Milwaukee's housing authority to have more oversight after a series of hazardous complaints from residents in its buildings, federal warning

Milwaukee's housing authority to have more oversight after a series of hazardous complaints from residents in its buildings, federal warning

Genevieve RedstenAlison Dirr - 10/10/2023 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Months after residents raised concerns about the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, including health and safety hazards inside its buildings, the Common Council on Tuesday approved legislation to strengthen city oversight of the agency.

Residents and community organizers have accused the housing authority of poor management, building maintenance and record-keeping, while federal officials warned agency leaders and Mayor Cavalier Johnson in December that the housing authority was "at risk for serious fraud, waste, and abuse."

The ordinance, which was approved Tuesday in a unanimous vote, gives the city's Department of Neighborhood Services the authority to inspect properties and enforce building and zoning codes at buildings the housing authority owns or manages.

Council President José G. Pérez, the measure's lead sponsor, said he feels good about the vote on the policy, but added, "I think we have a lot of work to do."

The mayor is likely to sign the legislation, Johnson's spokesperson said.

City officials are still working to determine how extensive HACM's maintenance problems are and how many code enforcement inspectors this new oversight will require. Tenants say they're facing hazardous conditions, including mold, flooding and infestations of rodents and bugs.

The policy will take effect Jan. 1, giving city leaders time to allocate more staff and resources to city code enforcement. Ald. Michael Murphy said he put forward the amendment to move the ordinance's start date back to Jan. 1 to ensure that code enforcement, which is already stretched thin, is sufficiently staffed to manage complaints from HACM tenants.

The new ordinance will require DNS to report annually to the council and the mayor about its oversight of HACM properties. It will also allow HACM to be charged re-inspection fees instead of being exempt.

Members of the council have been unsure what authority they have to oversee the housing authority, which is largely independent of city elected leaders. Meanwhile, the Department of Neighborhood Services has had a longtime policy of referring code complaints back to the housing authority under the belief that it did not have authority over an independent public agency.

That has left tenants with nowhere to turn when housing authority building managers do not keep up with maintenance, according to Common Ground, a coalition of local faith groups, businesses and other organizations that has been calling for an investigation into the agency since early this year.

Housing authority Secretary-Executive Director Willie Hines, a former Common Council president who also served as the housing authority's board chairman for more than 15 years, has expressed support for oversight by the Department of Neighborhood Services.

Tenants' maintenance concerns include bed bugs and flooding

In an interview last week, Debra McQueen, a resident of College Court, said HACM managers haven't taken her seriously, even as she's repeatedly complained of hazards in her apartment. McQueen said her health has taken a hit as she's struggled with bed bugs, mites and black mold.

Teddi Minor, a Becher Court resident, said she's been dealing with repeated flooding in her unit since last year. Water leaks in her closet destroyed her school laptop and textbooks, she said. Minor has a mobility impairment, which makes the repeated flooding more difficult to manage. HACM's maintenance has been hard to reach and hasn't addressed the underlying plumbing issues, she said.

McQueen and Minor both spoke to a council committee last month about the problems in their buildings.

Last month, both Pérez and Johnson pledged to address tenants' complaints. Pérez announced the proposed ordinance change to Department of Neighborhood Services enforcement while Johnson said he would use his executive authority to make the change himself.

Common Ground took tenants' maintenance concerns to the Department of Neighborhood Services and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but the agencies each said the other was responsible, Kevin Solomon, an organizer with Common Ground, told the Journal Sentinel.

Housing authority had years of concerning federal audits

HACM has been under scrutiny from federal regulators since at least 2015. An audit at that time found problems with its financial record-keeping.

A more recent audit report sent to Johnson by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in December said the housing authority's Section 8 office had a severe staffing shortage and lacked basic accounting safeguards.

A follow-up report in April noted a discrepancy of more than $3 million between the housing authority's bank statements and internal books, an inability by staff to produce receipts for credit card expenses and boxes of paperwork stacked in stairwells and hallways.

Common Ground is calling on Hines and other senior leadership to resign in the wake of those reports.

Council members had been in the dark about those HUD findings until last month, when the Journal Sentinel obtained the two reports through a public records request. After the story published, Pérez wrote a letter to HUD asking what consequences HACM might face if it the problems persist.

"The amount of detail and dysfunction is difficult to process," Pérez wrote to HUD's Quality Assurance Division.

Pérez said he has yet to hear back.

A housing authority spokesperson previously said the agency's transition to a new software system had caused some of the rent errors and also blamed staffing shortages and supply-chain disruptions.