The Brief
- A former Texas city employee has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.
- She pleaded guilty to embezzling over $121,000 intended for a federal homeless housing program.
- Another former Amarillo employee was sentenced last year for stealing over $465,000 from the same program.
AMARILLO, Texas – A former employee of the City of Amarillo will be spending time in federal prison after being convicted of embezzling thousands intended to house the homeless.
The former grant manager was found to have stolen over $121,000 from the federal program, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.
Former Amarillo employee convicted
Vanessa Robinson, 35, worked for the City of Amarillo from 2013 to 2024 in their community development department. She was responsible for distributing funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to homeless or near-homeless individuals in the city with housing costs. Instead, Robinson pocketed many of those dollars for years.
Robinson was shown to have embezzled in several ways. Nearly $35,000 was stolen by posing as a program recipient and living rent-free for more than two years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas said. …