The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the Spokane Housing Authority due to the Authority’s participation in the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD), which was a priority for the Office of Audit.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority followed relocation requirements during its RAD conversion of the Parsons Apartments.

We found that The Authority did not properly plan and execute permanent tenant relocation associated with its RAD conversion of the Parsons Apartments.  The Authority’s conversion plans did not specify that tenants would be permanently relocated, and the Authority permanently relocated tenants without their required written consent.  As a result, two tenants did not have the right to return to the property after the RAD conversion, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was not aware of the permanent relocations.

We recommend that the Director of the Seattle Office of Public Housing (1) require the Authority to design and implement controls to ensure that employees comply with RAD relocation requirements and that its RAD conversion plans submitted to HUD accurately address any tenant relocations, and (2) monitor the Authority to ensure that it does not improperly relocate tenants during its planned conversion of the remaining public housing units.  We also recommend that the Director of HUD’s Office of Recapitalization conduct a compliance review of relocation and pursue corrective action as necessary on behalf of the permanently relocated tenants.