agencies find themselves on HUD’s troubled list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maintenance complaints neglected\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Juanita Hasnat moved into Nevin Plaza in 2011, the housing authority\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>knew she was disabled. But her apartment didn’t have a simple disabled access fixture: a safety bar in the bathtub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hasnat told the housing authority\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>about the oversight, thinking it would be a quick fix. But it took the agency nine months to install the safety bar, a fixture that costs less than $40 at The Home Depot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-bottom: 10px\" src=\"//www.youtube.com/embed/iwIxrJNgdtI\" frameborder=\"0\" align=\"right\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 47-year-old gave herself sponge baths out of her bathroom sink for months because she couldn’t maneuver out of her wheelchair and into her bathtub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hasnat said she repeatedly called the housing authority, and Jones directly, to ask for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They all said, ‘We’re gonna get it taken care of,’ ” she said. “But I didn’t believe them. These people say one thing and do the opposite.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not too long ago, it was Hasnat who\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>was taking care of the sick and elderly. She worked as a certified nursing assistant at hospitals in Richmond and El Cerrito, cleaning patients’ wounds and giving them sponge baths. She didn’t expect\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>to be in the same position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hasnat was infected with the flesh-eating bacteria MRSA while on the job. It wormed its way through her body and destroyed the life she had known. Her left leg was\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>amputated in 2010,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>and she lost her right leg three years later. Her doctor told her that she would never walk again. Her nursing career was over\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wanted to die,” Hasnat said. “That was my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With no job, Hasnat found herself on disability and in need of a cheap apartment. That’s how she ended up in Richmond’s seven-story\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Nevin Plaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its 142 units are\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>down the street from Richmond City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For three years, Hasnat has lived in a fifth-floor\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>apartment\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>that has no disability access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her hands bear scars from grating between the door frame and her wheelchair each time she comes and goes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records provided by the housing authority say that it has responded in a timely manner to resident complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority’s\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>version stands in stark contrast to that of its tenants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126457\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-126457 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_161_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Eddie Williams, 62, glues items such as video cassettes to his walls to stop mice from getting into his Nevin Plaza apartment. Williams, whose rent is $251 a month, asked the Richmond Housing Authority to fix the problem, but he says nothing happened.(Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eddie Williams, 62, glues items such as videocassettes to his walls to stop mice from getting into his Nevin Plaza apartment. Williams, whose rent is $251 a month, asked the Richmond Housing Authority to fix the problem, but he says nothing happened.(Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most residents don’t keep track of when they file a complaint; they get no receipt. Some verbally tell staff about their maintenance problems, but those reports don’t always make it into written records. To tell this story, CIR focused on the recent complaints of three residents who kept track of when they first notified housing authority officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It appears the agency is marking resident complaints as being addressed when they’re not. In all three cases,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the authority’s records indicate that problems in their apartments were fixed. Residents say the issues were not resolved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wardell Jones is a blind Air Force veteran. He’s 83 years old.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>His Nevin Plaza apartment is covered in canvases he has learned to paint at the local blind center. They are full of brightly colored landscapes. His daughter comes by almost every day to fill his palette with paint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His heater has been broken for more than a year, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority said it\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>fixed his heat in October, paying $140 for new parts, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015478-work-orders-from-july-to-december-2013.html#document/p2/a144025\" target=\"_blank\">according to records\u003c/a>. But Jones says his heat hasn’t worked since he first complained more than a year ago. As the temperature dipped near freezing, he would feel\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>his way to his kitchen and\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>use\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>his open oven to combat the cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones lives about 10 feet from the apartment of the housing authority’s live-in maintenance worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Eaton, the housing authority said it eliminated the swarms of cockroaches in her\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>apartment on Oct. 8. However, a CIR reporter visited Eaton that day and saw the housing authority contractor enter her apartment. He walked around and acknowledged the problem. He left and didn’t come back. That maintenance visit was marked as a completed work order, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015478-work-orders-from-july-to-december-2013.html#document/p8/a144023\" target=\"_blank\">housing authority records\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Everett Dennis\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Lewis had mice infesting his apartment in January last year, the housing authority’s records say it sent an exterminator within two weeks of his complaint. But Lewis said exterminators never came, and he ended up buying traps himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe style=\"margin-right: 20px;margin-bottom: 10px\" src=\"//www.youtube.com/embed/nRvnzau8gTM\" frameborder=\"0\" align=\"right\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lewis, who is 61, said he has had nothing but problems since moving into Hacienda almost two years ago. Last year, the toilet in the room above him leaked raw sewage\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>through the ceiling into his bathroom. It dripped on him from above.