JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A local family is among thousands nationwide waiting to learn if the federal government will make a big change to the rules that say who can live in public housing. The change could cost those families their homes.
After a report found more than $104 million in federal money could be better spent helping families in need each year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is considering revising its rules.
News4Jax combed through the report of the Office of Inspector General, which audited the HUD's public housing program and found 25,226 families living in subsidized HUD housing across the country had incomes that exceeded HUD’s eligibility income limits in 2014.
The OIG report also found there is no rule in place to force someone to move out for making too much money, thereby wasting millions of taxpayers' dollars.
DOCUMENT: Inspector General's public housing audit
A HUD representative said the report proves the lack of a rule may not violate the law but that it violates common sense.
News4Jax initially went to investigate local families possibly abusing the system, but what we found is that the answer isn't that simple. There are families on the First Coast who are over-income, according to HUD, but are they wasting taxpayer money, or is the situation not that cut and dried?
Nathaniel, 19, lives in public housing in Jacksonville Beach and walks to work every day to help support his mother and two younger sisters. News4Jax has elected not to include Nathaniel's last name in this story.
“Anybody who is abusing the system is miserly,” said Nathaniel, when News4Jax told him about the OIG over-income report. “They're just cheap.”
His household is one of the thousands listed in the Inspector General's audit that are considered over-income by HUD, meaning the family makes more than the income limits for a family living in public housing.
News4Jax found the income limit varies from community to community and is also based on the size of the family.
The OIG report found 35 percent of those over-income families had lived in public housing for longer than five years. It also found 47 percent of those over-income families had incomes that were $10,000 or more over the limits.
The report pointed out some clear cases of abuse of the system, including a four-person New York City family that had been living in public housing since 1988 and was currently bringing home a combined income of nearly a half-million dollars. That family also took in an additional $790,000 in rental income from 2009-2013. The family's monthly rent was less than $1,600.
Another extreme case was found in the small town of Oxford, Nebraska. One tenant there had an annual income of $65,000, which is over the local low-income limit. That tenant also had an additional $1.6 million in assets, with $620,000 in stocks, $470,000 in real estate and another $334,000 in a bank account, yet the tenant's monthly rent was just $300.
Some families in the greater Jacksonville area are over-income, but none were to the extremes of those examples of abuse.
The search of those defined by HUD as over-income in Duval County led to Nathaniel's house. His family shares one car, leaving Nathaniel to walk to work to make ends meet.
Nathaniel's mother makes about $26,000 annually. He said she went back to school and got a job after his father left the family. She also collects a little more than $14,000 in child support for Nathaniel's two younger sisters, plus $14,000 in alimony. When Nathaniel’s salary of about $18,000 is added, that totals about $72,000.
Nathaniel said he understands what the report might look like based strictly on the numbers.
“It makes it to where you think, 'Oh wait, are we abusing the system?' But honestly, no, we're not, because there are gray areas,” he said.
The low-income threshold for a four-person household in Duval County is $50,650, putting Nathaniel's family about $21,000 over income. But child support and alimony will end once Nathaniel's teenage sisters are adults. And if Nathaniel moves on, his mother is back to $26,000 to live on.
“It's not by any means affordable to us. There is no way, no way we can carry on and do what we need to do to survive,” Nathaniel said.
According to income documentation from the Jacksonville Housing Authority, Nathaniel's mother makes around $26,500 a year. She also receives $14,400 in child support for his two younger sisters and $14,400 in alimony. Nathaniel brings home just under $18,000 a year at his job. That brings their total household income to around $72,500. The low income threshold for a family of four in Duval County is $50,650. According the the OIG report, that puts the family at approximately $22,000 over-income. However, JHA disputes how the report arrived at its figures. JHA said it missed an important HUD policy that doesn't count someone's full income until they're in their third year of the job. So, Nathaniel's mom's salary is only factored in at half of the amount, or $13,250. That puts them only about $9,000 over income. Additionally, Nathaniel's sisters are teenagers so his mother won't receive child support or alimony for much longer and if he moves out, she will be well within the low-income threshold.
There are currently 7,000 families on the waiting list for public housing in Jacksonville. Nationally, the OIG report found 579,890 low-income families on public-housing waiting lists. The national report also cited 19 families as over-income in Duval County, including one making nearly $30,000 over the income limit.
“We encourage our families to move up and out," said Fred McKinnies, head of the Jacksonville Housing Authority. “When they become economically stable, we encourage them to move out.”
McKinnies disputed the national report and said there are currently five families considered over-income in Duval County.
McKinnies added that he has no authority to force those families to move on, which in the past he viewed as a positive.
“I think the rule is there for a great purpose and great intent to encourage people to continue to work and move up economically, but as you've seen around the country, it's been abused,” McKinnies said.
The report has HUD listening. The agency has already proposed a rule change. The public can comment on the change until March 4. McKinnies said the problem is a strict rule may backfire and encourage people not to work and advance their career paths.
That's not the case with Nathaniel. He dreams of the day he makes it and moves out of the system.
“It's not a matter of when, but when we can,” Nathaniel said. “If it was done prematurely, it would greatly mess us up.”
Families do have to meet income levels to make it in to public housing, but they only have to meet those requirements in the beginning. Once they are in, they are able to remain in public housing, but they do pay market-based rents. That means the more money a family earns, the higher the family's rent will be.
The Jacksonville Housing Authority will be opening its Section 8 voucher wait list to new applicants on Thursday. Applications can be submitted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. that day at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds, Building A. Additional information about the application process is available on the Jacksonville Housing Authority website.