CTCOG to take over Killeen Housing Authority Section 8 programs

The Killeen Housing Authority Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to allow the Central Texas Council of Governments to take over all of Section 8 programs it had been responsible for, including the voucher program.

The vote came after hours of sometimes-contentious discussion and two meetings totaling seven hours in length. The meetings were highly disorganized as the inexperienced board members dealt with multiple people addressing the commissioners outside of a citizens’ comment period.

CTCOG’s takeover comes after a federal investigation into KHA that has lasted at least 18 months and includes claims of missing funds, finger-pointing, mass resignations and distrust at seemingly all levels in the Killeen housing group, which has existed for decades.

The takeover was initially discussed at a KHA board meeting Thursday morning.

During the afternoon meeting, the KHA board voted to transfer Section 8 programs over to CTCOG, including public housing units in north and south Killeen.

KHA provides public housing for low-income Killeen residents, and uses federal funding for Section 8, a voucher system that helps people pay rent. KHA owns and maintains 154 public housing rental units in Killeen.

Investigation

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s investigative arm, the Office of Inspector General, led a raid at a former KHA director’s home in Killeen on March 2, 2022.

Dwrena K. Allen, communications person for HUD OIG, stated that the agency conducted the raid alongside the FBI and the Killeen Police Department.

The Killeen Housing Authority has been under investigation by HUD OIG for more than a year over alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act.

The Herald reported on Oct. 2 that former KHA executive director DeAdra Johnson wrote an email to the KHA Board of Commissioners detailing a morning raid on her premises.

“I had 20 to 30 law enforcement officers at my front door at 7:15 a.m.,” she wrote. “They were banging on the door and entered my premises with guns drawn, shields up, floodlights shining on me, yelling obscenities.”

Johnson was accused by former employees of KHA for favoring certain people over others on its waiting list for housing. She said she was the victim of bullying by members of the KHA board. She ultimately resigned from her position as executive director.

HUD documents indicated computers were also seized from KHA for its investigation.

Morning Meeting 

With approximately $85 in KHA’s operation budget, board members discussed having their Section 8 program absorbed by CTCOG’s housing program, during its workshop meeting Thursday morning.

KHA Board Chair Ebony Jackson looked out at a room filled with people Thursday, some of them tenants and at least one landlord who was having issues with the Section 8 voucher program.

“I’m going to tell you the hard truth: we don’t have any money right now,” Jackson told them.

“Right now, the way the funding is, we don’t know heads or tails,” she said. “I know this is a very, very uncomfortable situation.”

She said right now, they are working with CTCOG to see about porting clients to the housing program there.

KHA already has paperwork prepared for the transition with CTCOG and is handing out packets for porting vouchers between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at its office on Avenue B.

Bruce Whiteside, KHA board commissioner, said they need an outside agency to do a forensic audit.

Board members were unsure of who was in control of several KHA bank accounts.

“Somebody is still getting payments for this,” Whiteside said during the meeting. “Somebody is stealing some money now, and somebody was stealing some money before, and we need to get to the bottom of it ... This is bigger than us. This is a federal investigation.”

Justin Hartsfield, one of the newest board members, told the Herald that if the takeover by CTCOG is approved, the day-to-day operations of KHA “would be absolved.”

He commented that he was only recently sworn into the position, was briefed and “given an opportunity to know what I was walking into.”

“Clearly a lot of information is missing,” he said, explaining he was aware of the federal investigation. “Did those laptops being seized contribute to the problems?”

Carmen Lim, director of the CTCOG housing division, was present at the morning meeting, but said CTCOG could not retroactively go back and pay money that is owed.

Cinda Hayward, consultant for KHA, said HUD is likely to launch another investigation. She said at this time, no money is owed to HUD.

“There is no ledger, there is no record ... other than our what monies came in and what was spent,” she said. “They’re going to launch an investigation, but they want to make sure that the tenants are fully taken care of. And the landlords are made whole.”

During Thursday’s morning meeting, the board of commissioners at time had trouble keeping things orderly as anger over lapses in payment spilled over.

“Money has been stolen. This is a big deal,” said Jacinda Davis, a client of KHA. “I called the HUD in San Antonio, I’ve been up there to the mayor. ... Nobody wants to take accountability for what’s going on.”

“My landlords threaten me — threaten me,” Davis continued, shouting at the board. “I pay my bills on time every month. And for them to call and say you’re going to be evicted and then Section Eight saying no they can’t evict you.”

She said legally they cannot renew the lease, which was the case with at least one another person who showed up at the KHA board meeting.

“I’m disabled,” Davis said. “You ain’t gotta look over your shoulder and wondering if your landlord is coming knocking on your door.”

The board opened up the meeting to comments briefly earlier in the meeting when not as many people were in attendance. As the meeting filled with about 10 people, they opened it up again.

Mellisa Brown, a former Killeen city councilwoman, was allowed to speak at one point, which led to a back-and-forth argument between her and Whiteside.

