In the first case, an LA Superior Court judge sentenced a South-Central woman to four months in jail for defrauding the LA City Housing Authority out of nearly $33,000 in federal Section 8 housing subsidies. Gerry Colwart, 50, pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft for illegally taking the money.

Prosecutors said Colwart filed false statements to qualify for the money from HUD's Section 8 rental-subsidy program. Though the subsidies were supposedly helping the woman pay the cost of renting a Crenshaw District home, prosecutors said she actually owned the property herself and was renting it to tenants.

Colwart also failed to tell Housing Authority officials that she was collecting welfare payments in addition to her housing payments, and also failed to disclose that she owns a construction firm and consulting business. In addition to jail time, she was placed on three year's probation and ordered to make restitution.

In the other case, Lance J. Robbins, a 52-year-old Playa del Rey man with a history of slumlord charges against him, was ordered to contribute $5,000 to a charity after pleading no contest to three fire-code violations at a 63-unit apartment building he owns in the Downtown LA area. City inspectors had found an iron fence that was blocking a fire escape, an inoperable escape ladder, combustible waste on the site and other problems.

Robbins is also facing a civil lawsuit for $3 million in unpaid bills from LA's Department of Water and Power. Prosecutors say Robbins has skirted the bills and avoided slumlord prosecution by using sham companies and bogus "self-foreclosures."

Some housing activists believe the punishment meted out to Colwart and Robbins isn't harsh enough. They say Colwart essentially stole $33,000 from the Housing Authority, at a time when low-income people face a years-long waiting listing to receive rental subsidies, while the violations recorded against Robbins endangered lives and thus merit more than a $5,000 contribution to a charity that might even provide him with a hefty tax deduction.