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He called the housing authority’s emergency maintenance line, and a worker told Lewis that they would fix it. But when nothing had happened after a week, Lewis called the same maintenance hotline five or six times a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really annoyed them,” he said. “I just got tired of the poop falling on me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the leak finally was repaired after almost a month of multiple daily complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/885634-hacienda-work-order-completion-report-2013.html#document/p21/a144022\" target=\"_blank\">housing authority’s records\u003c/a>, Lewis’ complaint shows up once, and it says the agency fixed the problem the day after he complained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tim Jones, the agency’s executive director, declined to answer questions about the resident complaints and many other specifics about conditions at Hacienda and Nevin Plaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other residents tell similar stories. A caregiver for a 68-year-old man said water dripped for months in his living room from a corroded exposed pipe in the ceiling. The lock on one woman’s front door hasn’t worked for four years. Another resident tried to get his leaky shower handle fixed. He ended up with a hole in his wall, no water in his shower for two months and a $50 bill for asbestos removal that he had to pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Failed promises, fading hopes\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Hacienda complex is a tan, six-story\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>high-rise in central Richmond, off Roosevelt and Barrett avenues. Public housing residents in Richmond call it the most problematic of the city’s five complexes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feral cats mill around the ivy that surrounds Hacienda, feasting on the mice that infest the building. Drug dealers glide through a perpetually broken security gate at the front of the complex and roam around with impunity. Squatters break locks and occupy the abandoned apartments on the sixth floor.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Chronic roof leaks have allowed blue and green mold to spread on the outer walls, covering the ceilings of Hacienda’s sixth-floor walkways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drug\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>dealers and prostitutes routinely sneak into the building from three different entrances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hacienda has paid security guards, but they admit that the place intimidates them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m scared to do my patrols,” said Arielle Jackson, a security guard for Cypress Private Security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority pays Cypress $300,000 a year to secure both Nevin Plaza and Hacienda. Richmond police Officer Giulia Colbacchini said, “The security guards here are a joke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cypress declined to comment for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126464\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-126464 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1019_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Rhonda Marshall, 58, waves to visitors outside the Hacienda public housing complex. She’s been living on the high-rise’s first floor for years and has watched the building deteriorate. She says sees cracks in the walls running from the sixth floor to the ground and smells mold in the hallways and stairwells. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rhonda Marshall, 58, waves to visitors outside the Hacienda public housing complex. She’s been living on the high-rise’s first floor for years and has watched the building deteriorate. She says she sees cracks in the walls running from the sixth floor to the ground and smells mold in the hallways and stairwells. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There are a dozen light posts in Hacienda’s courtyard, but for more than two years, none worked. At night, Rhonda Marshall stumbled in her wheelchair getting from her apartment to a back gate across the courtyard, rolling off uneven paths in the darkness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so dark you can’t see your hands in front of you,” the 58-year-old said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority paid $1,850 to a contractor to install new light fixtures in Hacienda’s courtyard in August 2011. But residents say the lights worked for only two or three days, and after that, they tolerated the pitch black. The housing authority finally fixed the lights in the courtyard in December. Residents say they have\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>complained since 2011. CIR has records going back one year, which verify the complaints stretch back at least that far.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the sixth floor, exposed wires dangle from an abandoned electrical closet, a few feet from an inhabited unit. The wires are within reach of children who visit their grandparents in the complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents call Hacienda the “Haci-hellhole”\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>or “Bedbug City.” Nearly everyone has a story of bedbugs, and residents collect them in mason jars to show to housing authority maintenance workers, in an attempt to prove they aren’t making up the source of their pockmarked arms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost one-fifth of the apartments in Hacienda were infested with bedbugs, according to the most recent federal inspection in 2012. Exterminators have been called at least nine times in the last year, but residents say the place still is overrun with the blood-sucking pests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents used to have more hope. In 2009, the bedbug situation became so dire at Hacienda that residents signed a petition, stormed the City Council chamber and “raised so much hell” that the housing authority was forced to fumigate the entire building, said Eaton, the Hacienda resident who struggled with mice and cockroaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No one wants to do that now. Walk around Hacienda and Nevin Plaza, and almost every resident will tell you a personal anecdote about the housing authority’s failed promises to provide the basics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eaton has lost any hope that the agency will help. After months of complaints, contractors gave\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>her a few sticky pads for the mice in her apartment. She bought her own mouse poison, and the infestation has improved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who even wants to try anymore?” she said. “I wanna go someplace else, but I don’t have anywhere else to go. They treat us like animals here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a feeling shared by many residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m afraid that the building’s going to come down on me,” Marshall said. “I want out of here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Structural dangers noted\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal inspectors worried about the building’s foundation, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cracks snake their way along the seams of Hacienda. In early January, reporters\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>saw the walkway on Hacienda’s sixth floor separating from the main building by almost 2 inches. The cracks are so large that you can see down to the fifth floor. These were some of the same problems inspectors warned of years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_126462\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 384px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-126462 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/02/richmondproject_1083_la-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"Many residents of the Hacienda housing complex call it “Haci-hellhole”or “Bedbug City.” One-fifth of the building’s apartments were infested with bedbugs, according to a 2012 federal inspection. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many residents of the Hacienda housing complex call it “Haci-hellhole”or “Bedbug City.” One-fifth of the building’s apartments were infested with bedbugs, according to a 2012 federal inspection. (Lacy Atkins/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2009, HUD noted\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>that Hacienda’s foundation was separating from the walls.