S.F.'s Lee purges Housing Commission S.F. Housing Authority

Homeless advocate Ron Merritt (left) demanded that Joaquin Torres, with the mayors office, set up a meeting with the mayor. A determined group of homeless families and their supporters held a rally at San Francisco, Calif. City Hall and then demanded a meeting with Mayor Ed Lee about the homeless family predicament in the city. less Homeless advocate Ron Merritt (left) demanded that Joaquin Torres, with the mayors office, set up a meeting with the mayor. A determined group of homeless families and their supporters held a rally at San ... more Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close S.F.'s Lee purges Housing Commission 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Mayor Ed Lee replaced all but one member of the city's Housing Authority Commission on Friday as part of his plan to overhaul the beleaguered agency that is responsible for overseeing 6,476 units of low-income housing.

The move comes soon after the agency's director, Henry Alvarez, asked for and was granted a medical leave.

Alvarez, who reports directly to the seven-member commission, requested the leave on Jan. 25 after being sued by three employees, coming under scrutiny for questionable contracting practices and having his agency receive one of the worst ratings in the state from federal housing officials.

The Housing Authority is being audited by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Agency after receiving 54 points out of a possible 100, placing the agency on the "troubled" list.

Revitalizing agency

As part of HUD's review, each commissioner was interviewed by the agency. Some said those discussions did not go well, and the city expects the final audit to reflect poorly on some of the commissioners who were let go, those with knowledge of the situation said on the condition of anonymity, because the audit has not yet been released.

In his State of the City address last month, Lee stressed the importance of trying to reimagine the agency.

The new commissioners, who, like their predecessors, serve at the will of the mayor, have experience in public finance, law, purchasing, management and human resources, and will work to come up with recommendations by July 1 to revamp the agency.

"We will take bold steps to revitalize our city's most distressed public housing sites," Lee said in a statement.

Just one commissioner, Patricia Thomas, kept her seat. Thomas, who was appointed to the board by Lee in December, lives in Ping Yuen, a public housing facility in Chinatown.

The Housing Authority Commission has long had a reputation as a rubber-stamp body and backwater of political patronage. Jim Jones, founder of the People's Temple, was appointed to the commission by Mayor George Moscone in 1976 and served as its president before leading more than 900 people to their deaths in a mass murder-suicide in Guyana.

In 1996, Mayor Willie Brown fired all of the commissioners and brought in HUD to take over the agency. After the Housing Authority regained control of its own affairs, Brown appointed Julie Lee to the commission, and she served as its president. Lee, a campaign fundraiser, was later sentenced to a year in prison for illegally diverting state grant money into a campaign account of former California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, who resigned as a result of the scandal.

A review by The Chronicle in 2007 found that the Housing Authority Commission was canceling a third of its meetings because, as the then-director said, they had nothing to discuss - despite the agency's major maintenance and financial problems and a threatened takeover by a court-appointed receiver.

Questionable conduct

Most of the commissioners who were let go Friday were appointed by former Mayor Gavin Newsom. They had met more regularly but still faced criticism for questionable practices and ignoring mismanagement at the agency.

Critics have raised concerns that the outgoing commission was dominated by its long-time president, the Rev. Amos Brown, with some accusing him of showing favoritism toward residents who are also members of his congregation, Third Baptist Church in the Western Addition.

Nicole Collier, a program manager for the Section 8 voucher program before Alvarez laid her off, said she once tried revoking a housing voucher for a woman who was known to keep a gun and drug paraphernalia in her home and whose sons were in constant trouble with police. She said Alvarez demanded she reinstate the voucher because the woman was a member of Brown's congregation.

Brown told The Chronicle in December that his congregation didn't receive any special treatment.

Brown has headed the commission since 2008, including Alvarez's nearly five-year tenure as director.

The commission's bylaws indicate that the president serves a one-year term, with an annual election. But no such election has occurred since Brown assumed the post, said Rose Dennis, a Housing Authority spokeswoman.

No bylaws were broken, since the commission decided not to vote on new leadership, she said.

A 'new emphasis'

Commissioners who were let go were not surprised by Lee's move. Brown, who continued serving on the board even though his term expired in April, said Lee had made it clear he wanted a new direction for the authority.

"It's the mayor's prerogative," he said. "My only concern is that whatever is being done is fair and just and doesn't do more to destroy the city's black population."

Mirian Saez, who was the board's vice president, was upbeat about Lee's housecleaning.

"It's the right time for a new emphasis," said Saez, whose term wasn't scheduled to expire until 2015. "The Housing Authority model is out of the 1930s, so why not try something new?"

Less money from feds

Not all the authority's woes are self-imposed, she added.

"Financial difficulties were a challenge for the agency," said Saez, an executive with the Treasure Island Development Authority. "Expenses keep going up, and money from the federal government is going down."

None of the new commissioners returned a call for comment.

One of their first major decisions will be determining the fate of Alvarez, whose medical leave ends March 29.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Neal J. Riley contributed to this report.