BrownIn a press release Saturday afternoon, Councilmember Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) called for an investigation into the District Department of Housing and Community Development to determine if there has been any “unethical behavior and possible criminal malfeasance and collusion between contractors and current and former employees.”
The impetus for the inquiry appears to be the youth outreach group Peaceoholics and its purchase of a 13-unit apartment building in Congress Heights, which was facilitated by a $4.4 million loan from the housing agency. A year after Peaceoholics fixed up the building at 1300 Congress Street SE, it remains uninhabited, as do other properties the group renovated. Brown, who chairs the D.C. Council panel that oversees DHCD, says in the release he began looking into the goings-on at DCHD since last year.
Both of Peaceoholics’ founders are running for seats on the Council this year. Ron Moten, an ally of former Mayor Adrian Fenty, is running as a Republican in Ward 7, while Jauhar Abraham is running in Ward 8. Abraham, the City Paper’s Alan Suderman reports, “says he didn’t do anything wrong on the Congress Heights deal and he didn’t witness any type of wrongdoing by DHCD employees on that transaction either.”
Full text of Brown’s announcement:
I am deeply concerned by evidence that has been uncovered pointing to unethical behavior and possible criminal malfeasance and collusion between contractors and current and former employees of the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).
Through my role as the Chair of the Council’s Committee on Housing and Workforce Development, on Monday July 12, 2010, I convened a public oversight roundtable on the “Peaceoholics Construction Project at 1300 Congress Street SE”. This roundtable was held to determine the circumstances that led the previous administration to award the Peaceoholics more than $4.4 million to acquire and rehabilitate several properties including the Congress Street site. The information provided from the roundtable left many questions unanswered, especially in relation to entities with little or no housing experience receiving these District housing funds. Despite additional inquires; these unanswered questions were never adequately addressed by the previous leadership of DHCD.
More recently, the current DHCD leadership has become a willing partner, and in cooperation with recommendations from my office, has instituted more stringent quality controls in the awarding of funds. Also, at my request, the DHCD has conducted new reviews of existing projects that are currently being funded. This review has uncovered evidence, we expect, will show the brazen abuse of authority from multiple employees at the agency to financially enrich themselves and outside entities. We believe this investigation has prompted administrative action against one high level DHCD employee yesterday and we expect additional personal actions to follow.
This alleged malfeasance by District government employees and the repeated instances of certain outside individuals and entities have surfaced on numerous property records dealing with land transfers. These property records show that certain individuals and entities have repeated appeared in several questionable sales, purchases and land transfers, including the 1300 Congress Street SE property.
This troubling situation has spurred me and Councilmember Jim Graham, who has also examined this issue, to request the Inspector General and the Attorney General to launch immediate investigations into this matter.
