In a stinging rebuke to the Los Angeles Housing Authority (HACLA), a new audit by federal housing officials found nearly two-thirds of the Section 8 units they inspected had serious deficiencies and many of the problems went undetected by the city's own inspectors.
The audit by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development's Inspector General follows up findings of previous reviews and warns that the city is spending $65 million a year in federal funds to put thousands of people in substandard housing when it could be demanding improvements by landlords or moving people into better housing.HACLA, long a controversial and troubled agency, administers nearly $400 million federal housing programs in L.A. including more than 35,000 unites under the Section 8 voucher program that subsidizes privately-owned rental units for low-income people.
"The Authority did not adequately enforce HUD's housing quality standards ... As a result, it did not properly use its program funds, and program tenants lived in units that were not decent, safe and sanitary,'' the audit said.
Just a few months ago, HUD demanded $27 million back from HACLA when an audit found the agency's head, Rudy Montiel, spend the money inappropriately.
Montiel is paid more than $400,000 a year to administer the city housing programs for the poor and has faced several lawsuit from former employees and his handling of public money which has put HACLA under financial pressure.
Despite the problems, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has backed Montiel and even filed suit Monday claiming HUD is "capriciously" and for political reasons terminating a separate program that pays HACLA $8 million a year in administrative costs.
The program provides healthcare centers at housing projects, summer job programs for at-risk youths and housing and services for poor people.
"The hasty decision to implement this dramatic policy change in the last days of a presidential administration raises serious questions about the motivation behind the change," Thomas Saenz, counsel to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, told the LA Times.
He added that given the city's current financial circumstances, it would be "extremely hard if not impossible" to make up the nearly $8 million in lost funds.
Montiel dismissed the HUD audit of his management of the Section 8 housing program, and claimed the city will not lose the $65 million that HUD said was in jeopardy.
The Inspector General looked at at 68 statistically selected units and found 43 did not meet minimum federal housing standards.
And they weren't just a little below standard. The 43 units had 318 deficiencies -- one with 39 deficiencies alone. And there's aren't small things. They include filthy and unsafe conditions, plumbing in disrepair, lack of security and on and on.
In all 134 of those deficiencies existed before HACLA inspectors did their last inspections which were so poor they found only four of the 134 deficiencies.
