Martin Austermuhle reports:
The D.C. Department of Human Services says it mistakenly disclosed confidential information of close to 1,500 households receiving housing assistance to a homeless advocacy group, which then used the information to contact those people directly — a move that the city agency says was unethical, but that the group defends as being in the public interest.
In a letter sent this week to the affected households, DHS said the information — which included names, addresses, dates of birth, and the rental assistance being received — was shared with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless in late January, when the agency released documents on the city’s rapid re-housing program that the group had asked for through an open records request.
Read more on WAMU.org