Breed appoints chief auditor to guide Housing Authority transition

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced new leadership Wednesday in preparation for the The City’s takeover of the San Francisco Housing Authority.

Breed has tasked Tonia Lediju, who currently serves as The City’s chief audit executive, with developing a transition and restructuring plan for the troubled agency.

In March, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent a letter to the Housing Authority addressing defaults in several agreements and obligations.

The letter said The City must assume functions of the Housing Authority, including plans to contract with a third-party to administer Housing Choice Vouchers and low rent public housing programs.

It was also learned late last year that the Housing Authority was facing a $30 million deficit, which required federal government funding to recover from.

The Housing Authority provides housing subsidies to 14,000 residents in The City.

Breed said in a statement:

“As the City takes on this important task of restructuring the Housing Authority, our focus is to ensure housing stability for the thousands of households who depend on subsidies and to complete our long-planned revitalization and transformation of Sunnydale and Potrero Hill as part of our HOPE SF initiative. This restructuring is an opportunity to increase accountability, and ensure that we are providing quality public housing for our residents.”

Lediju will lead a transition team that will include representatives from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, the Controller’s Office, the Department of Human Resources, the City Attorney’s Office, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and HOPE SF.

Part of Lediju’s role during the transition will be to develop timelines, performance measures, risks and opportunities analyses, staffing and budget needs as the agency restructures.

Lediju is no stranger to the Housing Authority. According to the Office of the Mayor, she previously conducted a comprehensive review of the Housing Authority’s financial structure, management controls, systems and staffing in 2017.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.