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Combatting Housing Fraud
Last year, reporting revealed that the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) misused $2.8 million in federal funding that was intended to go to low-income housing assistance programs.
According to reports, the agency diverted this funding to staff salaries, administrative overhead, and construction cost overruns from 2019 - 2022. HACM staff admitted "using federally restricted funds for a different purpose other than/unrelated to the restriction is improper and illegal under federal regulations." The financial mismanagement at HACM was so severe that internal staff emails acknowledged the agency risked bankruptcy because of these actions.
Waste like this is unacceptable. Every dollar that goes to waste or fraud in our housing programs is a dollar that cannot go to meet the needs of Wisconsin families.
I want to hear from you:
This week, the House Financial Services Committee held an oversight hearing with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner.
During this hearing, I specifically raised the issues at HACM and pressed the Secretary on the need to prevent continued waste, fraud, and abuse in important programs. Secretary Turner acknowledged that HUD is actively working on this issue and provided my office with an update on the Department's oversight.
To date HUD has closed four areas of their investigation into HACM, but another seven findings remain open including:
- Inadequate board oversight of management
- Low occupancy rates at some developments
- High Tenant Accounts Receivable at some developments
- Inaccurate financial reports for HACM Board, senior management, HUD, and other HACM stakeholders
- Lack of communication between departments and staff which prevents required data collection for accurate financial reporting
- Lack of an inventory management system
- Inadequate staff and resources dedicated to Capital Fund Program planning, management, improvement, and emergency needs
HUD has closed 14 of 17 total corrective actions and is working to address the remaining issues at HACM.
I will continue working to prevent the waste, fraud, and abuse of federal taxpayer dollars in HUD programs that we saw in Milwaukee. If you know of any instances of fraud in your local public housing office, please reach out to the Financial Services Committee investigations staff or contact my office.
To listen to my discussion with Secretary Turner, click here.
Restoring Trust in US Elections
Americans should be confident their elections are fair, free, and secure. But today, only 57% of Americans have confidence in our elections.
This week, I introduced comprehensive election reform legislation to improve voter confidence, increase election integrity, and make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.
My legislation puts common-sense, baseline requirements in place for federal elections nationwide. These include photo identification requirements, citizenship verification, and preventing taxpayer dollars from being used for potentially partisan voter registration efforts.
I'm proud to continue my work to restore trust in US elections.
To learn more about the MEGA Act, click here.
Read more from ABC 12 about my work to secure US elections here.
As always, feel free to contact my office if you have any questions, want to share an opinion, or are having trouble with a federal agency.
On Wisconsin,
Bryan Steil
Member of Congress
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