`I’m looking at being evicted’ because of Fulton housing failures

The failure of the Housing Authority of Fulton County to send Section 8 voucher payments on time for two months in a row has tenants like Elizabeth Bustamante worried about losing their homes.

She lives in an apartment on Jerome Road in College Park that’s managed by LA Properties & Consulting, one of the Fulton County landlords that accepts federal subsidized Housing Choice Vouchers, also known as Section 8.

But the voucher payment for June didn’t arrive as usual on the fifth of the month, according to Lolita Anderson, owner of LA Properties & Consulting. It was three weeks late, with no word on who would cover the resultant late fees.

Then July’s voucher payment didn’t arrive either.

“So I’m looking at being evicted,” Bustamante said.

The housing authority’s tardiness in making more than $1 million in monthly subsidy payments for close to 1,300 Fulton County residents is just one reason the agency is in trouble with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

HUD has sent letters notifying the housing authority and county commissioners of a long list of problems — some of which remain unresolved from a 2019 corrective action plan. HUD recommends another agency or consultant take over the Housing Choice Voucher program, and warns that the housing authority will likely face financial sanctions. HUD officials also found the agency lacks qualified staff, has been unable to produce required documentation and has been intentionally unresponsive to requests made for documents under Georgia’s Open Records Act.

The county commission has also demanded resignations from all housing authority board members.

Bustamante said she has received Section 8 assistance for a long time, here and in other states, but never before has a housing agency failed to pay the monthly subsidy.

Disabled and alone, Bustamante said she can’t afford to pay more or lose her current place. Nor can many others, she said.

“They’re putting people’s lives in danger,” Bustamante said.

Her calls to the housing authority were not answered or returned, so she went to the housing authority office in person and found the door locked, she said.

“I’m scared now,” Bustamante said.

Anderson said Tuesday she heard the July voucher payments were finally sent, but has been unable to verify that. She tried to check online but the landlord portal on the housing authority’s website was down, she said.

Kim Hayes, another of Anderson’s tenants, called her case manager Tuesday.

“She just kept saying over and over she has no answers for me,” said Hayes, adding that she is up to date with her own portion of the rent.

“My main concern is (the housing authority) catching up on their late fees,” Hayes said.

Hayes has been in the voucher program for a year, getting her life back on track after leaving a shelter. Now she’s worried about finding a safe place through another housing authority — if she can find one open to a transfer, she said.

“I really feel like they should have notified us and sent out some information in regard to this situation,” she said. “I should not have had to hear this from the property owner.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez

All but two of the housing authority board members have stepped down: board chair Antavius Weems and vice chair Lamar White.

Commission Chair Robb Pitts said Thursday that commissioners will hold a special meeting July 29 to review HUD’s allegations, discuss removing Weems and White, and take nominations for an all-new board. The county has determined that commissioners, who appoint housing board members, can also remove them “for cause,” Pitts said.

HUD recommended “that we basically clean house and start anew,” he said.

The county commission has “zero control” over day-to-day housing authority operations, and only became aware of problems when employees and tenants spoke up and HUD sent its letters, Pitts said.

For now, Pitts would like to see an outside contractor take over voucher management. In the long run, there are questions as to whether the county housing authority has enough reason to remain in existence, he said.

“I think during this discussion we’re probably going to have to talk about that in some more detail,” Pitts said.

Neither Weems nor the housing authority office responded to requests for comment this week. Weems’ law office directed questions to a public relations firm which said it would provide answers the next day, but did not.

Board meetings `incoherent’

Earnestine Pittman, appointed to the housing board in February, said board meetings are “incoherent,” not following any proper order or agenda. Weems does most of the talking, she said. While many staff members have quit, almost all senior staff were placed on leave and told they’d be fired if they returned, Pittman said.

The housing authority should have 15 to 20 staff members, according to Sherrika Bellamy, the authority’s former interim executive director. Five new people started work Monday, but have little to no housing experience, and none with HUD standards, she said.

Bellamy said June’s voucher payments didn’t go out because there was no finance director to release them, and the only senior staff in the building were three brought in by Weems who didn’t know the system, she said.

A July 10 letter from HUD backs up the assertion that new housing authority staff, including the executives, lack experience with federal housing.

Bellamy said she worked at the housing authority from 2010 to 2015, then was asked to return in 2023 to run the Housing Choice Voucher program. She describes Weems as verbally abusive toward staff.

She emailed HUD officials May 14, saying Weems brought in three new staff and gave them access to private information without explaining whether they were actual employees or had any housing experience.

“This is a repeated pattern of Chairman Weems, to employ individuals he personally knows despite the fact that they are not qualified for the position,” Bellamy wrote in the email.

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

In an April 21 email to some board members and staff, interim executive director Tanray Garcia wrote that she endured more than three hours of “threats and blackmail” from Weems after the February board meeting. He demanded to know the authors of the staff complaints and wanted her to fire several people, she wrote.

“Weems never had a problem with my work, until I refused to do his unethical bidding,” Garcia wrote in the email.

Bellamy and Pittman said Weems has demanded that staff pay invoices without proper approval or verification. They cite bills from Andrew Patterson, the housing authority’s general counsel. Bellamy said Patterson’s contract had expired but he kept working. HUD ordered her to cancel his legal services, so when Patterson submitted an invoice for $20,206, she refused to pay it, Bellamy said.

The next day Bellamy emailed HUD, saying a police officer removed her from the housing authority office after she said the financial dealings of Weems and Patterson should be investigated.

“Removing me give (sic) them full access to remove any evidence,” she wrote in the email to HUD.

Bellamy said she received a termination letter June 28, saying she had been fired two weeks earlier — right after she spoke before county commissioners about the housing authority’s problems. The letter blames her firing on housing authority actions during the time she didn’t even work there, Bellamy said.

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