US Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) wants a federal watchdog to scrutinize living conditions in Section 8 apartment complexes — and the agency that oversees them.
Ossoff has proposed that the Office of the Inspector General for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) investigate HUD-subsidized properties with “close-to-failing” inspection scores — defined as properties that HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) has scored between 60 and 70 out of 100. A REAC score below 60 is a failing score.
The measure won bipartisan support from the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee last month and awaits a full Senate vote as part of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development funding bill.
Ossoff’s amendment also urges HUD’s Inspector General to analyze “the adequacy of HUD oversight and management of those inspections and properties, and the impact of HUD staffing reductions and contract cancellations on the oversight of these properties.”
Housing advocates in Atlanta say an audit of HUD’s inspection practices for its Section 8 properties is long overdue. They have long failed to capture the realities inside Section 8 housing, where tenants often live with mold, pests, and broken utilities. What’s more, the Trump administration’s recent downsizing of HUD’s workforce has exacerbated the problem.
But asking Congress to approve an audit of the Trump administration’s housing department could pose political challenges, advocates warned. “On paper it sounds good,” said Ray Jones, the state coordinator for the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) Advocacy Foundation. “But [Ossoff] still needs to get support from the full Senate.”
And if Ossoff’s amendment clears a Senate floor vote, it would still need the approval of the House. “I don’t know how realistic this is,” Jones said.
What’s more, he added, the proposed audit of how HUD inspects the properties it subsidizes could miss problematic properties that the agency says are doing just fine. Atlanta’s Woodland Heights apartments, for instance, a dangerously dilapidated Section 8 complex on the Westside, received a 96 and an 81 from two REAC inspections last year — both passing scores.
“Obviously, there’s something fishy going on with a property like Woodland Heights, which is 100% HUD subsidized,” said Matthew Nursey, an organizer and policy advocate with the Housing Justice League. “Why would it have such high scores? It’s in such disrepair. Many of the units are completely dysfunctional.”
Bambie Hayes-Brown, the chief executive of Georgia Advancing Communities Together, said it’s clear that HUD isn’t getting the full picture when it sends inspectors to Section 8 properties. When Hayes-Brown worked for the DeKalb County Housing Authority, she said, “Sometimes HUD would come in and just do a spot inspection on a set of properties.” HUD’s inspection process, she said, must be comprehensive, not cherrypicked.
But does HUD have the resources to enact more robust inspections? “No,” Hayes-Brown said. “They just don’t have the manpower.”
Nursey said a probe of HUD’s Section 8 oversight practices would likely highlight the need for more comprehensive inspections that evaluate every unit at every HUD-subsidized rental property, and not just a few well-kept apartments.
“But we have to be realistic about the political landscape we’re dealing with,” he said, noting that the Trump administration plans to slash Section 8 funding and reduce HUD’s workforce by half. “I’m cautiously optimistic.”