Feds: Housing Authority getting in line

By Arthur E. Foulkes
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE May 07, 2008 09:48 pm

— The Terre Haute Housing Authority is working to bring itself fully in line with government regulations after being cited for practices in “substantial non-compliance” with federal rules, a U.S. government official said Monday.
The Indianapolis office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent a letter to the Terre Haute Housing Authority in April citing non-compliance with some federal regulations. Those issues have been addressed by the staff, management and board of the Terre Haute Housing Authority, a HUD official in Indianapolis said.
HUD oversees and funds the Terre Haute Housing Authority, which maintains low-income housing for around 2,000 local families.
“It looks as though [the Terre Haute Housing Authority] did respond to each of our concerns,” the official at HUD, who could not be named according to HUD regulations, said. “That’s not to say that there will not be other concerns. … It looks like they did do a very good job in putting together a response.”
The staff of the Housing Authority responded to HUD concerns within three days of receiving HUD’s letter in April, said Tim Buddle, interim director of the Terre Haute Housing Authority. “We addressed everything that was in their letter,” Buddle said. The letter was sent to the Indianapolis HUD office after receiving approval from the Housing Authority board of directors at the end of April, he added.
Indianapolis HUD officials are making an information-gathering “friendly visit” Friday to the Terre Haute Housing Authority, Buddle said.
One area of concern cited by HUD had to do with portability of low-income housing vouchers, meaning the ability of low-income housing program participants to move to other cities and enjoy the same housing benefits. The source at HUD said that, while the Terre Haute office had a written policy that seemed out of conformity with federal requirements, the office may not, in practice, have been breaking the regulations.
“As I understand it, Terre Haute was actually doing portability. We haven’t totally come to a conclusion yet. We just need to come over and take a look and see how it was actually being done,” the HUD source said.
Another area of concern for HUD had to do with assigning incomes to people who claimed zero income. “Many housing authorities have established policies for zero-income participants,” the HUD source said. The intent of the Terre Haute policy was not necessarily wrong, but the method might have been, he said.
HUD will conduct an analysis to find if any tenants were overcharged rents based on assumed incomes, the sources said. If so, they would have to be made whole; however, the number of tenants affected was “fairly small,” the source said.
When HUD officials come to the Terre Haute office this week, “we will be discussing whether we need to rewrite [our zero-income policy] so it meets the guidelines,” Buddle said. If any payments are deemed necessary, it would affect only five or six tenants, he said. “If any payment is needed, it would be very small,” Buddle said.
To say a Housing Authority is in “substantial non-compliance” means it has policies that are pretty clearly not in accordance with HUD guidelines, the HUD official said.
“These issues that we’ve raised can easily be resolved,” the HUD source said. “It appears to us that the [Terre Haute] Housing Authority staff and management and board are interested in doing that. The staff has been excellent over time.”
The Real Estate Assessment Center of HUD rated the Terre Haute Housing Authority a “high performer” for the 2007 fiscal year, according to the HUD Web site. The Terre Haute Housing Authority has been a “high performer” since HUD started doing ratings, Buddle said. “We’ve always been a high performer,” he said.
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.