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>One- to 4-inch\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>gaps were cited on all six floors, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/805482-hacienda-inspection-2009.html#document/p3/a144026\" target=\"_blank\">federal reports\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD officials gave the separated foundation its most extreme rating on the books. Major foundation problems can lead to the instability of an entire building. It’s unclear whether Richmond has a plan to make repairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal inspectors in 2009 and then again in 2011 also\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>warned of severe problems with the roof. In 2009, an entire electrical closet’s walls were “saturated with water mold and mildew” due to the leaking roof, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/805482-hacienda-inspection-2009.html#document/p3/a144027\" target=\"_blank\">they said\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The housing authority has hired contractors to stop the roof from leaking since 2006, but it hasn’t gotten\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>fixed. Even after the housing authority paid the most recent contractor $8,000 a few months ago, the roof still was leaking, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1015483-all-seasons-invoice.html\" target=\"_blank\">a housing authority receipt\u003c/a>. One contractor didn’t even finish the job years before, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/885398-all-seasons-contract-hacienda-roof-repair-copy.html#document/p38/a144029\" target=\"_blank\">housing authority records\u003c/a>.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The damage proved to be a blessing for squatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe style=\"margin-right: 20px;margin-bottom: 10px\" src=\"//www.youtube.com/embed/w3t-Bktr7R4\" frameborder=\"0\" align=\"left\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, the housing authority had cleared out residents on the sixth floor. Security is almost nonexistent, so squatters have a practically guaranteed place to crash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A squatter named Steve Muccular recently took reporters through the building, showing them how to break into Hacienda through a busted security gate in the front of the building. Security guards don’t\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>bother to venture up to the sixth floor, he said, so he camped in the laundry room for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one was supposed to be up here,” Muccular said. “But they don’t check. This is a fucked-up building for sure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An abandoned unit on the sixth floor had clear signs of squatting in January – a broken security door and an apartment full of old birthday cake, beer bottles and tattered clothes. Months earlier, workers said they had secured that very unit to prevent squatting, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unable to get basic help from the housing authority, residents often turn to prayer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent Tuesday, about 15 Nevin Plaza residents gathered in the first-floor common room for their afternoon prayer group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a lot of things going on in here that people’s unhappy with but they don’t want to say because they don’t want to get kicked out,” said Eddie Williams, the resident pastor who lives on the second floor. “But since we started praying, people’s not as scared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents go around in a circle giving testimonials and recounting their challenges during the week. One woman thanks God for helping her overcome a painkiller addiction. Another is grateful for a successful hip surgery. Then it’s 81-year-old Helen “Mama” Hall’s turn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thank God for giving me discernments and opening my eyes to see more stuff going on in here,” Hall said. She is a self-appointed volunteer security guard who has taken it upon herself to police Nevin Plaza against criminals sneaking into the building. “I thank God for giving me strength to look out for this place every day, because no one else is going to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was a chorus of amens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all gotta look up to God for help,” Williams said. “Because when you look down, it ain’t good where we are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The piece was edited by Andrew Donohue and Mark Katches and copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee. Reporter Amy Julia Harris can be reached at \u003ca href=\"mailto:aharris@cironline.org\">aharris@cironline.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting in partnership with the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED. \u003ca href=\"http://cironline.org/richmondhousing/partner?partnername=KQED\" target=\"_blank\">Learn more about CIR's work.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/125978/richmond-public-housing-residents-say-theyre-plagued-with-filth-vermin-mold-and-raw-sewage",
"authors": [
"217"
],
"programs": [
"news_6944"
],
"tags": [
"news_854",
"news_2162",
"news_579",
"news_2081"
],
"featImg": "news_126465",
"label": "news_6944"
}
},
"podcastsReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"podcasts": {}
},
"radioProgramsReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"radioPrograms": {}
},
"programsReducer": {
"all-things-considered": {
"id": "all-things-considered",
"title": "All Things Considered",
"info": "Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 1pm-2pm, 4:30pm-6:30pm\u003cbr />SAT-SUN 5pm-6pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/All-Things-Considered-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/all-things-considered"
},
"american-suburb-podcast": {
"id": "american-suburb-podcast",
"title": "American Suburb: The Podcast",
"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/American-Suburb-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 19
},
"link": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=1287748328",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/American-Suburb-p1086805/",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/feed/podcast",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMzMDExODgxNjA5"
}
},
"baycurious": {
"id": "baycurious",
"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Bay Curious",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/baycurious",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 3
},
"link": "/podcasts/baycurious",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/category/bay-curious-podcast/feed/podcast",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9a90d476-aa04-455d-9a4c-0871ed6216d4/bay-curious",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/bay-curious",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6O76IdmhixfijmhTZLIJ8k"
}
},
"bbc-world-service": {
"id": "bbc-world-service",
"title": "BBC World Service",
"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-the-california-report/id79681292",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432285393/the-california-report",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-the-california-report-podcast-8838",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcram/feed/podcast"
}
},
"californiareportmagazine": {
"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Magazine-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report Magazine",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 10
},
"link": "/californiareportmagazine",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/564733126/the-california-report-magazine",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-california-report-magazine",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
"tagline": "Your irreverent guide to the trends redefining our world",
