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Public records show complaints of racial and disability discrimination at Chicopee Housing Authority

Under a federal consent order, Monica Blazic can no longer be allowed to work for the Chicopee Housing Authority.
Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen
/
The Republican / masslive.com
Under a federal consent order, Monica Blazic can no longer be allowed to work for the Chicopee Housing Authority.

The former executive director of the Chicopee Housing Authority, allegedly made discriminatory remarks primarily towards Puerto Ricans, Black people and people with disabilities.

The Springfield Republican newspaper has detailed some of the allegations filed with the federal government over a period of years. Reporter Namu Sampath reported this story.

Carrie Healy, NEPM: Let's go back 16 years. That's when the Chicopee Housing Authority's board of commissioners hired the woman at the center of your reporting, at the center of this controversy as the executive director. Tell me about her.

Namu Sampath, The Republican: Yeah. So Monica Blazic. She was hired by the Chicopee Housing Authority's ... board. There was a group of three members who hired her with apparently high recommendations from the outgoing Housing Authority executive director. And Blazic was hired with a starting salary of roughly $82,000. And [she] was hired to oversee housing authority policies and the passage of reasonable accommodation requests, which are requests to have fair treatment while living at the authority.

Which is standard practice in any housing authority?

Standard practice — exactly.

So, over a period of years, she led this department. And zooming forward a number of years, it comes to now, when you filed a Freedom of Information request to learn more about alleged bigoted statements the now-former executive director allegedly said while she led that department. What did you find in that FOIA?

Yes. So, I filed this FOIA back in October following the federal court case that occurred between three residents of the Housing Authority and Blazic. They allege that she was discriminatory to them, and this was a court case that was ongoing since 2021 and kind of had its culmination in 2024, in October. There was a number of things that came out of the order, but one of them was that she would never be hired by the authority again.

And so, when I filed the FOIA, I wanted to know who else had alleged comments, because it wouldn't have just been those three, was my guess. And I was right. I just got back the records last week, so this is all very new.

But looking through the report, there were 26 complaints and several of them were disability discrimination-related. A lot of them alleged racism. And, I didn't include in my story, but there was one related to alleged claims of sexual misconduct — not of Blazic, but she was apparently aware of the reports and allegedly did nothing about it. And there were others, you know, that were similarly...

Horrifying, really.

Yeah.

So, while she was allegedly making these comments to her tenants, she continued to function as the executive director of the housing authority?

Correct. And surprisingly — or maybe unsurprisingly, depending on who you ask — the [current] executive director [who] sits as the director of the housing authority, as well as the people on the board who hired her, all back [Blazic].

They don't believe the tenants, and they don't believe what has come out of these allegations. I reported on that a few months ago in November. All of the administrational side of these complaints believe Monica. They believe her. And they don't believe that she would have made any of these statements or done any of these things.

So, when HUD gets these complaints en mass from one locality, do they have an obligation to investigate? What happens?

Yes. So actually HUD has a responsibility to investigate all complaints that are filed with them. They have 180 days to do so. And then they also have, within that time frame, to respond with a finding or determination that either allows a complainant to file a case with the federal court if they don't like the determination, or to settle between the two parties. Those are generally the two options that people choose.

And so, what happened here?

With this one, it's unclear, actually. We didn't have any of the findings from HUD. We don't know, actually.

Now Blazic has no contact with that agency anymore. Correct?

Correct. Yes.

Do you get the feeling that the Chicopee Housing Authority tenants are continuing to feel discriminated against, or did it all kind of end last July when the executive director left?

That's a great question. When I spoke with some of the residents, I went there in November to, you know, get a feel for the place and do a slice of life sort of story. I heard that even as a consultant for the housing authority, she was still basically the executive director, that she was in control of passing or denying reasonable accommodation requests, was still very much involved in the process.

You know, she retired in July. She was then serving as a consultant for the housing authority for the following six months until her termination date, which was December 31. I haven't been back there since, but I'm hearing that it's maybe less so than it was in the last 16 years.

Carrie Healy hosts the local broadcast of "Morning Edition" at NEPM. She also hosts the station’s weekly government and politics segment “Beacon Hill In 5” for broadcast radio and podcast syndication.
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