HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut officials on Friday called on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to immediately improve its oversight of a federal voucher program for affordable housing, noting they found “grievous flaws” in the agency’s inspection process while trying to help hundreds of Hartford families living in deteriorating buildings.
U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Chris Murphy, U.S. Rep. John Larson and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, all Democrats, have sent a letter to HUD urging the agency to make numerous changes, including strengthening the process for choosing landlords who are eligible for contracts under the Section 8 program and holding landlords accountable for maintaining their apartments.
“As we toured those deplorable buildings and saw the conditions in which families and kids were being forced to live, it revealed flaws throughout the system,” said Bronin, who acknowledged weaknesses that needed to be addressed with the city’s housing code and inspection process.
“But it also revealed grievous flaws in the HUD inspections process,” Bronin said.
Last year, HUD informed tenants of federally subsidized apartments in Hartford that the agency was terminating its contract with the landlord and moving the residents to new homes because of the terrible living conditions. At the time, a HUD spokesman told NBC News, which reported on problems at government-subsidized complexes across the U.S., including in Hartford, that Housing Secretary Ben Carson “believes very deeply that families should not be forced to live in housing that’s unsafe or unhealthy and taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidizing it.”
HUD then rolled out a series of proposed changes to its inspection policies. But Bronin said the federal agency “still has a lot of work to do” and that’s why officials are reminding HUD leadership of the commitments they made last year.
“Because we are not going to let them off the hook,” Bronin said. “We’re going to keep pushing.”
Joshua Serrano, a resident of Clay Arsenal Renaissance Apartments and a leader of the No More Slumlords Campaign, an organization of tenants, said it was good news that affected Hartford residents were able get Section 8 vouchers to move. However, he said many suffered “more hardship” during the relocation process, including the inability to use the vouchers elsewhere in the region.
“Many of us ended up in the same neighborhood or on the same street, forced backed into very low incomes and deeply segregated neighborhoods,” Serrano said. “It is clear major overhauls are needed to address the issues facing HUD.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.