It started with an emailed tip. @rschroedy said his wife's family gifted a Monterey home to the CA parks department believing it would be used as a museum. But, the agency was using it as employee housing for less than $200/month.

Robert wanted to know if I'd be interested in looking into it. I was. That email launched dozens of records requests to the state, county tax assessors and others for hundreds of pages of documents. This is the story: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-11/california-parks-workers-cheap-rent-nice-views

Piecing together the information for this story was a slow process. Each county had different interpretations of what records were public. The parks housing records were riddled with errors and omissions. Fighting for records and cleaning up the data was a painstaking process.

Then, word got out that I was working on the story and the calls from current and former parks employees poured in. The most common allegation about the housing program was favoritism. Some stories I could verify using public records, others I'm still looking into.

One house came up repeatedly. CA forced the sale of the Hudson House through eminent domain. The views there are breathtaking. It was then used as housing and a community meeting space. A superintendent moved in and cut off access. Today, it rents for $255/mo to a lifeguard.

State policy requires rent to be raised to market value whenever an employee tenant moves out, but records show that rental prices have not increased in the vast majority of cases. Last year when a superintendent moved into a coastal home, his rent actually decreased about 50%.

The parks department acknowledged that rental amounts charged to employees are inconsistent. After The Times’ inquiries, the parks department said the governor’s office had formed a statewide task force to review potential changes to housing policies.

There are other tips I'm still looking into. This is all to say that journalism doesn't happen without you - your tips and your support through subscriptions.