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A little more than a month after the embattled CEO of the city’s housing authority, Home Forward, left the organization under a cloud of controversy, another one of the organization’s top leaders is departing.
Kandy Sage, Home Forward’s chief financial officer, will exit the housing authority on July 2.
Her departure comes as the organization—roiled by months of reporting by WW revealing its many problems, culminating in the late April resignation of its CEO, Ivory Mathews, after this newspaper reported on her expensive travel habits —is trying to regain its footing.
Home Forward plays a vital role in the region’s supply of subsidized housing. The nonprofit owns 7,000 low-income apartments and provides rent assistance vouchers to roughly 12,000 Multnomah County residents. As WW has reported, however, Home Forward has struggled to fill apartments, even amid chronic homelessness, and has struggled financially. The agency’s troubles made Mathews’ frequent absences from Oregon a flash point.
A Home Forward spokesperson confirmed that Sage submitted her resignation this week. The circumstances around her departure were not immediately clear, nor is it clear if she’s slated to receive severance.
According to Sage’s bio on the Home Forward website, she joined the agency in 2008 as an accountant and worked her way up to CFO in 2021.
She oversaw the agency’s finances during a difficult time: The COVID-19 pandemic brought a severe spike in nonpayment of rent coupled with more relaxed tenant policies, straining the agency’s ability to pay its debts. Inflation increased expenses across the agency’s entire portfolio, both externally and internally. And as of earlier this year, the agency’s more than 900 vacant units and long unit turnover time exacerbated the agency’s financial woes.
