Clarence House (4530 Connecticut Avenue)
by Teri Huet
ANC 3F02 commissioner
The ANC 3F Housing Committee is hosting a meeting for apartment and condo property managers within the advisory neighborhood commission’s boundaries on Tuesday, March 14th.
Many property managers engage with their residents, outside vendors, and other entities without knowing how the DC government can support – or better support – them. The purpose of this and future meetings is to break down any barriers of information, to aid property managers, and to provide them with tools to better support and engage their residents.
And from their residents, property managers are fielding an array of questions and concerns, ranging from the everyday, to the serious, to the life-threatening. Many are doing so without a toolkit of information as to how the DC Government can possibly assist, or whom to call for guidance when in need. And they’re doing a great deal without having the insight and sometimes the support of their own management – possibly because their management may not be aware, either, of the ways the DC government can serve them.
Indeed, the DC government can potentially assist with a wide swath of concerns, such as building issues (rodents, garbage, bulk trash or recycling questions, grocery carts, structural, cigarette and marijuana smoke and more) and health, behavioral health and wellness issues.
The ANC 3F Housing Committee will meet with property managers, and is inviting them to attend this meeting via Zoom at 3 p.m. on March 14th. If you are an apartment or condo manager, you have not heard from us, and you would like to attend, please contact me at 3F02@anc.dc.gov.
The Housing Committee is planning to host these meetings every two or three months, more often only if needed. After this first meeting on March 14th, the next tentative meeting with property managers will occur the first week of May or June.
Green Eyeshades says
Anyone looking for fraud, malfeasance, misfeasance or gross negligence at the DC Housing Authority can start with this investigative report posted a little over three weeks ago:
https://districtdig.com/2023/02/23/fall-at-the-rise/
Green Eyeshades says
The Washington Post finally followed up on the District Dig story from February, and added disclosures from a newer audit at DCHA:
“A separate internal audit issued Jan. 23 centers on a recently constructed apartment building in Northeast Washington called the Rise at Temple Courts.
“The building, the product of public-private partnership, was intended as a homecoming for residents displaced in 2009 when the city tore down two apartment complexes, Temple Courts and Golden Rule, that were overrun by rats and crime. But according to an internal audit report, DCHA’s lead relocation coordinator on the project filled two units with personal friends who never lived in those complexes. They were also ineligible in other ways, the audit said. One, for instance, appeared to be a Maryland resident.
“The [Jan. 23] internal audit, first reported by Jeffrey Anderson of the District Dig website, was sparked by a complaint from Kettler Management, which manages the property on behalf of its owners, MRP Realty, Taylor Adams Associate and CGS Urban Partners. Kettler employees noticed a DCHA relocation coordinator, whose name was redacted from the report reviewed by The Post, repeatedly entering apartments after they were leased.” [snip]
“The project ‘took longer than originally envisioned, but today we’ve delivered on the promise made by our city more than 15 years ago,’ Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said at the building’s ribbon cutting in December. The Rise holds 220 apartments, 65 of which were reserved for relocated residents.
“Auditors cited a ‘lack of program oversight’ as the main contributor to their findings. There was circumstantial evidence, according to the report, that dozens of the residents ‘did not go through the prescribed screening process and may be in jeopardy of being removed from the Rise at Temple Courts premises.’ The report recommended a review of all of those placed.” [snip]
Tne Post describes the newer audit report this way:
“The most recent internal audit accuses a deputy director of the voucher program of a conflict of interest in her relationship to a landlord. Another accuses a lower level employee of steering vouchers to people unqualified to receive them.
“The deputy director along with two lower level employees are no longer employed by the housing authority, DCHA officials confirmed. The agency’s internal auditing office found the deputy department head in violation of ethics standards and accused her of planning to steer voucher tenants to a landlord with whom she’d had a financial relationship.” [snip]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/30/dcha-voucher-fraud-audit/
The Post’s current headline and sub-headline on that link are as follows:
“D.C. housing employees accused of conflicts and voucher fraud”
“The investigations come as agency leaders face a Friday deadline to show federal overseers progress in combatting deficiencies identified in a scathing HUD audit last year”
Green Eyeshades says
The Washington Post updated its story just before 8 pm on March 30, adding substantial new material unearthed by its investigative reporters, including names of key DCHA employees, details about the landlord accused of paying a DCHA employee, and adding quotes from DCHA’s director who was interviewed Thursday.
“The voucher program leader under scrutiny was hired under agency director Brenda Donald, who has repeatedly blamed the previous administration for problems identified in the HUD audit. On Thursday, Donald said DCHA has a ‘zero-tolerance policy for fraud.’
“ ‘This is not widespread corruption throughout this agency,’ Donald said. ‘There are isolated incidents that when brought to my attention, I referred to our internal auditor for investigation.’
“The audit reports, however, flag systemic problems at the agency, such as inadequate training and supervision of employees and a lack of checks and balances to prevent fraud, waste and abuse.
“The most recent internal audit accuses Karissa Spann, a deputy director of the voucher program, of a conflict of interest in her relationship to a landlord. Spann, whose name was redacted from the report reviewed by The Washington Post, confirmed she was the subject of an investigation, said it had not been properly conducted and denied wrongdoing.” [snip]
“Spann along with two lower-level employees are no longer employed by the housing authority, DCHA officials confirmed. The agency’s internal auditing office found her in violation of ethics standards and accused her of planning to steer voucher tenants to a landlord with whom she’d had a financial relationship.
“The investigation originated from a Jan. 24 complaint by an employee under Spann’s supervision. The complaint alleged that she maintained a financial relationship with a landlord described as owning 30 apartment buildings totaling 700 units. The landlord, whose name is redacted from the report, told auditors he met Spann 11 years ago through an unidentified business venture and had provided her with a ‘financial bailout’ when her business was in ‘financial distress.’
“The landlord told auditors he paid Spann ’50 to 100%’ of the first month’s rent for placing residents in his apartment complexes. He said he had not paid Spann to do this since she began at DCHA. But in January, the landlord told auditors, he again asked for her help, and he had intended to pay her. The landlord declined to provide further information because he didn’t want to get her ‘into trouble,’ the audit report said.
“Auditors obtained recent text messages in which Spann referred to the landlord as her ‘client,’ according to the audit report, which states that she did not disclose her business on conflict-of-interest waiver forms when she was hired.
“Before joining DCHA in May of last year, Spann ran a D.C.-based real estate business, Fresh Start Housing Services, but she said that she received no payments while working at DCHA and that there were no conflicts of interest.
“ ‘I wasn’t providing consultant services, I was providing weekly landlord coaching and tenant classes,’ she said.
“The audit report says that several days after the complaint was filed, Spann lodged a countercomplaint accusing the employee who filed it of impropriety with the same landlord. Several days after that, a supervisor recommended the employee be fired because she was not a ‘good fit’ for the agency, according to the report.
“Daphne Aponte, a former ‘mobility specialist’ with DCHA, confirmed that she is the employee who made the complaint.
“ ‘I have not engaged in any wrongdoing,’ Aponte told The Post. ‘I have not been paid for any of the help to community members,’ she added. Aponte said she lost her job in retaliation for filing the complaint.” [snip]
The Washington Post’s updated story ends with this paragraph, followed by three more paragraphs quoting the chair of DC Council’s housing committee:
“At a news conference Thursday, D.C. Council housing committee chair Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large) took aim at the housing authority, highlighting the recent voucher program investigations alongside previous audits focused on contracting, all of which he said created ‘a picture of extensive, unethical and illegal behavior occurring throughout the agency.’ ” [snip]