Pittsburgh housing authority confirms new executive director, despite investigation in Oregon

On Thursday, the board of commissioners for the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh voted unanimously to approve the appointment of Ivory Mathews as the agency's new executive director. 

"I think it's going to be really great, and we're very confident," said Chairman Wasi Mohammed after the meeting. "Hopefully the unanimous vote kind of showed that."

The vote came with no questions or objections to the resolution, despite Mathews currently being under investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. 

Mathews is the former CEO of Home Forward, the housing authority of the city of Portland. She resigned in May after published reports that she'd spent more than $100,000 of public money over three years on travel to places like Hawaii, Las Vegas and Orlando. 

Her travel was nominally to attend public housing conferences, but a preliminary review by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission found she often extended her stay by two or three days, brought along family, or bought upgrades that benefitted her personal loyalty program membership. The review highlighted expense vouchers for upgrades to a hotel room at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and a first-class seat on a flight to D.C. 

After HACP's board voted to approve her appointment today, KDKA-TV asked Chairman Mohammed if the board knew of the investigation during its interview process. 

"Yes. Yeah, we were aware," Mohammed said. "We were aware of that. We're aware of the whole process in Oregon. We're aware of all the reporting." 

An executive search firm had identified four candidates, including Mathews, for the executive director position, but Mohamed declined to discuss their other options. 

"I'm not going to speak to all the candidates in the process, just for privacy reasons," he said.

Mathews is now a vice president of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. Mohamed said he expects she'll continue to go to these conferences as HACP's executive director, and that attending these meetings is important for the agency. 

"I also recognize that policy, unfortunately, is not always made in Pittsburgh. We have to go some places sometimes," he said. "Whether it's in D.C., where we have to send folks, especially in this climate where the federal administration is changing so many rules so quickly." 

He says he's confident in the HACP's policies. 

"We are actually already looking at this stuff," he said. "Travel is approved. Everything's there. Our processes, I'm not concerned about. We have a lot of internal checks and balances, board oversight as well as staff." 

The newly-appointed executive director is set to start on Oct. 1. The Oregon board's ethics investigation is expected to conclude in mid-February of 2027. 

KDKA-TV asked what will happen if it shows Mathews did violate the agency's ethics policy. 

"You can come talk to us then," Chairman Mohamed said. "Thank you." 

KDKA-TV has reached out to Mathews for comment.