Section 8 Scam Lands Landlord in Jail

LOS ANGELES-Government prosecutors here have won two modest battles in the war against housing fraud and slumlords, though some housing activists say the property owners got off too easy.

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.