"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Close All Tabs",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-all-tabs/id214663465",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC6993880386",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/92d9d4ac-67a3-4eed-b10a-fb45d45b1ef2/close-all-tabs",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6LAJFHnGK1pYXYzv6SIol6?si=deb0cae19813417c"
}
},
"code-switch-life-kit": {
"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"
}
},
"commonwealth-club": {
"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Commonwealth-Club-of-California-p1060/"
}
},
"forum": {
"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/forum",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-forum/id73329719",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432307980/forum",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-forum-podcast",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9557381633"
}
},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Fresh-Air-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Fresh-Air-p17/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
}
},
"here-and-now": {
"id": "here-and-now",
"title": "Here & Now",
"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
"airtime": "MON-THU 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Here-And-Now-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/here-and-now",
"subsdcribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=426698661",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Here--Now-p211/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
}
},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-brain/id1028908750?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/How-I-Built-This-p910896/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
}
},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hyphenaci%C3%B3n/id1191591838",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
"youtube": "https://www.youtube.com/c/kqedarts",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/790253322/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/jerrybrown/feed/podcast/",
"tuneIn": "http://tun.in/pjGcK",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/54C1dmuyFyKMFttY6X2j6r?si=K8SgRCoISNK6ZbjpXrX5-w",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/44420f75-3b0e-4301-ab3b-16da6b09e543/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown"
}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Latino-USA-p621/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201853034&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/APM-Marketplace-p88/",
"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/onourwatch",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0OLWoyizopu6tY1XiuX70x",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-Our-Watch-p1436229/",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
}
},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-breakdown/id1327641087",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/political-breakdown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/07RVyIjIdk2WDuVehvBMoN",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/political-breakdown/feed/podcast"
}
},
"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
}
},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pri.org/programs/the-world",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "PRI"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pri-the-world",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pris-the-world-latest-edition/id278196007?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/PRIs-The-World-p24/",
"rss": "http://feeds.feedburner.com/pri/theworld"
}
},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
"airtime": "SUN 12am-1am, SAT 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/radiolab1400.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/radiolab/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/radiolab",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/radiolab/id152249110?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/RadioLab-p68032/",
"rss": "https://feeds.wnyc.org/radiolab"
}
},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/reveal/id886009669",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Reveal-p679597/",
"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
}
},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rightnowish-Podcast-Tile-500x500-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Rightnowish with Pendarvis Harshaw",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/rightnowish/feed/podcast",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMxMjU5MTY3NDc4",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I"
}
},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
"airtime": "FRI 11am-1pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Science-Friday-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/science-friday",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/science-friday",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=73329284&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Science-Friday-p394/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/science-friday"
}
},
"snap-judgment": {
"id": "snap-judgment",
"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
"airtime": "SAT 1pm-2pm, 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Snap-Judgment-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Snap Judgment",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 4
},
"link": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/snap-judgment/id283657561",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/449018144/snap-judgment",
"stitcher": "https://www.pandora.com/podcast/snap-judgment/PC:241?source=stitcher-sunset",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3Cct7ZWmxHNAtLgBTqjC5v",
"rss": "https://snap.feed.snapjudgment.org/"
}
},
"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sold-Out-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/soldout",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 13
},
"link": "/podcasts/soldout",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/911586047/s-o-l-d-o-u-t-a-new-future-for-housing",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introducing-sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america/id1531354937",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/soldout",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/38dTBSk2ISFoPiyYNoKn1X",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america",
"tunein": "https://tunein.com/radio/SOLD-OUT-Rethinking-Housing-in-America-p1365871/"
}
},
"spooked": {
"id": "spooked",
"title": "Spooked",
"tagline": "True-life supernatural stories",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Spooked-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Spooked",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 7
},
"link": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spooked/id1279361017",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/549547848/snap-judgment-presents-spooked",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/76571Rfl3m7PLJQZKQIGCT",
"rss": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/TBotaapn"
}
},
"tech-nation": {
"id": "tech-nation",
"title": "Tech Nation Radio Podcast",
"info": "Tech Nation is a weekly public radio program, hosted by Dr. Moira Gunn. Founded in 1993, it has grown from a simple interview show to a multi-faceted production, featuring conversations with noted technology and science leaders, and a weekly science and technology-related commentary.",
"airtime": "FRI 10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Tech-Nation-Radio-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://technation.podomatic.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "Tech Nation Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tech-nation",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://technation.podomatic.com/rss2.xml"
}
},
"ted-radio-hour": {
"id": "ted-radio-hour",
"title": "TED Radio Hour",
"info": "The TED Radio Hour is a journey through fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ways to think and create.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm, SAT 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/tedRadioHour.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/?showDate=2018-06-22",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/ted-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/8vsS",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=523121474&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/TED-Radio-Hour-p418021/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510298/podcast.xml"
