Housing authority announces new director
Industry veteran replaces Lipscomb
Public housing industry veteran Marcia Lewis started Monday as the executive director of the Memphis Housing Authority, filling a position left vacant since previous head Robert Lipscomb became embroiled in a scandal.
The MHA board voted in June to hire Lewis, who at the time directed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Memphis hub.
As director of the Memphis hub, Lewis oversaw all public housing programs in Middle and West Tennessee, according to a release from MHA. Since graduating Indiana University with a degree in metropolitan studies, she has spent 23 years in the public housing industry, and has headed HUD’s Memphis hub since 2010.
Lewis wasn’t available for an interview Monday, and an MHA spokesperson said she wasn’t able to immediately say how much Lewis would be paid.
Lipscomb was accused in August 2015 of statutorily raping a then-16-year-old boy, although charges were never brought and Lipscomb’s attorney recently said the case was essentially closed. Lipscomb resigned as director of the city’s Housing & Community Development division on Aug. 31, and was suspended by MHA — first with pay, and then without — until they mutually parted ways in February.
Lewis became involved in the controversy when, as HUD’s Memphis representative, she wrote a Sept. 15 letter to the MHA board saying HUD wouldn’t allow Lipscomb to receive any more federal money.
HUD funding paid for Lipscomb’s MHA salary of nearly $136,000 annually.