FM Housing Authority sorting out HUD issue

CONTRACT ISSUE

I think there’s been a misunderstanding about what the housing authority has done and what HUD’s expectations were. That’s the issue with the contract and we’re going to look at that.”

Rebecca Bowker, FMHA Board chairman

FORT MADISON – The Fort Madison Housing Authority has found itself in a small pickle with the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.

The FMHA board of directors, which has been in a state of transition until just recently, heard from HUD officials Wednesday night about some issues with a contract that was causing some concern.

The FMHA board recently hired Mike Dear as director, who’s coming in on the back side of the issue. They’ve also almost completely revamped the board with Jamie Carle, Linda Larkin, Jenny Devine, and Carman Salazar, all who’ve joined Rebecca Bowker in the past year.

Bowker has spent the last 18 years with the Housing Authority, in addition to serving on the Fort Madison City Council, and an unsuccessful run at unseating Martin Graber for State Representative in the general election in November.

The contract in question is a contract with Lee County to manage several properties in Fort Madison.

“Several people in the community set up a contract (through FMHA) to care for county-owned properties that are leased to individuals who need housing,” Bowker said.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding about what the housing authority has done and what HUD’s expectations were. That’s the issue with the contract and we’re going to look at that.”

Bowker said the Housing Authority has to make sure it’s billing the county for miscellaneous costs associated with managing the properties, and that hasn’t been being done according to HUD’s requirements.

HUD officials on a Zoom call at the meeting said they had “serious” concerns with how the contract on HUD funding had been used. They said a formal letter would be coming, but the county needed to not use HUD funding inappropriately.

Bowker said some in-depth conversations need to take place with the county and look at the contract to make sure the expenses are being accounted for appropriately.

HUD officials said the staff work has been excellent, and Dear said they recently scored a 90 on a performance metric.

However, during the transition after Patti Toops left as director and several board members resigned, several other contracts, including waste management and some water billing issues, cropped up that had to be navigated.

Larkin, who was the director of the authority when Hillview was built and was a director at the Kensington, was tapped to take over the chairmanship of the board after a future vote of the board.