Durham, N.C., PHA Didn’t Adequately Enforce HQS

HUD’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) audited the Housing Authority of the City of Durham’s Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program’s housing quality standards (HQS). The audit found that the PHA didn’t always ensure that program units met HUD’s and its own HQS. Of 75 program units inspected, 69 failed to comply with HUD’s minimum HQS and the PHA’s own requirements, and 40 of those were in material noncompliance with the standards. For the 40 units in material noncompliance, the PHA’s inspectors failed to observe or report 352 violations that existed when they conducted their last inspections.

As a result, some tenants lived in inadequately maintained units, and the PHA disbursed more than $100,000 in housing assistance payments and received more than $8,000 in administrative fees for the 40 units in material noncompliance. Unless the PHA improves its inspection program and ensures that all of its units materially meet minimum HQS, OIG estimated that over the next year, HUD will pay about $7.5 million in housing assistance for units in material noncompliance with the standards.

OIG recommended that the Director of HUD’s Greensboro Office of Public and Indian Housing require the PHA to: (1) reimburse its program more than $108,000 from non-federal funds for the 40 units that materially failed to meet HUD’s and its own HQS; (2) ensure that all violations cited for the units failing to meet HQS have been corrected; and (3) implement adequate procedures and controls to ensure that all units meet HUD’s and its own HQS to prevent more than $7.5 million in program funds from being spent on units that don’t comply with HUD’s requirements over the next year.

• HUD Audit 2016-AT-1005, May 2016