City approved slipshod repairs on homes

Mike McGraw and Michael Mansur of The Kansas City Star report that an investigation by The Kansas City Star revealed that the taxpayer-supported home maintenance program overseen by the city's former housing agency approved of shoddy repair work on homes leading to leaky roofs, sagging ceilings, buckling and poorly repaired foundations and dangerous furnaces and flues. Contractors working with the Housing and Economic Development Financial Corp., also known as HEDFC, even charged one elderly couple $700 for smoke detectors. "They didn't do the work that should have been done to ensure a safe and habitable house, such as proper wiring and flues. And the work that did get done was substandard, " said Paul Romer of AAA Certified Home Inspections.