WSIU

Southern Illinois Congressman Mike Bost met Thursday with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to discuss the ongoing housing crisis in Cairo.

Bost is seeking information from HUD related to decades of alleged corruption by officials at the Alexander County Housing Authority. He wants state and federal authorities to prosecute those who abused the system while housing tenants lived in squalor.

The Murphysboro republican says housing authority board members lined their pockets with federal funds for years.

HUD announced in April that it was closing the Alexander County Housing Authority's two largest family developments, displacing around 200 families.