IRE Radio Podcast | The Housing Authority

Mice, mold and lead paint. Tenants in Illinois public housing complexes were doing their best to make their conditions more livable. But even after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development swooped in and seized control, change wasn’t swift. On this week’s episode, Molly Parker, an investigative reporter for the Southern Illinoisan and a member of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, walks us through her deep dives into public housing. Her reporting found the federal government failed many of the citizens it was supposed to be sheltering.

You can find the podcast on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play. If you have a story you think we should feature on the show, drop us a note at web@ire.org. We’d love to hear from you.

RESOURCES

Looking for links to the stories and resources we discussed on this week's podcast? We've collected them for you.

• Read Molly Parker’s investigation into East St. Louis: “Ben Carson declared mission accomplished in East St. Louis — where public housing is still a disaster.”
• Hear from residents being forced to move from Cairo: “HUD long neglected these residents. Now as they move out, some feel HUD let them down again.”
• Look up HUD inspection scores in your community with ProPublica’s tool “HUD Inspect.”
• Members only: Download the tipsheet “Investigating inequality: Focusing on race-based inequality or the racial wealth gap” by Susan Richardson
• Members only: Check out the tipsheet “How to uncover inequity and swindlers in subsidized housing programs near you” by Tim Henderson
• Listen to other episodes of the IRE Radio Podcast on housing: Eviction City, The Adjustment Factor, The Needs of a Nation.

MUSIC

Tarte Tatin (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

Calisson (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

Coulis Coulis (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

Waltz and Fury (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

Manele (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

Palms Down (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

CREDITS

Tessa Weinberg hosts the IRE Radio Podcast and reported this episode. IRE Editorial Director Sarah Hutchins edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri.