WW reported Tuesday evening that Ivory Mathews, CEO of Home Forward, spent more than $100,000 in public dollars traveling to conferences and events over a three-year period. Her travel took place while the housing authority, tasked with providing 7,000 affordable apartments and thousands more housing vouchers to low-income Portlanders, was experiencing financial challenges and failing to fill vacant apartments on a timely basis. As those difficulties intensified, Mathews traveled out of state for roughly 45 days a year between 2023 and 2025.
But one trip among the dozens Mathews took was not like the others.
In October 2024, Mathews flew to Hawaii with a handful of family members. She stayed six nights at a beachfront resort on Kauai at $619 a night, totaling $4,767. Her round-trip flight cost $720. The rental car cost $1,529, airport parking cost $168, and two checked bags on the flight back to Portland cost $85…