There was a question from Whiteside on whether the board would operate under Robert’s Rules of Order, which is a standard parliamentary procedure.

“When you have a small board, you should use the annotated Robert’s rules,” Brown said.

She also remarked that Whiteside was making “points of personal interest.”

“What authority do you have to tell me what my intention or my motivation was?” Whiteside asked Brown.

“I don’t have any, but ...” Brown started to say before Whiteside interrupted

“I don’t have time to go back and forth with my Facebook stalker,” he said, referring to Brown. “I understand that you’re running for mayor and all that stuff, please understand ...”

“Point of order,” Brown said.

Later Meeting

Killeen Mayor Debbie Nash-King, who also sits on CTCOG’s board, spoke during citizen comments and said she was at the meeting to speak on behalf of residents.

“There’s a lot of things that have been going on and I’ve been made aware of it,” she said. “My concern is that where we are now is in a dangerous area. As we move forward into November and December ... the resources are not available to continue, in my opinion, as a unit.”

She said KHA should “get out of the housing business and turn it over to CTCOG — and that means the vouchers,” she said.

Nash-King said that it was just her opinion and it was ultimately up to the board to decide.

Hayward said KHA is more than $253,000 in debt.

Whiteside once again asked to move the voucher program to CTCOG.

“They have the resources to make sure these people don’t have to worry about getting their rent paid,” Whiteside said.

Once again, the board went over aspects of KHA’s financial situation.

Montalvo said hundreds of thousands of dollars were in two separate accounts, but the board didn’t know where the funds were earmarked.

Jim Reed, executive director of CTCOG, said there is an accounting process that takes into account the earmarked funds. He said there is a roster of vouchers certified with backup documentation.

“They hit send, it goes to HUD, HUD audits it and it goes into our accounts,” he said.

Reed said rental assistance payment cannot be touched, and it is marked. He said it was dollar in, dollar out.

“So you may have $159,000 in your HAP account that is not allocated to anyone,” he said. “We won’t know until you go through an audit … No HAP check should ever bounce.”

Reed said CTCOG isn’t interested in disposing of anything, but helping tenants and making sure landlords get paid.

“I can tell you we’ve been running Section 8 for 50 years,” he said. “We have $70 million in reserve in the bank, a staff that is fully functional … we understand how Section 8 works … whatever assurances I can give to tenants here.”

He said he can’t speak to individual situations but he spoke with HUD and he’s going to try to make it whole.

Whiteside asked what his suggestion was, if they should turn the program to them or if they should hold onto KHA “by the threads.”

“I don’t know if you’re going to have the opportunity to make that decision between those two points,” Reed said. “It would be very difficult to reconstitute or fly this airplane while you’re building the airplane or building the engine … it would be a very heavy lift.”

Lim said they are going to get people in the voucher program in one room. She said they will develop a plan with Hayward.

She said they could begin paying almost immediately as long as the paperwork is filled out.

Whiteside said KHA doesn’t have funds or resources to hire staff, but he said CTCOG does.

“Why have the amateurs do it when we could have the pros do it?” he said.

Jasmine Mosley, a resident who came with her baby and spoke earlier about getting an eviction notice, said a document she was signed for porting her case over to CTCOG said tenants would be released from a lease.

“But I don’t have a lease,” she said, explaining that she was not under contract anymore from her landlord.

Hayward said they would give something handwritten to her.

“Without looking at your lease specifically,” she said. “I can’t answer anything to that.”

But Mosley said it doesn’t say anything about a month-to-month lease.

“Where does that leave me?” she asked.

Hayward said if the landlords gave them a 30-day notice, there’s nothing they can do.

Jackson asked if they could make an appointment. Mosley said what is the point, as she said she can’t do anything.

“If it’s not taken care of on the 30th, then what?” she asked.

“We’ll discuss an alternative,” Hartsfield said.

Mosley’s landlord, Amy Millsap, spoke after Mosley was finished.

“She’s been a good tenant,” she said. “We work for the owners of the property. It’s not our decision … not every owner is a rich person. Some of them are military soldiers … There’s not a whole lot of families who have six, eight months of rent sitting back.”

“I’ve been emailing the people here, we get no response,” Millsap continued. “You just have people hanging out there not knowing what to tell anyone ... ‘Read the paper’ is the response we got.”

Jackson said they if they need information, they should reach out to KHA.

But multiple residents said they haven’t been able to reach KHA representatives by phone or email. Some said they never answered phones.

“How are we supposed to get information?” one woman said.

There was also discussion about the fate of the Moss Rose Community Center, which KHA operates, with some people arguing for its continued existence.

Nash-King said HUD contacted her about this situation.

“This has been going on for five or six years,” she said.

There will be an emergency meeting to discuss the Moss Rose situation on Nov. 6 at 1 p.m. The next regular KHA commission meeting will be Nov. 17.