}
},
"thebay": {
"id": "thebay",
"title": "The Bay",
"tagline": "Local news to keep you rooted",
"info": "Host Devin Katayama walks you through the biggest story of the day with reporters and newsmakers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Bay-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Bay",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/thebay",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 2
},
"link": "/podcasts/thebay",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bay/id1350043452",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d800ea4c-7a2c-42f2-b861-edaf78a5db0b/the-bay",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/586725995/the-bay",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-bay",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/4BIKBKIujizLHlIlBNaAqQ",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC8259786327"
}
},
"thelatest": {
"id": "thelatest",
"title": "The Latest",
"tagline": "Trusted local news in real time",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/The-Latest-2025-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Latest",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/thelatest",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 6
},
"link": "/thelatest",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-latest-from-kqed/id1197721799",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1257949365/the-latest-from-k-q-e-d",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/5KIIXMgM9GTi5AepwOYvIZ?si=bd3053fec7244dba",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9137121918"
}
},
"theleap": {
"id": "theleap",
"title": "The Leap",
"tagline": "What if you closed your eyes, and jumped?",
"info": "Stories about people making dramatic, risky changes, told by award-winning public radio reporter Judy Campbell.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Leap-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Leap",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/theleap",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 17
},
"link": "/podcasts/theleap",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-leap/id1046668171",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/447248267/the-leap",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-leap",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3sSlVHHzU0ytLwuGs1SD1U",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/programs/the-leap/feed/podcast"
}
},
"the-moth-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-moth-radio-hour",
"title": "The Moth Radio Hour",
"info": "Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating. Since 2008, The Moth podcast has featured many of our favorite stories told live on Moth stages around the country. For information on all of our programs and live events, visit themoth.org.",
"airtime": "SAT 8pm-9pm and SUN 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/theMoth.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://themoth.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "prx"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-moth-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-moth-podcast/id275699983?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/The-Moth-p273888/",
"rss": "http://feeds.themoth.org/themothpodcast"
}
},
"the-new-yorker-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"title": "The New Yorker Radio Hour",
"info": "The New Yorker Radio Hour is a weekly program presented by the magazine's editor, David Remnick, and produced by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Each episode features a diverse mix of interviews, profiles, storytelling, and an occasional burst of humor inspired by the magazine, and shaped by its writers, artists, and editors. This isn't a radio version of a magazine, but something all its own, reflecting the rich possibilities of audio storytelling and conversation. Theme music for the show was composed and performed by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-YArDs.",
"airtime": "SAT 10am-11am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-New-Yorker-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/tnyradiohour",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1050430296",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/New-Yorker-Radio-Hour-p803804/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/newyorkerradiohour"
}
},
"the-sam-sanders-show": {
"id": "the-sam-sanders-show",
"title": "The Sam Sanders Show",
"info": "One of public radio's most dynamic voices, Sam Sanders helped launch The NPR Politics Podcast and hosted NPR's hit show It's Been A Minute. Now, the award-winning host returns with something brand new, The Sam Sanders Show. Every week, Sam Sanders and friends dig into the culture that shapes our lives: what's driving the biggest trends, how artists really think, and even the memes you can't stop scrolling past. Sam is beloved for his way of unpacking the world and bringing you up close to fresh currents and engaging conversations. The Sam Sanders Show is smart, funny and always a good time.",
"airtime": "FRI 12-1pm AND SAT 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Sam-Sanders-Show-Podcast-Tile-400x400-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "KCRW"
},
"link": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feed.cdnstream1.com/zjb/feed/download/ac/28/59/ac28594c-e1d0-4231-8728-61865cdc80e8.xml"
}
},
"the-splendid-table": {
"id": "the-splendid-table",
"title": "The Splendid Table",
"info": "\u003cem>The Splendid Table\u003c/em> hosts our nation's conversations about cooking, sustainability and food culture.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Splendid-Table-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.splendidtable.org/",
"airtime": "SUN 10-11 pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-splendid-table"
},
"this-american-life": {
"id": "this-american-life",
"title": "This American Life",
"info": "This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. Another 2.5 million people download the weekly podcast. It is hosted by Ira Glass, produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media, delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards.",
"airtime": "SAT 12pm-1pm, 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/thisAmericanLife.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wbez"
},
"link": "/radio/program/this-american-life",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201671138&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"rss": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/rss.xml"
}
},
"tinydeskradio": {
"id": "tinydeskradio",
"title": "Tiny Desk Radio",
"info": "We're bringing the best of Tiny Desk to the airwaves, only on public radio.",
"airtime": "SUN 8pm and SAT 9pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/300x300-For-Member-Station-Logo-Tiny-Desk-Radio-@2x.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-52030/tiny-desk-radio",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tinydeskradio",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/g-s1-52030/rss.xml"
}
},
"wait-wait-dont-tell-me": {
"id": "wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"title": "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!",
"info": "Peter Sagal and Bill Kurtis host the weekly NPR News quiz show alongside some of the best and brightest news and entertainment personalities.",
"airtime": "SUN 10am-11am, SAT 11am-12pm, SAT 6pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Wait-Wait-Podcast-Tile-300x300-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/Xogv",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=121493804&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Wait-Wait-Dont-Tell-Me-p46/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/344098539/podcast.xml"
}
},
