Earlier this year, the city submitted to HUD hundreds of documents in an effort to prove Middletown’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, which is used by roughly 1,300 families, has been in compliance with federal civil rights laws. The Middletown Public Housing Agency is currently the only program in Ohio under review, HUD officials told the Journal-News.

Those documents, recently obtained by the Journal-News, reveal city officials were unable to hand over some compliance records to HUD — and they blame poor record-keeping by the former contractor, Consoc, who administered the program.

“Unfortunately, these are the types of issues that resulted in the termination of Consoc and the hiring of Nelson & Associates to make sure we could fully document our compliance,” Middletown’s Community Revitalization Director Doug Adkins wrote in a letter to federal housing officials in May.

Consoc administered the city’s Section 8 housing program for more than a decade before the city terminated the private company’s contract and hired Nelson & Associates in 2011 to handle the vouchers.

Several city officials declined to comment for this story, citing the ongoing review of Middletown’s housing program.

But in letters sent to HUD, Adkins outlined problems the city had with the Columbus-based company it paid nearly $1 million through federal funds annually to administer the housing voucher program.

The city was unable to give HUD proof of when Consoc opened up waiting list periods for families to apply for housing vouchers. Also, officials can’t find record that Consoc ever placed legal ads when they did possibly open up the waiting list in 2008 and 2010. HUD requested copies of all advertisements the Middletown Public Housing Agency placed when it opened up waiting list periods for the voucher program.

“We have contacted the Middletown Journal and they are, likewise, unable to provide legal ads,” Adkins wrote to HUD.

Cox Media Group Ohio, which owns The Middletown Journal, has no records of MPHA placing ads during those times.

Under federal regulations, public notice must be given when a waiting list period is opened up.

Adkins also sent to HUD, as part of the review, an eight-page letter he wrote to City Manager Judy Gilleland in March 2010, in which he outlines what he called “warning signs” and serious operational problems” with the Section 8 program while it was under Consoc’s control.

Among Adkins’ concerns were the contractor’s ability to keep record of Section 8 addresses. In the letter, he said more than 300 of the 1600 addresses recorded by Consoc were entered incorrectly and basic words, such as “avenue” or “street,” were misspelled.

Also, by February 2010, the letter states, Consoc had failed to address about 50 complaints of criminal or program violations going on in Section 8 properties.

The CEO of Consoc died in 2010. Other company officials could not be reached for this story, and phone numbers listed for the company were either disconnected or being used by a new owner.

‘NO OVERSIGHT’

City staff never raised issue with Consoc’s performance, according to now Butler County Treasurer Nancy Nix, who served on Middletown City Council from 2002 to 2005, when the city’s planning department was run by different staff. She described the city’s Section 8 program as having little oversight from city staff, despite receiving federal funds every year thanks to the contract with the city of Middletown.

Nix said council did take up issue with the increase in vouchers given to families, but staff never reported issues with Consoc’s performance.

“I did not feel like the city gave it a lot of oversight,” Nix said of the Section 8 housing program. “It was basically outsourced to Consoc. A lot of things were outsourced; you have to rely on city expertise and the people that are hired.”

Adkins said he’s been “pleased” with the new contractor, Nelson & Associates Inc., that the city hired to administer the housing voucher program in 2011 after firing Consoc. Adkins declined to comment further on the work by Nelson & Associates.

Nelson & Associates gets an 80 percent share of the roughly $60,000 the city gets monthly from HUD. The city gets the other 20 percent.

Landlords, too, say they notice a difference in the new contractor running the city’s Section 8 housing program.

Don Gose, a Middletown landlord who works with more than 100 tenants, said he became a full-time landlord in 2011, when the city was switching to its new contractor. He said he’s noticed the new contractor has inspected Section 8 rigorously. Poor and incomplete inspections were among complaints by city officials of Consoc.

“It’s very obvious to me, as a landlord, that this a priority with the city; to make sure the (Section 8) properties meet the codes. The inspections are much more rigorous than they use to be,” Gose said. “Overall, it’s probably for the betterment of the city. Although they’ve held landlords to a much higher standard, they’re doing the same with the tenants.”

Officials from HUD said that a “letter of findings” will be released once the review of Middletown’s housing program is complete. HUD has launched 20 compliance reviews of public housing agencies across the state since 2007, and nearly half of those have been found to be out of compliance with federal laws.

Documents the city couldn’t provide to HUD

HUD requested a list of 20 items from the city of Middletown. City officials were unable to provide complete copies of the following to federal investigators working on a review of the city’s housing program:

• Proof of all advertisements the Middletown Public Housing Agency placed when it last opened its Housing Choice Voucher waiting list and the dates the MPHA opened and closed the Housing Choice Voucher waiting list.
• A demographic map indicating the distribution of all Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher holders on Jan. 1, 2009, Jan. 1, 2010, Jan. 1, 2011 and Jan. 1, 2012. The city did provide demographic maps but not for 2009 nor for the exact dates requested
• A list of all participants, including name, race and reason, who had their Section 8 voucher terminated from January 2010 to May 31, 2013. The city did provide a list but did not have data available prior to April 2011 until Nelson & Associates took over management of the agency, according to documents submtited to HUD.