Woman Sentenced for Theft of Rent Subsidies From City

An Inglewood woman has been sentenced to four months in jail for defrauding the Los Angeles City Housing Authority out of nearly $33,000 in rent subsidies.

Gerry Colwart, 50, was sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday. She pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft for illegally taking housing subsidies.

Colwart was also placed on three years probation and was ordered to pay restitution, the amount of which will be determined at a hearing April 5.

Prosecutors said that between July 1986 and July 1995, Colwart submitted false statements to qualify for $32,793 in federal Section 8 funds distributed by the Housing Authority.

For most of that time, Colwart collected subsidies to rent a house on Hillcrest Drive in the Crenshaw district, said Deputy City Atty. Michele Anderson. But the house was actually owned by Colwart, who was renting it to a tenant, Anderson said.

At the same time, Anderson said, Colwart owned a construction firm and a consulting business, which she did not disclose in her housing aid application. She was also receiving welfare payments without telling the housing authority about it, she said.