9-30-2014: Four people convicted of embezzling $230,000 in Marietta City Section 8 program funds (see more info below) were sentenced to various lengths of prison sentences and various amounts of restitution amounting to a total over $590,000…Now that’s payback with interest! Source: MDJ, 9-30-2014, B1.
5-18-2014: There is further evidence of economic logic to combine Marietta’s 9 Section 8 housing with the Marietta Housing Authority (MHA). Not only will there be reduction of duplicate of effort, but the 9 employees assigned to handle 950 cases can be replaced by 2 people in the MHA. MDJ-5/8/14-B1.
A recent article in the Marietta Daily Journal (4-3-2014, Page A1) about two former Marietta Department of Development Services employees accused of embezzling $230,000 raised m curiosity of the success and cost of the program.
Note: If you want to see some other Government shenanigans and employees/developers/others committing fraud or embezzling our Federal Government for Government housing issues, this HUD OIG Semi-Annual Report to the US Congress is interesting reading.
Section 8 Housing involves the housing choice voucher program a federal government program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. Since housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, participants are able to find their own housing, including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments.
Housing choice vouchers are administered locally by public housing agencies (PHAs). The PHAs receive federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer the voucher program.
The voucher varies in amount and may require the resident to pay for part of the rent or under certain circumstances, if authorized by the PHA, a family may use its voucher to purchase a modest home.
HUD OIG recommends The Summit Bradford Apartments in Tulsa, OK repay $177,000 in misused funds for Section 8 funds it may have received Section 8 subsidies for vacant units.