The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency is only making things worse for itself with an appalling lack of openness.
Last week, The Bee reported about the deplorable, if not dangerous, conditions that the Valdez family was living under until a public health nurse blew the whistle.
The family was using an agency voucher to pay most of the $1,050 monthly rent to a landlord with a history of housing code violations.
The Bee wanted to know when the agency last inspected the small house in North Sacramento and whether the conditions were spotted during the inspections.
SHRA’s response, however, made it impossible to find out. It demanded an official public records request for even basic information on its inspections program.
Then it blacked out much of what it released.
It also required another public records request to find out the name of the outside contractor that the agency says does most of the inspections.
All the secrecy begs the question: What is it trying to hide?
SHRA’s defense is that it is protecting the privacy of clients. In a statement, SHRA’s executive director, La Shelle Dozier, said the agency must “ensure that satisfying the public’s right to know does not jeopardize the basic premise of the right to privacy.”
But the resident talked to The Bee’s Robert Lewis about her family’s situation. And California’s public records law says that to keep a document under wraps, an agency must show that the public interest in confidentiality outweighs that for disclosure.
SHRA has not come close to meeting that test.
While the agency may operate below the radar, it plays a significant role in the lives of Sacramento’s less fortunate.
Created jointly by the city and county, it is responsible for affordable housing and community redevelopment. It is one of the area’s largest landlords, operating 3,500 units and administering 11,000 rental vouchers used at privately owned units. And with a budget of $269 million this year, it is the steward of millions in taxpayer money.
With that responsibility comes accountability and transparency to the public. In this case, the agency is falling woefully short. Taxpayers and the residents it serves deserve much better.