This spring, the Houston Housing Authority received a startling allegation against its housing choice voucher program, which uses subsidies to make housing affordable to Houstonians with the lowest incomes.
The tipster said employees had been directed to end the participation of renters in the program without providing a notice of termination. Such notices are crucial for due process because they explain the reason for termination and what recourse is available for tenants and landlords.
The authority's fraud investigator determined that two employees were responsible for kicking out renters from the program without providing them a termination notice: Rakesha Thomas and Jackee Carney. They were fired, with their disciplinary action forms noting "the gravity of this violation and the impact on our clients' rights."
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Yet one week later, both were rehired, with the time they'd been fired re-classified as paid administrative leave, ensuring they did not miss any pay.
The employees said they believed the clients were no longer renting affordable apartments, negating the need for termination letters. But Kim Brown, an attorney with the nonprofit Lone Star Legal Aid who has worked with many voucher holders, called the lack of a termination notices "egregious" because the letters explain what tenants can do to protect their subsidy if a mistake has been made.
"It gives them the right to defend themselves, to hire counsel, present evidence," she said. "The housing authority waiting list is years long - so if you lose your housing choice voucher, the effects are great."
The investigation, firing and rehiring of the two employees occurred as the Houston Housing Authority's voucher program has drawn scrutiny in a series of audits and a whistleblower lawsuit.
Auditors have found that the authority has suffered significant paperwork problems every year since 2020, impacting Houston's most vulnerable.
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In many cases, the housing authority had failed to go through the proper paperwork process to extend vouchers from one year to the next - putting clients at risk of losing their affordable housing.
The Houston Chronicle found that the housing authority's paperwork lapses and poor communication led to formerly homeless voucher holders getting evicted from what was meant to be permanent housing.
And a recent audit showed problems with the management of the authority's long waiting lists, which rarely have openings - a finding that came years after the housing authority investigated multiple employees for moving people to the top of voucher waiting lists in exchange for bribes in 2016.
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The employees did not respond to questions from the Chronicle, but records show they defended their actions. Thomas told the housing authority investigator that she ended vouchers without sending termination letters to "cut corners." Carney said she was not aware she needed to send the letter. Both asserted they only did it for clients they believed were no longer in their units.
"Why send a (termination) if it's clear they are not there?" Thomas said, according to the investigator's notes.
While the housing authority's investigation noted that it had compiled a list of tenants whose vouchers had been revoked without a notice of termination, the Houston Housing Authority did not respond to questions about how many clients were on this list.
The agency also did not say whether it had checked documentation showing whether clients were still in affordable housing; how many affected clients were contacted after the investigation; and whether they were provided any recourse.
Taylor Laredo, who works with voucher holders as a community navigator at the nonprofit Texas Housers, said that even if the employees acted in good faith, they should have followed federal policy.
"Whether the employees acted on their own discretion and whether that discretion was in good faith, it's still concerning to see employees circumventing policies put in place by (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) for good reason - which is to put guardrails in place."
After the two employees were fired, they appealed and the housing authority reversed itself.
"During the appeal process, it became clear that your actions were intended to address significant systemic issues within the Voucher Operations department," wrote Rizvan Quadri, the authority's director of human resources.
The employees kept their jobs -- but at least one resident was in the dark about why she was being evicted.
Annette Smith was one of the thousands in Houston who relied on a voucher to make her housing affordable. When she lost her job early this year, she reached out to the housing authority about the change in her income. In the program, clients pay no more than 30% of their income on housing, with federal funds distributed by local housing authorities covering the rest.
The housing authority told her that she would be responsible for January's rent, but that it would cover all the rent beginning in February, emails show.
But in May, Smith received a notice that her apartment was readying to file for eviction. She went down to the Houston Housing Authority's office to figure out what was going on.
Staffers reviewed her case and noticed something they hadn't noticed before - before Smith lost her job, her income was higher than allowed by the program. One employee emailed Thomas noting that for the last two recertifications, Smith had been over the income limit but hadn't been kicked out of the program.
Thomas responded that they could end her voucher. But records show that no notice of termination was subsequently created or sent to Smith, even though by that point, her income had qualified for a voucher for months and she was in dire need of the subsidy.
Without the letter, Smith did not have the chance to appeal the housing authority's decision, unlike Thomas and Carney. Her landlord filed for an eviction.
In a downtown courtroom, Smith was confused as to what had happened and what her options were.
"There was a miscommunication somewhere," she said. "It's not right."