Business over bureaucracy right in our backyard (and abode) ...

• Author: LUSKY, MARK
• Position: Brief Article

Housing authorities generally are not recipients of high praise. Business tends to regard them as "welfare warriors." No matter what they do, someone's usually screaming, "Not in my backyard!"

It's a pleasant surprise, therefore, to learn the Denver Housing Authority (DHA) was the highest-rated large housing authority nationwide for three years, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

DHA's success may lie in its chairman of the board, Marge Johnson, who was in office those three years. "We have begun to get innovative, pick up the pace, listen more, look to new types of partnerships, and begun redefining our actions more like a business than a bureaucracy," she said.

More like a business than a bureaucracy? Sounds downright Republican. Small...