WESA · on ex-Home Forward CEO Ivory Mathews hired on a 7-0 board vote
The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh board voted 7-0 Thursday to appoint Ivory N. Mathews as executive director, with a first day of October 1. Mathews led Home Forward from 2022 until April 2026 and remains the subject of an Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigation opened last month over her taxpayer-funded travel spending. HACP has a $255 million budget for 2027 and houses roughly 18,000 Pittsburghers.
Willamette Week reported the expected pick a day before the vote; outgoing director Caster Binion departs at the end of September.
Willamette Week reported, citing the Pittsburgh nonprofit newsroom Public Source, that the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh is poised to pick former Home Forward CEO Ivory Mathews as its next executive director, with a board vote set for its September 24 meeting. Mathews resigned from Home Forward this spring after Willamette Week reported on her travel spending while the agency struggled to fill more than 900 empty units. Home Forward owns and operates around 7,000 affordable housing units and provides about 12,000 housing vouchers on an annual budget of around $300 million.
After Mathews' resignation, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission voted unanimously to open an investigation into her travel expenditures.
A preliminary review by an Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigator found former Home Forward CEO Ivory Mathews did not obtain authorization for travel spending between 2023 and 2025, including $784.95 for three nights at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront during a conference Home Forward was hosting and $8,135 charged to the agency for a Hawaii trip. The investigator found a "substantial objective basis" to believe Mathews violated conflict-of-interest and misuse-of-office provisions; Home Forward's general counsel said the agency's travel policy did not apply at the CEO level.
The commission voted unanimously the prior week to open a full investigation; Mathews resigned in May 2025.
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission voted unanimously on August 14 to open an investigation into former Home Forward CEO Ivory Mathews' travel spending. Mathews resigned in June after Willamette Week reported she had spent more than $100,000 on agency-funded travel over the three preceding years.
The commission's investigator found "a substantial objective basis to believe that Mathews may have violated the use of office and conflict of interest provisions."