Staff Writer
The Augusta Housing Authority investigates every complaint it receives about Section 8 housing and takes appropriate action, Executive Director Jake Oglesby told Augusta Commission members Friday.
But there is only so much the authority can do when it finds violations, he said.
"The only thing we can do is take them out of the program," he said. "We can't evict them."
And it can, and does, ban bad landlords from the program, he said.
Housing authority members and commissioners met for a roundtable discussion of issues, complaints, rules, regulations and lines of authority concerning the federal government rent subsidy program.
Mayor Pro Tem Alvin Mason called for the meeting a few weeks ago because of calls he's received about unkempt properties and multiple people living in one-family units.
The rental contract for Section 8 vouchers is between the tenant and the landlord, and once the tenant is out of the program, what happens then is up to the landlord, Oglesby said.
"There are a lot of good landlords," he said. "There are also a lot of bad ones. Some landlords don't care what their tenants did. It's a monumental problem out there."
Harrisburg Neighborhood Association President and mayoral candidate Lori Davis said the operative word is "landlord."
"The landlord is not responsible to any third party," she said. "So we cannot get the landlords to the table until Georgia law is changed."
She said she was surprised "the people at the table did not know that."
Davis had pushed for the city to adopt a chronic nuisance property ordinance until the city's legal team determined it would be unconstitutional.
Mason said there are misconceptions in the Augusta community as to who has the authority over Section 8 tenants, and that commissioners had questions about enforcement, accountability and responsibility.
"We've had a number of calls," he said. "We wanted to get cleared up who has the responsibility. We need to understand, so we can direct them to that person. ... I just don't know where the levels of accountability come."
Sirena Rogers, who handles Section 8 complaints for the housing authority, said that when she receives a complaint, she checks to see whether it is a Section 8 property, and 85 percent of the time it's not. If it is, she e-mails the case manager, who contacts the family and asks them to come in to go over the rules and regulations.
"If it is drug or criminal activity, we contact residents' services and follow up with the sheriff's department," she said.
After 11/2 hours of discussion among the two boards and neighborhood association officials, a motion was made to create a task force made up of the commission and authority members. But City Administrator Fred Russell asked them to allow him and Oglesby to meet first and set a direction for moving forward.
Mason said the meeting removed many misconceptions about the Section 8 program.
"I think we've had a great discussion," he said. "It shows this city is concerned and that, working collaboratively, we can get these things done."
