CTCOG executive director explains process as it moves to absorb KHA Section 8 program

Killeen Daily Herald
By Kevin Limiti | Herald
Novemver 5, 2023

Amid a federal investigation, a mass exodus of staff members and severe financial issues, the Killeen Housing Authority has been dealing with a slew of issues, leading some tenants to fear eviction.

The KHA Board of Commissioners voted unanimously last week to transfer its Section 8 housing programs over to the Central Texas Council of Governments’ housing program.

This was a move that was recommended by Killeen Mayor Debbie Nash-King, who also sits on the Central Texas Council of Governments board.

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.

Jim Reed, executive director of CTCOG, was at last week’s meeting and found that many of the KHA Board of Commissioners were looking to him for answers.

Bruce Whiteside, one of the newly appointed KHA board members, asked at the meeting, “Why have the amateurs do it when we could have the pros do it?”

Reed spoke with the Herald Thursday about what the next steps were for the process of porting KHA’s Section 8 clients to CTCOG and what would happen to KHA in the meantime.

THE PROCESS

The process for transferring the Section 8 program to CTCOG goes something like this:

According to a graphic provided by CTCOG, the KHA voted to turn over the program to CTCOG on Oct. 26, beginning the process. An interlocal agreement between KHA and CTCOG still needs to be signed between the two groups.

On Nov. 1, KHA began collecting all data, including payment and accounting information, from its current client list, and then itemizing it in order to give it to CTCOG’s housing program and financial division.

CTCOG plans to hold a meeting for tenants and landlords some time before Jan. 1, 2024, in order to collect any rental information and hold briefings for landlords and tenants about the transition of the KHA program to CTCOG.

On Jan. 2, the financial wing of CTCOG will begin to make a decision on settling landlord and tenant accounts as well as process payments and make the accounts current. At that point, CTCOG will be the agency that will process payments going forward.

On July 1, HUD will officially turn over all funding the housing program to CTCOG, absorbing KHA’s program.

CTCOG

CTCOG was created in the late 1960s in order to have local governments come together and share ideas. There are various versions of CTCOG throughout the state, divided into different planning regions, such as Central Texas. Originally, CTCOG was part of the Waco group, Heart of Texas Council of Governments, but then it broke off.

CTCOG encompasses 32 cities and seven counties in Central Texas, including Bell and Coryell counties. They are a non-voluntary association of governments.

“There are things that the local governments have gotten together and said ‘somebody’s got to do this’ but nobody wants to do this themselves,” Reed said. “And then there are things that we get chosen to do, sort of like a (housing authority) that they’re not written in a statute that we have to do.”

ORIGINS OF CRISIS

Reed said he first became aware that there might be an issue with KHA when he heard anecdotally that there had been a raid on the housing authority’s offices around 2020.

“Before then, our involvement was very superficial,” he said. “It was a phone call saying, ‘hey, I’ve got this client and we’re on a waitlist; can you take this client?’”

The Herald has been able to confirm that 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 of 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.

Since then, most of the staff of KHA had quit in late September, including its then-executive director, Demetria Hunt.

Killeen City Councilman Jose Segarra told the Herald recently that he was also made aware by the FBI of an investigation into KHA, but this was approximately three years ago.

HOUSING PROGRAM

Reed said that clients for Section 8 housing programs tend to cast “as wide a net as you can” when looking for rental support.

“And so typically, those clients will go to the local housing authority, they might drive over to Temple and apply to Temple housing to see which line they catch first,” he said. “Because there’s so many vouchers. Every agency receives a bunch of authority from the federal government annually. And based on an average tenancy reimbursement rate, which you can’t predict — I mean we have 1,800 families on our program.”

He said the families range from single parents to single people to large families.

“And so their rents are all different,” Reed said. “So we do a rent reasonableness study. And we pass a housing standard every year that says how much we’re gonna pay for efficiency ... And so there’s no way for us to predict how many five-bedroom homes we’re going to be running or how many efficiencies are going to be running. So you kind of take an average and say the federal government is going to give me $27 million this year. At an average voucher reimbursement rate of $1,000 a month, how many vouchers can I put out on the street? And every month, there is a tool within the computer program that allows you to project ... okay, I’m a little bit oversubscribed this month, but we had some families drop off. Do I replace those families or do I put more on? So you kind of just ride that line.”

One of things Reed said KHA apparently did was use money specifically earmarked for rental payments for other things.

He said CTCOG receives $16 million in subsidies from HUD annually. But he said they have no idea how many more they’re expected to get once they begin absorbing KHA because they don’t know many clients they have.

KHA still received its subsidy for November last week, Reed said. He doesn’t know how much that is. “We haven’t been allowed to peek behind that curtain yet,” he said. But Reed said KHA doesn’t have the staff to distribute the funds.

“If KHA was in arrears on their account, I’m sure the bank took their portion first,” Reed said. “I don’t know the status of that money. The fear is that even if KHA can figure out how to distribute that money, is there going to be enough? And did they draw down enough? We don’t know. We don’t know how they were mechanically doing that.”

Last week, Board Chair Ebony Jackson bluntly told attendees that KHA was out of money. There was approximately $85 in KHA’s operating budget.

Reed said KHA’s Public Housing Authority (PHA) online housing software was turned off for nonpayment.

“It’s a very complex program,” he said.

The number of families on KHA’s Section 8 program could be as high as 405, Reed said.

UNRAVELING KHA

Reed said one of the biggest issues CTCOG is having in “unraveling this ball of twine” is the portability issue.

“Let’s say that you’re a family in New Orleans and you decide to move to Killeen and you have a voucher in New Orleans,” Reed said. “You moved to Killeen for whatever reason, you go to the Killeen Housing Authority and you say here’s my voucher and they say ‘okay, we’ll take you’ and you go rent online. The housing authority then has a clock start ticking.”

He said the housing authority then has a decision to make: whether to keep the voucher in New Orleans or to absorb it. If they absorb it, KHA would get the administrative fee, whereas New Orleans would get it if they kept it there.

But Reed said apparently what was happening was that KHA kept letting the clock run out, in which case KHA defaults on absorbing the voucher.

“And all of a sudden you have 50 families that are now on your payroll,” Reed said. “So you’re paying for 400 vouchers, but they’re only sending you money for 350 because that’s your allowance, and you can get in trouble, and now you’re in a negative.”

NEW DIRECTIONS

KHA is holding a special board meeting at 1 p.m. Monday at 101 E. Avenue B in Killeen.

On the agenda is an item appointing Cinda Haward, private consultant, as the interim executive director, as well as the tentative interlocal agreement between KHA and CTCOG.

There will also be discussion on getting insurance coverage for the Moss Rose Community Center — which is currently closed and locked up — paid for by Killeen Volunteers Inc., disposition of KHA assets including vacant land, briefing and status on accounts, Killeen Texas Movers lawsuit and reporting a 2012 Ford pickup stolen from KHA fleet.

KHA staff will be discussed in closed session.

Reed said either he would attend this meeting or Carmen Lim, director of the CTCOG housing division, would likely be attending the meeting.