"weekend-edition-saturday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-saturday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Saturday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Saturday wraps up the week's news and offers a mix of analysis and features on a wide range of topics, including arts, sports, entertainment, and human interest stories. The two-hour program is hosted by NPR's Peabody Award-winning Scott Simon.",
"airtime": "SAT 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-saturday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-saturday"
},
"weekend-edition-sunday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-sunday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Sunday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Sunday features interviews with newsmakers, artists, scientists, politicians, musicians, writers, theologians and historians. The program has covered news events from Nelson Mandela's 1990 release from a South African prison to the capture of Saddam Hussein.",
"airtime": "SUN 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-sunday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-sunday"
}
},
"racesReducer": {},
"racesGenElectionReducer": {},
"racesGenElection2026Reducer": {},
"radioSchedulesReducer": {},
"listsReducer": {
"posts?author=217&authorName=The Center for Investigative Reporting": {
"isFetching": false,
"latestQuery": {
"from": 0,
"size": 9
},
"vitalsOnly": false,
"totalRequested": 8,
"isLoading": false,
"isLoadingMore": true,
"total": {
"value": 8,
"relation": "eq"
},
"items": [
"news_135376",
"news_132161",
"news_132113",
"news_130697",
"news_128077",
"news_127266",
"news_126156",
"news_125978"
],
"complete": true
}
},
"recallGuideReducer": {
"intros": {},
"policy": {},
"candidates": {}
},
"savedArticleReducer": {
"articles": [],
"status": {}
},
"newslettersReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"newsletters": {},
"isSubscribing": false,
"isUnsubscribing": false,
"subscribedNewsletters": {}
},
"termsReducer": {
"about": {
"name": "About",
"type": "terms",
"id": "about",
"slug": "about",
"link": "/about",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"arts": {
"name": "Arts & Culture",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"description": "KQED Arts provides daily in-depth coverage of the Bay Area's music, art, film, performing arts, literature and arts news, as well as cultural commentary and criticism.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts",
"slug": "arts",
"link": "/arts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"artschool": {
"name": "Art School",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "artschool",
"slug": "artschool",
"link": "/artschool",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareabites": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareabites",
"slug": "bayareabites",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareahiphop": {
"name": "Bay Area Hiphop",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareahiphop",
"slug": "bayareahiphop",
"link": "/bayareahiphop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"campaign21": {
"name": "Campaign 21",
"type": "terms",
"id": "campaign21",
"slug": "campaign21",
"link": "/campaign21",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"careers": {
"name": "Careers",
"type": "terms",
"id": "careers",
"slug": "careers",
"link": "/careers",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"checkplease": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "checkplease",
"slug": "checkplease",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"education": {
"name": "Education",
"grouping": [
"education"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "education",
"slug": "education",
"link": "/education",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"elections": {
"name": "Elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "elections",
"slug": "elections",
"link": "/elections",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"events": {
"name": "Events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "events",
"slug": "events",
"link": "/events",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"event": {
"name": "Event",
"alias": "events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "event",
"slug": "event",
"link": "/event",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"filmschoolshorts": {
"name": "Film School Shorts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "filmschoolshorts",
"slug": "filmschoolshorts",
"link": "/filmschoolshorts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"food": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "food",
"slug": "food",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"forum": {
"name": "Forum",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/forum?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "forum",
"slug": "forum",
"link": "/forum",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"futureofyou": {
"name": "Future of You",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "futureofyou",
"slug": "futureofyou",
"link": "/futureofyou",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"jpepinheart": {
"name": "KQED food",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/food,bayareabites,checkplease",
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "jpepinheart",
"slug": "jpepinheart",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"liveblog": {
"name": "Live Blog",
"type": "terms",
"id": "liveblog",
"slug": "liveblog",
"link": "/liveblog",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"livetv": {
"name": "Live TV",
"parent": "tv",
"type": "terms",
"id": "livetv",
"slug": "livetv",
"link": "/livetv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"lowdown": {
"name": "The Lowdown",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/lowdown?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "lowdown",
"slug": "lowdown",
"link": "/lowdown",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"mindshift": {
"name": "Mindshift",
"parent": "news",
"description": "MindShift explores the future of education by highlighting the innovative – and sometimes counterintuitive – ways educators and parents are helping all children succeed.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift",
"slug": "mindshift",
"link": "/mindshift",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"news": {
"name": "News",
"grouping": [
"news",
"forum"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "news",
"slug": "news",
"link": "/news",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"newsletters": {
"name": "newsletters",
"type": "terms",
"id": "newsletters",
"slug": "newsletters",
"link": "/newsletters",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"perspectives": {
"name": "Perspectives",
"parent": "radio",
"type": "terms",
"id": "perspectives",
"slug": "perspectives",
"link": "/perspectives",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"podcasts": {
"name": "Podcasts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "podcasts",
"slug": "podcasts",
"link": "/podcasts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pop": {
"name": "Pop",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pop",
"slug": "pop",
"link": "/pop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pressroom": {
"name": "Pressroom",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pressroom",
"slug": "pressroom",
"link": "/pressroom",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"quest": {
"name": "Quest",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "quest",
"slug": "quest",
"link": "/quest",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"radio": {
"name": "Radio",
"grouping": [
"forum",
"perspectives"
],
"description": "Listen to KQED Public Radio – home of Forum and The California Report – on 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento, 88.3 FM in Santa Rosa and 88.1 FM in Martinez.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "radio",
"slug": "radio",
"link": "/radio",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"root": {
"name": "KQED",
"image": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"imageWidth": 1200,
"imageHeight": 630,
"headData": {
"title": "KQED | News, Radio, Podcasts, TV | Public Media for Northern California",
"description": "KQED provides public radio, television, and independent reporting on issues that matter to the Bay Area. We’re the NPR and PBS member station for Northern California."
