Fulton County Housing Authority faces penalties for allegations of misused federal funds

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The Fulton County Housing Authority is under fire after allegations of misused federal funds.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent a letter threatening sanctions and financial penalties for multiple failures and violations.

The Fulton County Board of Commissioners is stepping in.

“This is about mismanagement, sexual abuse, misuse of funds there is a laundry list of issues at the housing authority,” said Chairman Robb Pitts.

Fulton County has no control over the housing authority operations. It is only responsible for designating board appointees.

Pitts said they’re looking to replace the entire board.

“The action that we decided to take to ask our appointees to voluntarily resign,” he said.

HUD cited staffing shortages, inexperienced staff, communications failures and illegal decisions.

It noted the agency failed to make on-time Section 8 payments to over 1,000 renters.

The majority of the board has resigned, expect two members including Housing Authority Chairman Antavius Weems.

Weems said they’ve reached out to the Fulton County commissioner’s office for help including the removal of a previous board member accused of sexual allegations.

“What we got back was we don’t have any authority of you guys, you need to handle it yourself,” Weems said.

Weems said they’ve been actively working to address the issues.

“At a certain point, I started saying something is not right here. So, I had picked up the phone called HUD myself. I wanted to make sure the viability of this housing authority and the mission of it is protected for the people we serve,” he said.

HUD has suggested the agency hire a third party to manage programs as well as a long list of other immediate needed corrections.

The housing authority has been given a deadline of July 31 to get things right.

“It is a mess and we and the board of commissioners are going to have to address it,” said Pitts.

>> READ THE FULL HUD LETTER:

The process will not affect Section 8 or housing assistance funds.

The office will remain open, and services will continue.

The commissioner’s office has scheduled a special meeting for July 29 to discuss further changes.