Are tenants in subsidized housing safe? HUD inspections can’t tell

For years, tenants have complained of suspected mold, leaks, water damage and bugs at an east Charlotte apartment complex that houses the poor.

Since January 2017, they have filed more than 50 complaints against Heritage Park Apartments with the city of Charlotte.

But when inspectors from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development visited the apartments, they gave them passing scores.

Privately owned apartment complexes subsidized with money from HUD provide shelter for more than 1 million households across the country. Federal law requires landlords to provide safe, decent and sanitary housing in exchange for the money.

But HUD’s inspection system — one of the agency’s biggest tools for oversight — doesn’t work, federal officials acknowledge.

That means apartments with unsafe and unsanitary conditions can pass HUD inspections while others in relatively good shape can fail, housing activists, federal lawmakers and others have said.

“I consider (HUD inspection) scores pretty meaningless,” said Mike Gantt, who owns The Inspection Group, an Ohio-based consulting firm that helps landlords pass HUD inspections. “I’ve seen places (pass) where you can’t take a step without stepping on a roach.”

HUD spokesman Joseph Phillips told the Observer that agency officials are visiting four major cities to hear ideas about how to reform the inspection process, officially known as the Real Estate Assessment Center or REAC.

Proposed changes will make inspection scores more accurate, Phillips said.

Changes coming

The issue has garnered more attention in recent years after a nonprofit was accused of collecting tens of millions of dollars from the federal government while tenants suffered in substandard housing.

HUD inspectors gave passing scores to properties even as they fell into disrepair, according to a November 2018 report from ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative reporting news outlet.

HUD subsidizes roughly 23,000 apartment buildings across the country. Some 96 percent of them pass inspection, the agency says.

Properties are inspected at least once every three years. HUD says it inspects troubled buildings more often. Officials can also order inspections in response to tenant complaints.

Scores are based on a 100-point scale, with any score of 60 or above considered passing. Heritage Park received a score of 73 in both 2015 and 2017, HUD said.

Under those standards, buildings can have toxic air, vermin and other dangerous problems and still receive high marks, said Michael Kane, executive director of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants.

“You literally could have people dying from asthma and get a 99,” Kane said.

Kane said the complaints about Heritage Park are similar to other subsidized apartment complexes that have passed HUD inspections.

“We hear the same story over and over again,” he said. “They have admitted the system is flawed especially with mold, water leaks and a lack of ventilation. A lot of these buildings are aging.”

HUD said it wants a system with more emphasis on the physical conditions within housing units and the threat posed to tenants from mold and lead-based paint.

“It’s become clear that many private owners of HUD-subsidized housing have grown accustomed to a 20-year-old inspection regime and, in some cases, more invested in passing the minimal requirements of a REAC inspection instead of satisfying their contractual obligation to provide housing that is decent, safe and sanitary year round,” the agency said in a statement.

This story was originally published March 8, 2019 at 12:26 PM.