Posted: 7:03 p.m. Friday, May 22, 2015

Housing authority: We won’t be ‘Big Brother’ for Middletown police

By Ed Richter

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

A Butler Metropolitan Housing official made it clear Thursday that the agency would do what it can to ensure that Section 8 landlords and tenants in Middletown comply with program rules, but it will not act as “Big Brother” for local police.

Barbara Brown, who manages BMHA’s housing choice voucher program, spoke Thursday at the monthly meeting of the Middletown Real Estate Investors Group to clarify the agency’s policies and procedures. The county housing authority took over Middletown’s Section 8, or federally subsidized housing, vouchers last year at the behest of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In her remarks, Brown said “the majority of the people we serve are good and compliant with the rules, but there are some that are not and try to get around the rules.”

When Middletown police Lt. Jim Cunningham asked Brown for a list of city properties receiving Section 8 assistance, the tone of the meeting became tense.

“For what reason?” Brown asked.

Cunningham explained the information would be used for the city’s chronic nuisance program. City officials and the landlords’ organization are developing a chronic nuisance ordinance as a way to alleviate problem properties.

The proposed ordinance is undergoing changes based on concerns raised by the landlords, and City Manager Doug Adkins said a revised version could be ready in the coming weeks for review by the landlords before Middletown City Council considers the matter.

Brown said when there is a police call or nuisance issue, the landlord and her office both receive a notice from the Middletown detective about the incident. But her office doesn’t provide that information to the police, she said. Brown said on at least three occasions the city of Hamilton has sent letters to her office requesting the same information for a list of about 100 properties.

Steve Bohannon, chairman of Middletown Real Estate Investors Group, agreed with Brown, saying, “there’s no reason for him to have that information. That’s profiling.”

“If police want to know if a person is on Section 8, then they should ask the tenant,” Bohannon said. “If they break the law, then they can pay the consequences.”

Brown said while there are good and bad clients, there are also good and bad landlords. She said those landlords have to follow through with documentation of their tenants if they become a problem and provide BMHA with sufficient evidence in order to remove them from the program.

She also reminded the landlords that BMHA and the Section 8 program is only providing the rent assistance and does not get involved in issues regarding security deposits or damages to the property. If a landlord has an issue with a tenant, Brown said they have to follow through on those legal remedies such as eviction.

“It’s up to you to decide if you want to rent to people on Section 8,” she said. “But if you do, there are certain federal rules that BMHA has to follow.”

She said the agency has been spending a lot of time working to clean up errors in the records that were transferred in the transition from the city of Middletown to BMHA. Brown could not be reached Friday for additional comment as the BMHA office is not open on Fridays.

City Manager Doug Adkins said in an email response that the city had not received any complaints from HUD or BMHA regarding the transfer.

“We are unaware of any issues,” he said in the email.

City Manager Doug Adkins said in an email response that the city had not received any complaints from HUD or BMHA regarding the transfer.

“We are unaware of any issues,” he said in the email.

     When HUD came to Middletown to do the audit before the Section 8 Program was removed HUD stated that the Section 8 Program was not in compliance, records were missing, records were incomplete and not updated with current information. In fact I posted several articles on this blog from the newspaper stating these very facts.
    Butler and Warren County had to go over and check each file that they received and that is why the transfer took so long.
    Mr. Adkins was fully aware that the Section 8 files were a mess while he was over this department.