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Time To End Free Ride For Freeloading THA Commissioner

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 18, 2008

Tampa Housing Authority Commissioner Karen Peoples has abused her position of power, shirked her responsibilities as a renter and gone out of her way to malign people perceived as enemies. And you, the taxpayer, have subsidized her stay in public housing for 24 years.

Peoples needs to move - now - from the four-bedroom apartment she's occupied at a north Tampa public-housing complex, where she's been violating the rules for more than a year.

If she refuses to budge, her removal should come swiftly. She deserves no more time to scam the system.

It's unconscionable that Peoples, as a board member, would take advantage of what should be a temporary housing program to get people on their feet.

But Tribune Reporter John Allman discovered that Peoples, 54, has been violating federal housing guidelines since November 2007 by refusing to move out of a four-bedroom apartment at C. Blythe Andrews apartments. Peoples lives by herself and has refused three offers to move to a one-bedroom unit. Meanwhile, 207 families remain on a waiting list for a four-bedroom apartment.

Peoples says she doesn't want to move because she would have to take public transportation to see her family. What a slap in the face for the thousands of people who ride the bus every day to save money to pay the rent without taxpayer assistance.

Meanwhile, Peoples has tried to discredit the authority and those who work or volunteer there. She has falsely accused housing employees of professional and sexual misconduct, including the former manager of her housing complex.

The damage done extends beyond those she's tried to malign. By behaving in this manner, Peoples has damaged her reputation and fed the worst stereotypes about poor people on the dole.
Public housing is supposed to be temporary, unless you are disabled or elderly. It's not supposed to be a lifestyle.

The mystery is how someone like Peoples could be indulged with a nearly free apartment for all these years. Welfare reform was supposed to put disadvantaged people on a path to self-sufficiency through job training and education.

Peoples has had plenty of time to become self-sufficient. Anyone capable of serving on a public-housing board is certainly capable of attaining gainful employment and paying their own rent.

It's time for the Tampa Housing Authority to dump People's from the safety net she's so audaciously exploited, and sew up the hole her case exposed.

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