The consultants already in place at the Housing Authority of Fulton County will remain for at least a few more weeks. Alpharetta firm CVR Associates will spend a month assessing the agency’s condition, with an eye to remaining in charge of the Section 8 rent voucher program. And the housing authority’s new board will seek bids to conduct a forensic audit for a full financial picture.
That’s what the four members of the housing authority’s board decided Wednesday afternoon during their first meeting, seeking to keep the agency functioning and stave off a threat from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development to pull the housing authority’s funding.
Roslyn Harper and fellow consultants Charcella Green and Devetrion Caldwell don’t have experience in public housing but are specialists in human resources. When they arrived May 13 they were asked to assess what needed to be done to get the authority back on track, she said.
“We know how to fix things,” Harper said.
But they found a mess, she said.
“When we got here there was no leadership. There was absolutely no leadership,” Harper said. “The office was being run by a young woman who was a college student.”
Some staff members could not describe their own jobs, she said. And staff had no idea how to handle clients, often treating them rudely and failing to provide urgent services, Harper said.
The consultants brought in someone from College Park’s housing authority to finally get June’s voucher payments out, she said. Harper said it will take “perhaps a year or more” to get the agency into good shape.
But, she said, the rent subsidies for August will be on time “without fail.”
At a special meeting Monday, county commissioners ejected Antavius Weems and Lamar White, last remaining members of the housing authority’s previous board. Other members had resigned at county commissioners’ request, but Weems and White refused. Then commissioners appointed four new board members, one more than a quorum to legally conduct business: Stephen Davis, Felicia Moore, Lauren Waits and Holly York.
The new housing board met via Zoom on Wednesday, the day of a HUD deadline to select a manager for the Section 8 program. Paying rent subsidies for nearly 2,000 tenants in Fulton County is the housing authority’s primary function, but those payments were weeks late in both June and July. That, and the agency’s inability to provide required documentation, led to HUD deeming the housing authority “troubled” and warning that it could lose its $7.8 million in federal funding.
The new board quickly chose Moore as chair and Waits as vice chair, both in an acting capacity, Waits said. Then they unanimously approved CVR Associates to continue its research into housing authority operations for 30 days. After that, the firm will propose taking over management of the voucher program, said CVR Senior Vice President Tracey Sheffield.
“CVR is prepared to assist for the long haul,” she said.
A HUD spokesperson said Wednesday that the new housing board needed to legally hire a Section 8 program manager, reviewing and ratifying the selected firm.
In May, the previous board hired Harper, Green and Caldwell. According to board attorney Andrew Patterson, the consultants’ contracts were all approved before most board members stepped down. They had therefore been approved by a legal quorum, Patterson said.
Pamela Roshell, the county’s chief operating officer, said HUD’s Atlanta regional office suggested the housing authority undergo a forensic audit to get a complete and accurate picture of its finances.
She said she will give board members the names of several recommended audit firms, including ones that have already bid on county contracts. Board members unanimously agreed to ask for proposals from three auditors, and Moore said the board will hold an emergency meeting to select one when those bids come in.
The HUD spokesperson said HUD is giving the housing board options that may improve performance, and will work with the board to ensure its members can provide effective oversight.
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