Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chair of the House Committee on Financial Services, along with several Democratic committee members, have sent letters seeking information about two deadly fires in federally assisted housing developments in Philadelphia and New York City.
“Unfortunately, this tragedy highlights the unsafe and inadequate housing conditions that too many families currently face across the country and our nation’s affordable housing crisis that forces families to accept such conditions,” reads a letter to Marcia Fudge, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). “However, it is egregious that preventable life-threatening events continue to happen in housing supported by the federal government. Every family should be able to live safely in their homes. This is a systemic issue that has a solution.”
Letters were also sent to local officials and property owners.
In the correspondence to Fudge, the lawmakers request information on how HUD is assisting residents displaced by the fires.
They also say that the Philadelphia property received a Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) score of 33 out of 100 during a 2017 inspection but has not received a follow-up REAC inspection. The committee members want to know what HUD is doing to ensure more frequent inspections and how many HUD-assisted properties have received a failing score.
The letter also inquires about the Bronx fire, where 76 project-based vouchers were concentrated in the privately owned Twin Parks Northwest high-rise, say the lawmakers. “When a high threshold of project-based vouchers are located in a single property, how does that change the role of HUD and relevant public housing authorities in overseeing these properties?” ask the committee members.
In a letter to New York mayor Eric Adams, housing officials, and representatives of LIHC Investment Group, Belveron Partners, and Camber Property Group, the committee members ask for details about when the Bronx property was last inspected, maintenance requests, and what is being done to ensure other properties are safe from a similar tragedy.
In a letter to Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney and Kelvin Jeremiah, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA), the lawmakers note that PHA had a 14-member family in a four-bedroom home while on a waiting list for a larger unit. “How does PHA ensure families have access to housing that adequately accommodates the size of their household? Currently, how many housing units does your PHA have that can accommodate larger families, and are all of these units occupied by families needing such larger accommodations? What plans, if any, does PHA have to expand this portfolio to ensure families have access to safe and affordable housing in Philadelphia?” asks the letter.