},
"type": "terms",
"id": "root",
"slug": "root",
"link": "/root",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"science": {
"name": "Science",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"description": "KQED Science brings you award-winning science and environment coverage from the Bay Area and beyond.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "science",
"slug": "science",
"link": "/science",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"stateofhealth": {
"name": "State of Health",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "stateofhealth",
"slug": "stateofhealth",
"link": "/stateofhealth",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"support": {
"name": "Support",
"type": "terms",
"id": "support",
"slug": "support",
"link": "/support",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"thedolist": {
"name": "The Do List",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "thedolist",
"slug": "thedolist",
"link": "/thedolist",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"trulyca": {
"name": "Truly CA",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "trulyca",
"slug": "trulyca",
"link": "/trulyca",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"tv": {
"name": "TV",
"type": "terms",
"id": "tv",
"slug": "tv",
"link": "/tv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"voterguide": {
"name": "Voter Guide",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "voterguide",
"slug": "voterguide",
"link": "/voterguide",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"guiaelectoral": {
"name": "Guia Electoral",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "guiaelectoral",
"slug": "guiaelectoral",
"link": "/guiaelectoral",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"news_6944": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_6944",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "6944",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2014/10/News-Fix-Logo-Web-Banners-04.png",
"name": "News Fix",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "program",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "The News Fix is a daily news podcast from KQED that breaks down the latest headlines and provides in-depth analysis of the stories that matter to the Bay Area.",
"title": "News Fix - Daily Dose of Bay Area News | KQED",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 6968,
"slug": "news-fix",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/program/news-fix"
},
"news_6266": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_6266",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "6266",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Housing",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Housing Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 6290,
"slug": "housing",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/housing"
},
"news_3921": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_3921",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "3921",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "affordable housing",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "affordable housing Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 3940,
"slug": "affordable-housing",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/affordable-housing"
},
"news_152": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_152",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "152",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Government",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Government Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 159,
"slug": "government",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/government"
},
"news_854": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_854",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "854",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Poverty Issues",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Poverty Issues Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 864,
"slug": "poverty-issues",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/poverty-issues"
},
"news_5813": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_5813",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "5813",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Public Housing",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Public Housing Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5837,
"slug": "public-housing",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/public-housing"
},
"news_579": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_579",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "579",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Richmond",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Richmond Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 2717,
"slug": "richmond",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/richmond"
},
"news_5771": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_5771",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "5771",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "Richmond Housing Authority",
"slug": "richmond-housing-authority",
"taxonomy": "tag",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "Richmond Housing Authority | KQED News",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null,
"metaRobotsNoIndex": "noindex"
},
"ttid": 5795,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/richmond-housing-authority"
},
"news_6064": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_6064",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "6064",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "State of Surveillance",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "series",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "State of Surveillance Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 6088,
"slug": "surveillance-2",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/series/surveillance-2"
},
"news_6188": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_6188",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "6188",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Law and Justice",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Law and Justice Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 6212,
"slug": "law-and-justice",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/law-and-justice"
},
"news_116": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_116",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "116",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "police",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "police Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 120,
"slug": "police",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/police"
},
"news_4289": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_4289",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "4289",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "surveillance",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "surveillance Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4308,
"slug": "surveillance",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/surveillance"
},
"news_18549": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_18549",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "18549",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Priced Out",
"description": "It seems that almost everyone in the Bay Area has a housing horror story to tell. Anecdotes abound of renters spending months looking for a new place, and the pound of flesh extracted when they do find one. Equally scary are the stories from aspiring, seemingly qualified homeowners who are turned away by banks. \r\n \r\nThroughout 2014, KQED brought out the facts and stories behind the Bay Area housing crisis as part of our series called ‘Priced Out.’ We told the stories of people struggling and surviving amidst the increasing cost of living. We examined the changing neighborhoods and cities in the Bay Area, looked at who is getting evicted and why, as well as the potential solutions that have emerged.",
"taxonomy": "series",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "It seems that almost everyone in the Bay Area has a housing horror story to tell. Anecdotes abound of renters spending months looking for a new place, and the pound of flesh extracted when they do find one. Equally scary are the stories from aspiring, seemingly qualified homeowners who are turned away by banks. Throughout 2014, KQED brought out the facts and stories behind the Bay Area housing crisis as part of our series called ‘Priced Out.’ We told the stories of people struggling and surviving amidst the increasing cost of living. We examined the changing neighborhoods and cities in the Bay Area, looked at who is getting evicted and why, as well as the potential solutions that have emerged.",
"title": "Priced Out Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5066,
"slug": "priced-out",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/series/priced-out"
},
"news_1758": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_1758",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "1758",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Economy",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "Full coverage of the economy",
