Auditors recommend ouster of L.A. County housing director
HUD officials say the county agency has poorly administered low-income subsidies and want millions refunded. The director disputes the findings.
Federal auditors have called for the ouster of the Los Angeles County Housing Authority's director, saying his agency has not properly administered the $200 million federal housing voucher program for the county's poor and has sought to conceal its shortcomings.
The unusual recommendations come in a report this month that criticizes the authority for failing to check annually, as required, on tenants' eligibility for subsidies under the federal Section 8 program. Some recipients were receiving more money than they were entitled to, the auditors found.
The director of 17 years, Carlos Jackson, acknowledged past failings in his agency's administration of Section 8, which now serves 20,700 people and families. But he said he had moved to correct the problems and denied intentionally misleading the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides the funds.
Jackson said he was "taken aback by the tone and the magnitude of the recommendation" at a time when he felt he was making headway. "I dispute their findings," he said.
Jackson heads the county Community Development Commission, which includes the housing authority and redevelopment projects. He reports directly to the Board of Supervisors, which ultimately must decide his future.
Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke said Friday that Jackson would get a chance to defend himself.
Larry Gross, who directs the Coalition for Economic Survival, a tenants' group, said he was distressed by the audit.
"The Section 8 program is incredibly important to low-income tenants and may be the only way they can get a roof over their heads," he said. "Now the question is, how is the Board of Supervisors going to respond to this?"
Section 8 tenants pay about a third of their incomes for rent to private landlords; the federal government, through local housing authorities, pays the rest. The wait to join the program takes years.
The problems are not new. The authority's troubles were first noted in 2003, when HUD auditors found that it had not reviewed many tenants' eligibility for three years. In some cases that were reviewed, the auditors found, the authority did not verify tenants' reported incomes. HUD auditors said they learned through two subsequent reviews that the agency repeatedly -- and falsely -- assured HUD it had corrected these problems.
The latest audit, which covered 2005 and 2006, found that the agency did not perform annual eligibility checks for one in four Section 8 tenants, who then numbered 17,700.
