Stimulus Funds Used For Housing Lack Proper Oversight

Going after waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars is a top priority as I work to represent Iowans in the Senate.  As part of this effort, I have been asking questions about why the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, is providing stimulus funding to Public Housing Authorities that the agency itself found to be “high risk.”  Taxpayers deserve transparency and accountability with the way federal agencies handle the $787 billion in stimulus dollars passed by Congress and signed by the President last year.  I also believe that questions that need to be answered about whether pressure to spend stimulus dollars quickly is leading to bad management of tax dollars, and why over $94 million in stimulus funding is going to Public Housing Authorities deemed “high risk” when it comes to financial management.

These aren’t the first questions I’ve asked of HUD.  I initially wrote to the agency in March 2010, citing problems discovered by the HUD Office of Inspector General at a number of Public Housing Authorities.  The issues I raised included millions of dollars used to pay interest on unused properties in Puerto Rico, insufficient staff in Miami to handle the projects the stimulus funds will generate, rampant waste, fraud and abuse in New Orleans, and many other issues in these and other locations.  These concerns were not adequately addressed in HUD’S response.

As part of the follow up, Senator Bond and I also are asking HUD to make additional information available on its website regarding Public Housing Authorities that have been deemed “high risk.”

Click here to read the initial letter.

Click here to read HUD’s response.

Click here to read the June 16 letter to HUD.