PHA's Section 8 housing in disrepair, HUD audit says

A federal audit of the Philadelphia Housing Authority's rental-subsidy program found that the agency was not ensuring the quality of housing units in the Section 8 program.

In a report Wednesday, auditors for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said 62 of the 67 sampled units had not met HUD's standards. The audit was conducted in late 2009.

The report recommended that PHA ensure that the units were repaired, refund HUD $71,000 from nonfederal funding, and implement procedures and controls to prevent problems.

PHA controls more than 18,000 vouchers for the so-called Moving to Work program, which offsets by $173 million a year the rents of low-income people. Individuals choose homes from private landlords and use the vouchers for part of the rent.

A PHA spokesman, Kirk Dorn, said the authority intended to appeal the findings. PHA considered the audit "a flawed process."

Dorn said that 72 percent of the citations had to do with electrical outlets, but that HUD rules - clarified in a March 31 memo to housing authorities - allowed for older two-pronged receptacles, which auditors called violations.

In addition, Dorn said auditors had held PHA accountable for issues and conditions that were the responsibility of landlords and tenants.

Most violations in the audit related to electrical and structural problems, such as missing handrails, broken stove burners, exposed electrical panels, and windows that did not shut.

The auditors concluded that if PHA did not improve its oversight, HUD would be wasting $18.6 million a year on assistance for housing that failed to meet federal standards.