“I am very concerned that while housing officials are providing housing for employees and their family members, those with the greatest need are being put on waiting lists,’’ Grassley wrote in a Feb. 6 letter to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan.
Grassley, who has launched an investigation into the $360,000 salary paid to Michael E. McLaughlin, former director of the Chelsea Housing Authority, said the special perks for employees in Chelsea are part of a larger problem in public housing.
“This practice is not limited to [Chelsea],’’ he wrote. “A number of employees of the Philadelphia Housing Authority and its affiliates who received large salaries, paid for with federal funds, have lived in public housing while paying minimal rent.’’
Federal housing officials, who provide about $10 million a year to the Chelsea Housing Authority, promised to provide an array of documents Grassley requested, while stressing that they, too, are investigating the Chelsea agency.
“We will provide the senator with absolutely everything we have that he requested,’’ said HUD spokesman Jereon Brown. “If we have it, he’s got it.’’
The Chelsea Housing Authority sets aside more state-subsidized apartments for people who are not poor than any other housing authority in Massachusetts, according to figures from the state Department of Housing and Community Development.
In addition to apartments for three resident managers - two of which are funded by the federal government - Chelsea sets aside seven units for police officers and another two apartments for what officials call “supportive housing.’’
In all, Chelsea has reserved at least 12 housing units for people who are not poor, even though more than 1,000 families or individuals are on waiting lists for low-income apartments.
Mary-Leah Assad, spokeswoman for the state housing office, said the state has begun to scrutinize such arrangements more closely. In 2006, the state approved a subsidized apartment for Jacqueline Matos, Chelsea housing manager, based on a simple electronic request from the authority.
