Outgoing VIHFA Executive Director Eurgene Jones is pictured during a prior appearance before the Virgin Islands Legislature. Photo Credit: V.I. LEGISLATURE.
The announcement by V.I. Housing Finance Authority Executive Director Eugene Jones that he would be resigning in April of this year took many by surprise, especially for those who remember his optimism two years ago following his appointment.
Mr. Jones took up the post in April 2024. In an interview with Consortium journalists after three weeks on the job, he said that he was looking forward to leveraging his extensive background in housing authority leadership to take VIHFA to the next level of success.
Mr. Jones is a former auditor for the HUD Office of the Inspector General, and subsequently transitioned to roles in the San Francisco and Kansas City, MO housing authorities. In Missouri, Mr. Jones was able to stabilize the first housing authority to ever come under federal receivership within two years. He went on to helm housing authorities in Indiana, Michigan, Ontario, Illinois and Georgia, setting high expectations for his tenure in the Virgin Islands.
In 2024, Mr. Jones said he was “excited” for the opportunity to bring his skills to the territory, and declared that VIHFA was “in a good place.” His job, he said, was to “build on that success."
Now, as the territory contemplates his exit, it is not at all clear whether Mr. Jones was able to meet his stated goal.
Just months after his appointment, Mr. Jones was named as a defendant in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by VIHFA’s former chief operating officer. Stephanie Berry accused the outgoing executive director of participating in retaliation against her for highlighting internal procedural violations. Ms. Berry alleges that in June 2024, Mr. Jones warned her that documenting her concerns about corruption and mismanagement of federal funds could be “to her detriment.”
That lawsuit is still ongoing in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands, with parties awaiting a schedule from the presiding judge that could see pre-trial proceedings stretch to the end of 2026.
On Wednesday, Mr. Jones appeared before the Senate committee on Housing, Transportation and Telecommunications, where he made the surprise announcement of his impending departure. During the hearing, Mr Jones sparked a testy exchange between himself and Senator Kurt Vialet, when he admitted that he had no plan to utilize $4 million in local funding appropriated in 2021 to help first-time homebuyers. Noting that the money was allocated from local and not federal sources, Senator Vialet argued that the VIHFA was the entity with authority to develop the requirements by which potential recipients could qualify for the funds. “So if you develop requirements that nobody could meet, that’s on the Housing Finance Authority,” the lawmaker declared. Mr. Jones offered no response.
Asked by Senator Clifford Joseph to outline his biggest accomplishment during his time at VIHFA, Mr. Jones highlighted that “we came together as a team, we built morale, and we’re working to supply and support the territory as a housing provider.”
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