New director of Pittsburgh housing authority approved unanimously amid ethics probe
PITTSBURGH —
Ivory Mathews was unanimously approved Thursday as director of the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, while an ethics investigation into her travel expenses during her previous role in Oregon remains ongoing.
“We think it’s a home-run hire. We’re very excited. We think she’s going to do a great job here, and we’re very confident in her leadership,” said Wasi Mohamed, chair of the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.
“The board is a diverse group with a lot of opinions, a lot of different backgrounds, and this was a unanimous decision,” Mohamed said. “Ivory Mathews has almost three decades of transformational leadership in the housing space.”
Mathews was not present at the meeting. Her approval comes as she faces an ethics investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission regarding her travel expenses during her tenure as CEO of Home Forward, an organization that administers affordable housing and rent voucher programs in the Portland, Oregon, area.
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Mathews resigned from Home Forward in May after the publication Willamette Week raised questions about her travel expenses for conferences and networking events, which were funded by the organization. Reports alleged that these expenses totaled more than $100,000 over three years and that not all of them were work-related.
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission shared its preliminary findings with Pittsburgh’s Action News 4, stating, “Based on information available in the preliminary review, there appears to be a substantial objective basis to believe that Ivory Mathews may have violated the Prohibited Use of Office and Conflict of Interest provisions in Oregon Government Ethics Law.”
When asked about the extent of travel expenses that would be involved in Mathews’ new role, Mohamed said, “Travel is an important part of the job for many reasons. It’s actually a way for folks to go to conferences in which their colleagues from other agencies all go. So the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh has traditionally done that. That’s something that we’ll continue to support, all to a degree. But we have internal processes that we kind of manage and all that. We determine what is approved, we decide what happens, and where people go. We use budgets for these things. So we determine kind of how, but do we see value in it? Absolutely.”
Mohamed was also asked what would happen if the investigation concludes that Mathews violated ethics laws. He responded, “You can come talk to us then.”
Mathews became the senior vice president of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment in October 2025. She will begin her role as director of the HACP this fall.
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