Scandal Spurs HUD Official to Retire from Indian Housing Office Story-Date: 05:36 p.m. PST Tuesday , September 16, 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------ Scandal Spurs HUD Official to Retire from Indian Housing Office By Eric Nalder, The Seattle Times Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News SEATTLE--Sep. 16--A federal housing official has taken early retirement, in part because he and others failed two years ago to stop a Tulalip Tribes official from building herself a 5,300-square-foot house with taxpayer money intended for the poor. Jerry Leslie, 59, retired last week from his position as regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Native American Programs in Seattle, leaving about two years earlier than he had planned. Leslie said the scandal uncovered by The Seattle Times in a series of newspaper articles last year contributed to his early departure, though he was also encouraged by a federal buyout that gave him more-generous retirement benefits. "It was just the best thing for me, given all the controversy," he said. Under Leslie's leadership, HUD officials allowed a Tulalip couple, who earned more than $90,000 a year, to use money intended for the poor to build themselves a house three times the size of the average American home. Leslie said Monday that he regretted allowing construction of the house, but he blamed construction on changes in the HUD program that prevented proper oversight. Stories last year in The Times described how HUD ordered officials in the field to virtually ignore how tribes were spending federal housing money. "Of course, (the house is) an icon of what's wrong with the Indian program. It should never have happened," he said. Leslie's office also allowed a millionaire former pro-football player to create what was virtually his own housing authority on the Coquille reservation on the Oregon coast and to divert federal money for illegitimate purposes. Leslie said his office had been subjected to "an unusual amount of auditing" since the series of articles last year detailed the problems at the Tulalip and Coquille housing programs, as well as other cases of fraud, favoritism and waste in HUD's Native-American housing program nationwide. "I felt like that in a way they (the auditors) were after me," Leslie said. "If I was the target, if I was creating a problem for the Indian programs. ... I just felt it was not fair to the Indian people." Programs overseen by Leslie's office are being examined because of a nationwide investigation that was ordered at the HUD Inspector General's Office as soon as HUD officials were made aware of the findings in The Times' investigation. Other programs around the country also are being investigated. The auditors confirmed that the Tulalip house violated program rules, and the couple who built the house were required to repay some of the money and were suspended from participating in HUD programs. The auditors also have found fraud and waste at the Coquille housing program, and the Justice Department is investigating that case. Leslie, who worked for HUD for more than 25 years, is Native American. He said he plans to work as a consultant. Leslie's acting replacement is his former senior assistant, John Barber. A permanent replacement will be hired later. ----- Visit The Seattle Times Extra on the World Wide Web at http://www.seattletimes.com ----- (c) 1997, The Seattle Times. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------------------------------------