ATLANTA - Tracy Denise Jones, a Senior Vice President at the Atlanta Housing Authority, has been charged with engaging in a scheme to fraudulently collect Section 8 housing assistance payments for her own rental property and family members. She was also charged with making fraudulent applications to collect pandemic relief funds and committing mortgage fraud when refinancing her rental property.

“A long-time senior executive of one of the largest housing authorities in the nation, Jones was entrusted to deliver vast sums of government assistance to our community’s neediest members,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “But Jones allegedly exploited a variety of assistance programs and chose to line her own pockets using an alternate identity, multiple business entities, a false affidavit, and a cadre of associates willing to lie on her behalf.”

“Tracy Jones’s alleged actions not only showed a blatant disrespect for the law and multiple federal programs, but also jeopardized the availability of HUD-assisted housing for those in our most vulnerable communities who rely on housing assistance programs,” said Special Agent in Charge Jerome Winkle with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG). “HUD OIG will continue to work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners to vigorously pursue those who seek to profit by abusing HUD-funded programs.”

According to U.S. Attorney Hertzberg, the charges, and other information presented in court: Since April 2017, Jones has served as Senior Vice President over the Housing Choice Voucher Program at the Atlanta Housing Authority, overseeing one of the largest Section 8 programs in the country. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds Section 8 programs, including rental assistance payments to landlords on behalf of low-income families and individuals. Section 8 funds are limited, and there is often a long waiting list of low-income families seeking acceptance into the program. Housing authority staff are generally prohibited from receiving Section 8 payments for their own properties, and Section 8 landlords are typically prohibited from leasing to their own family members.

Instead of upholding the integrity of the housing assistance program, Jones allegedly defrauded the program by using a series of falsified forms to have her family members admitted to the Section 8 program and then to receive Section 8 payments for them to live in her own rental house. To conceal her identity, Jones allegedly used a fake name and a shell business entity to execute housing authority documents. As a result, she improperly obtained more than $36,000 of Section 8 funds. Jones then allegedly obstructed subsequent investigations by submitting a false affidavit and convincing friends to lie and present false documents on her behalf.

At the same time, Jones allegedly used her shell business and another business to collect more than $27,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s COVID-19 pandemic relief programs, falsely claiming that the businesses were functioning, had multiple employees, and received over $56,000 of gross revenues in 2019. When the SBA denied one of Jones’s applications, she allegedly appealed the denial, pleading for the SBA to approve her request, stating:

• “I am truly a[n] honest business owner[.]”
• “I hear the stories how people abused the PPP loans to establish a lavish lif[e] style. That is not me. My business is small and is growing, but I [am] one of the legitimate and honest business that can use all the help I can.”
• “I also serve a community of low income families in my business, renting one of my three homes to a low income family as well as serve other owners of low income rental properties.”

Jones also allegedly committed mortgage fraud when she refinanced her Section 8 rental property, falsely claiming on her application for a $219,780 loan that the property was her primary residence, that the residence was not a rental property, and that she did not own any other property.

On December 19, 2025, Tracy Denise Jones, 61, of Atlanta, Georgia, was arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge John K. Larkins III on a criminal information containing federal charges of conspiracy to commit theft of government funds, wire fraud, and credit application fraud.

Members of the public are reminded that the criminal information only contains charges. The defendant is presumed innocent of the charges, and it will be the government’s burden to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

This case is being investigated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General.

Assistant United States Attorney Garrett L. Bradford is prosecuting the case.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at [email protected] or (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.