"title": "Economy Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 2648,
"slug": "economy",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/economy"
},
"news_212": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_212",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "212",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Fire",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Fire Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 220,
"slug": "fire",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/fire"
},
"news_787": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_787",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "787",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "fire",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "fire Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 797,
"slug": "fire-2",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/fire-2"
},
"news_740": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_740",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "740",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "International",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "International Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 749,
"slug": "international",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/international"
},
"news_19904": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_19904",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "19904",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "Labor",
"slug": "labor",
"taxonomy": "tag",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "Labor | KQED News",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null
},
"ttid": 19921,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/labor"
},
"news_1859": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_1859",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "1859",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "privacy",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "privacy Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1874,
"slug": "privacy",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/privacy"
},
"news_3144": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_3144",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "3144",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "abuse",
"slug": "abuse",
"taxonomy": "tag",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "abuse | KQED News",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null,
"metaRobotsNoIndex": "noindex"
},
"ttid": 3162,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/abuse"
},
"news_18538": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_18538",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "18538",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "California",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "California Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 31,
"slug": "california",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/california"
},
"news_19906": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_19906",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "19906",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Environment",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Environment Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 19923,
"slug": "environment",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/environment"
},
"news_457": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_457",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "457",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Health",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Health Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 16998,
"slug": "health",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/health"
},
"news_8": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_8",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "8",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "News",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "News Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 8,
"slug": "news",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/news"
},
"news_356": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_356",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "356",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Science",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Science Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 364,
"slug": "science",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/science"
},
"news_18543": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_18543",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "18543",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Health",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Health Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 466,
"slug": "health",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/health"
},
"news_80": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_80",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "80",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Military",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Military Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 81,
"slug": "military",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/military"
},
"news_18544": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_18544",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "18544",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Center for Investigative Reporting",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Center for Investigative Reporting Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1679,
"slug": "center-for-investigative-reporting",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/center-for-investigative-reporting"
},
"news_829": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_829",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "829",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "hud",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "hud Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 839,
"slug": "hud",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/hud"
},
"news_5814": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_5814",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "5814",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "Tim Jones",
"slug": "tim-jones",
"taxonomy": "tag",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "Tim Jones | KQED News",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null,
"metaRobotsNoIndex": "noindex"
},
"ttid": 5838,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/tim-jones"
},
"news_1775": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_1775",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "1775",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "housing",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "housing Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1790,
"slug": "housing",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/housing"
},
"news_2162": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_2162",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "2162",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Racial Issues",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Racial Issues Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 2177,
"slug": "racial-issues",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/racial-issues"
},
"news_2081": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_2081",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "2081",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Seniors",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Seniors Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 2096,
"slug": "seniors",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/seniors"
}
},
"userPermissionsReducer": {
"wpLoggedIn": false
},
"eventsReducer": {},
"fssReducer": {},
"tvDailyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvWeeklyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvPrimetimeScheduleReducer": {},
"tvMonthlyScheduleReducer": {},
"userAccountReducer": {
"user": {
"email": null,
"emailStatus": "EMAIL_UNVALIDATED",
"loggedStatus": "LOGGED_OUT",
"loggingChecked": false,
"articles": [],
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"phoneNumber": null,
"fetchingMembership": false,
"membershipError": false,
"memberships": [
{
"id": null,
"startDate": null,
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"familyNumber": null,
"memberNumber": null,
"memberSince": null,
"expirationDate": null,
"pfsEligible": false,
"isSustaining": false,
"membershipLevel": "Prospect",
"membershipStatus": "Non Member",
"lastGiftDate": null,
"renewalDate": null,
"lastDonationAmount": null
}
]
},
"authModal": {
"isOpen": false,
"view": "LANDING_VIEW"
},
"error": null
},
"youthMediaReducer": {},
"checkPleaseReducer": {
"filterData": {
"region": {
"key": "Restaurant Region",
"filters": [
"Any Region"
]
},
"cuisine": {
"key": "Restaurant Cuisine",
"filters": [
"Any Cuisine"
]
}
},
"restaurantDataById": {},
"restaurantIdsSorted": [],
"error": null
},
"userAgentReducer": {
"userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)",
"isBot": true
}
}
