NORTHAMPTON — As the Northampton Housing Authority moves to fill 40 vacant units with the assistance of the Greenfield Housing Authority, its board is closing the books on a costly and yearlong investigation into its former executive director for alleged ethical and legal violations.
At the Housing Authority’s meeting last month, acting Executive Director Sharon Kimble said that the quasi-public agency, which oversees 567 housing units in Northampton and Florence, began seeing vacancies rise roughly 18 months to two years ago.
“I’ve been working really hard with [the state] trying to make changes that you just can’t make overnight, but yes, [40 vacancies] is the right number, sadly,” Kimble said, explaining that the authority is at 10% of the state’s occupancy guidelines. “We’ve been getting fees from them [the state] and they’ve just been getting worse.”
Kimble explained that the housing authority has had trouble getting residents vetted and moved in through the property manager in a timely manner — an issue that she said was “getting worked on.”
In an effort to address vacancy rates, Kimble said Northampton has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Greenfield which will offer peer-to-peer support, allowing the Greenfield Housing Authority (GHA) staff and resources to fill in and promptly assist with filling housing vacancies. She added that she has also reached out to the Worcester Housing Authority seeking a partnership.
GHA Executive Director Jack Redman clarified in an email to the Gazette that the MOU acts as a temporary collaboration. He said he has visited Northampton’s housing authority properties twice with his maintenance director in an effort to map out a “practical inspection and turnover plan.”
“Housing authorities across the region support one another from time to time, especially during moments of transition, and that’s what GHA is doing,” Redman wrote. “We’ve completed the initial all unit inspections and now are helping think through next steps as their new maintenance leadership gets settled … this is a short-term advisory engagement and not a management agreement with NHA. The Northampton Housing Authority remains fully under its own leadership and governance.”
Kimble, in an interview Tuesday afternoon, said the eight-week-long MOU agreement is in its second week. She mentioned that while it will likely take some time to fill the vacancies, the issue is her top priority, and she has hired a director of maintenance and other staff, who she said should help bring the units up-to-par.
“It took a while for these vacancies to get here, it’ll take a long time to get them filled,” she said. “I really feel that the Northampton Housing Authority is moving in a positive direction.”
Meanwhile, the NHA’s three-year contract with the Easthampton Housing Authority, in which Northampton managed Easthampton’s properties, is slated to expire at the end of April. But a similar contract with Hatfield remains in place.
Cara Leiper investigation
In addition to discussions about filling vacancies at the board’s March 16 meeting, Housing Authority Board of Commissioners Chair Patricia Healey also announced that the agency’s investigation into former Executive Director Cara Leiper will not be released to the public, or to board members.
The cost of the yearlong investigation, including legal fees, amounted to $120,000, Healey said. She said that based on the results of the investigation, the Board of Commissioners has accepted Leiper’s resignation, ending her contract, which was slated to expire in June 2028.
“Greene & Hafer [a Boston law firm] did conduct an extensive investigation. They did multiple interviews with staff, residents, two commissioners and Ms. Leiper,” Healey said. “No employees of the Housing Authority or the Board of Commissioner have the legal rights to the content of the investigation, including the names of those interviewed … we do not have the right to review any of the comments made in the interviews.”
Healey went on to announce that an executive summary of the investigation, which was shared with the authority in October, is also “exempt from public disclosure.”
Healey did note that although NHA did not have any policy or employee contract concerning the use of a vehicle, Leiper used an NHA vehicle “throughout most of her employment with the NHA.”
Leiper resigned from her position in December of last year after being placed on paid administrative leave nine months prior. Her resignation followed a January 2025 complaint submitted to the authority’s board and various state agencies accusing her of numerous legal and ethical violations that include providing housing to close friends and family members.
The housing authority hired Greene & Hafer, a law firm specializing in employment law and workplace violations, to investigate the allegations.
Housing Authority member James “Jim” Nash commented in an interview Tuesday that he believed making the investigation confidential was standard, given that it involved personnel and employees’ private information.
“There’s confidential details that have not been shared because it’s a personnel issue,” Nash said. “It seems like standard practice in a situation like this.”
Kimble declined to comment on Leiper’s investigation.
