SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento’s public housing agency faces scrutiny as hundreds of much-needed public housing units sit vacant.
Some have been empty for years, despite a waiting list thousands of families long.
Now, Sacramento’s City Council and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) want answers.
The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) is the public housing authority for the city and county of Sacramento. It connects low-income families with subsidized housing through money from the federal government.
At a June 11 council meeting, Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra asked SHRA for more information on copies of letters he — and ABC10 — received.
“It has come to my concern that the federal Housing and Urban Development Agency has brought up some audits or concerns of the agency, and I’d like to get a briefing on what the details of those concerns are,” he told SHRA staff in attendance.
“I would like information on that, too,” said Vice Mayor Caity Maple.
That briefing is forthcoming.
The letters Guerra and ABC10 received were sent to SHRA from HUD, via the Department’s regional hub — the San Francisco Office of Public Housing.
HUD’s August 2023 letter states it has “significant concerns regarding the number of (SHRA’s) vacant Public Housing units,” adding HUD “has been communicating with your agency since before the COVID-19 Pandemic regarding the number of vacancies within your Public Housing Developments.”
At the time, the document shows, SHRA had nearly 200 units that had been vacant for more than two months, 86 of which had been vacant for more than a year and six of which had been vacant for more than two years.
HUD asks Public Housing Agencies nationwide to maintain an occupancy rate of at least 96%. As of August 2023, only 85% of units in the county were occupied and 91% were within Sacramento city limits. HUD told ABC10 Friday SHRA’s overall occupancy rate is now at 90%.
HUD asked SHRA to submit a corrective action plan for getting more families into public housing units and increasing occupancy rates.
Issues persisted.
In a May 2024 letter, HUD informed SHRA it will be conducting “an onsite and remote Comprehensive Monitoring Review” in June.
In a statement to ABC10 Friday, HUD spokesperson Andra Higgs said “SHRA has a plan in process to get both the SHRA city and county to 96% occupancy by the end of the year” and is giving HUD monthly status updates “about their actions, challenges and status of occupying public housing units.”
In an email Friday, SHRA spokesperson Angela Jones told ABC10, “the pandemic created significant challenges in the Housing Authority’s ability to turn over vacant units for occupancy. Staff shortages, health and safety issues, supply chain delays and costly repairs and maintenance of aging housing and infrastructure in our housing portfolio also contributed to delays in leasing up vacant units.”
SHRA has not had to pay any penalties for its failure to meet HUD’s goal, Jones said.
HUD points out, SHRA is not alone in not meeting the department’s occupancy goal of at least 96%.
“In general, a common theme for Public Housing Agencies with public housing occupancy challenges is staffing, maintenance and lingering effects of COVID on their operations,” said Jones.
SHRA is at 90%. The San Francisco Housing Authority is at just 88.5% occupancy rate. The city and county of LA are both exceeding HUD’s goal, with occupancy rates at 98.75% and 98.12%, respectively. Jones also provided the figures for the city of Fresno: 97.5% and Fresno County: 94.5%. By contrast, the city of Long Beach has no public housing.
“Sacramento is not unlike many other public housing agencies across the country that are trying to recover from the impact of the pandemic. Nonetheless, we’re committed to improve our performance so that we can serve families in response to Sacramento’s affordable housing challenges,” said Jones.
