Wilmington Housing Authority drops three top employees

WILMINGTON — The Wilmington Housing Authority Board of Directors is cleaning house. Tuesday night the WHA voted to fire the agency’s three top employees.

According to one of the Housing Authority commissioners people living in the 1,500 rental units managed by the group will not be affected by the changes.

The housing authority helps provide affordable housing to low or medium income families.

Tuesday night the board decided not to renew executive director Benjamin Quattlebaum’s contract, which ends Friday.

The board also decided to fire assistant executive director Richard James and chief of operations Laura Hines.

One reason for the layoffs is to improve the housing authority’s image after a federal audit in March where authorities questioned more than $700,000 dollars spent by the housing authority.

Macy McRay says another reason Benjamin Quattlebaum’s contract was not renewed was because of an overall low performance evaluation by the board.

Some residents who go through Wilmington Housing Authority to get housing say they were familiar with the recent layoffs and the federal investigation into spending.