City Housing Authority Still Struggling With Section 8 Payments
HACM reconstructing tenant files, working to overcome past mismanagement.
The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee is working to catch up on 500 delayed Section 8 payments. (Photo by Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
It’s been more than two years since the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ordered the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee to outsource management of its $42 million Section 8 housing voucher program.
According to one landlord, the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, or HACM, is still having problems.
Theresa Garcia, who owns several properties in Milwaukee, said she waited months for a Section 8 payment for her tenant and with no response from HACM.
“I have no plans of evicting my tenant,” Garcia said. “But I am worried about those landlords who may not care to wait or those who can’t afford to go unpaid.”
Section 8 is a housing voucher program that helps low-income families afford housing.
According to an Oct. 10 statement from HACM, “payments have been held up for approximately 500 assisted households.”
Delays tied to recordkeeping
HUD officials originally ordered HACM to hire a new provider after discovering its bookkeeping contained discrepancies and posed a fraud risk.
After a national search and resident concerns, the authority signed a contract with Florida-based CVR Associates to manage its Section 8 housing voucher program in January.
According to Amy Hall, marketing and communications officer with HACM, the backlogs in Section 8 payments are directly related to the previous mismanagement of the program.
“HUD deemed HACM’s Section 8 program as troubled in 2023. That resulted in several corrective actions that HACM was required to take, including outsourcing the Section 8 program and a 100% reconstruction of tenant files,” she said. “Due to the condition of the files, this process is taking significantly longer than originally anticipated.”
In response, HACM stated, it has “temporarily changed its policy so that payments are not placed on hold unless the income recertification is more than six months past due.”
All payments are expected to be completed by Oct. 31, according to HACM.
Hall said CVR has been communicating with landlords and Section 8 participants regarding the delay in recertifications. Hall said the changes ensure that landlords continue to receive rent subsidies and participants are not put at risk of eviction while their paperwork is being processed.
“We understand the stress and frustration this situation causes for families, but it is the reality that we are currently operating in,” Hall said.
For more information
Those who are worried about eviction should contact HACM at (414) 286-5650 or hcvsupport@hacm.org.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
This article first appeared on Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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