Sanjaysia Caruthers’ bathroom sink dangles from a deteriorating wall, dangerously close to crashing to the floor. Caruthers tries to keep her two sons, ages six and eight, from lingering around the dangerous sink. Maintenance repair staff from Oklahoma City Housing Authority have used caulk to reattach the sink more than once, but the caulk can’t support the heavy porcelain, Caruthers said. Pipes under the sink leak constantly. A saucepan collects the drips. Caruthers said she’s had those problems since February and has submitted maintenance requests to her landlord, Oklahoma City Housing Authority. A leaking toilet was fixed recently, but Caruthers said she still has a $1,300 water bill to show for the leak.The tenant said she mentioned those issues when officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development showed up to inspect her NE 17th Street home as part of regular inspections of OCHA’s asset management projects, or AMPs, conducted April 16-18. Oklahoma’s public housing this year is being inspected under a new protocol, National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate or NSPIRE. Matt Mills, the operations director at OCHA, said NSPIRE inspection standards have the state’s largest housing authority grappling with staffing and budget limitations that make complying with the new standards a challenge. The struggle is compounded by the need to address deficiencies while providing regular maintenance.  the latest OKC Fails Housing Inspections, Tulsa Embraces HUD Transition by Ted Streuli November 1, 2024November 1, 2024 The inspections resulted in an unusually low score of 7 out of 100 for OCHA’s 448 scattered public housing sites, significantly lower than OCHA’s previous failing score of 48. About 4,470 extremely low-income tenants live in Oklahoma City Housing Authority’s 2,700 public housing units. Those tenants receive rental assistance through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and they pay no more than 30% of their monthly income for rent. OCHA owns and manages 10 public housing asset management projects, seven of which have been recently inspected under the NSPIRE protocol. Four of the AMPs are designated for seniors and disabled tenants: Jeltz Senior Center received a 93, Towers Classen scored 81, and Shartel Towers and Andrews Square have yet to be inspected this year.Four OCHA asset management projects are apartment complexes: Will Rogers Courts scored 76,  Ambassador Courts and Oak Grove scored 59, and Fred Factory Gardens scored 58. Planned inspections of JFK Duplexes have been canceled multiple times by the inspector.Shift to NSPIRE is Time-Consuming and Costly Some Oklahoma public housing professionals say HUD has placed an unfunded mandate on housing authorities with its new inspection protocol, adding costly upgrades and repairs to the list of inspection points and requiring immediate fixes for many deficiencies. Mills said that the shift to NSPIRE inspections has also introduced a new source of administrative red tape. The transition wasn in the works before the Covid-19 pandemic, Mills said. It was waylaid for several years but was finally implemented in 2023. Children play outside Sanjaysia Caruthers’ rent house on NE 17 in Oklahoma City. The home is owned by Oklahoma City Housing Authority and was one of a sampling of 30 houses inspected by HUD this year. OCHA received a failing score of 7% for the inspections of its scattered site public housing. (Heather Warlick/Oklahoma Watch)The new protocol focuses on interior details of public housing and replaces HUD’s Uniform Physical Condition Standards. OCHA was familiar with NSPIRE long before its first regular inspections under the new protocol. In 2022 the housing authority volunteered to act as a demonstration site where HUD trained its inspectors on the NSPIRE protocol. During the two years HUD performed training in Oklahoma City, Mills said the housing authority was not subjected to regular inspections. OCHA also received no scores during training inspections, just lists of deficiencies. OCHA’s extremely low inspection score for its scattered sites has much to do with the nature of keeping single-family homes ready for inspections – houses usually score lower than apartments, Mills said.“Our scattered site houses have always been challenging,” Mills said. “They’re spread out. They’re different. I mean we have hundred-year-old houses. Some have crawlspace; some have chimneys.” The single-digit score placed OCHA’s scattered sites in HUD’s troubled category and resulted in a mountain of follow-up paperwork for OCHA’s maintenance employees.A sampling of 30 houses in OCHA’s scattered sites was inspected, which resulted in 114 deficiencies categorized as life-threatening. Many of these citations were for missing smoke alarms, now required in every bedroom under NSPIRE. Smoke alarms must be installed within 24 hours, but the deficiency didn’t include a point deduction during inspections.  OCHA is still working to outfit all bedrooms with smoke alarms, Mills said. Other life-threatening deficiencies that resulted in point deductions were numerous citations of exposed electrical wires and plumbing problems. Infestations of roaches and mice, at least one instance of lead paint, and even a home with no working toilet were listed as severe delinquencies.Housing agencies are required to repair all life-threatening and severe delinquencies within 24 hours. Moderate and low-threat deficiencies are required to be remedied within 30 or 60 days. OCHA employees are now required to submit photos and other documentation as proof of repair for all deficiencies noted in inspections, which Mills said has added a significant administrative challenge to staying in compliance for the OCHA operations staff.Inspections are Part of the Process All properties that accept Section 8 housing vouchers through HUD are subject to annual inspections. HUD conducts separate inspections for public housing AMPs, project-based multifamily complexes and individually-owned Section 8 units.HUD is transitioning Inspection standards for all those properties to the NSPIRE protocol, which prioritizes the interiors of homes. Mills said that the previous inspection standards, UPCS, placed more weight on outdoor spaces. Landlords, whether individual owners or housing agencies like OCHA, can lose HUD reimbursement and even be debarred from future HUD subsidy contracts for continually failing inspections. OCHA’s recent inspections of its scattered sites were performed by a quality assurance inspector who instructed a QA inspector trainee, Mills said. He said the inspector’s extra-high training standards may have contributed to OCHA’a low score. Updated Inspections are Costly to Housing Agencies Jennifer Ricker, executive director of the Guthrie Housing Authority, said the new inspection protocols amount to an unfunded mandate from HUD.Rickers said the new standards introduce extra costs to agencies attempting to comply.She and her team are in the process of updating Guthrie’s stock of public housing. The housing agency owns and manages 187 public housing units, all of which are single-story duplexes where preference is given to disabled and elderly tenants. She said her agency has worked for three years to ensure Guthrie’s public housing units measure up to a long checklist of inspection standards in the NSPIRE protocol. She sent her staff to trainings and has hired new maintenance staff to contend with the change.“They’re fixing everything that HUD is requiring them to fix. But my sink’s been messed up since February.”Sanjaysia CaruthersRicker said that Guthrie Housing Authority received a score of 90 for its recent NSPIRE inspection, the highest it has ever scored. That places the agency in HUD’s high performer designation, meaning it will be three years until the next HUD-required inspection. “We’d already been doing these updates and upgrades,” Ricker said. “If we had not been, it could have been catastrophic.”Ricker said that one of the biggest financial burdens the Guthrie Housing Authority incurred during the shift was installing and updating GCFI and single-source electrical outlets for refrigerators and other large appliances. She said those outlets can’t be within six feet of a water source and in small units, that can be tricky. Those upgrades often require licensed professionals and associated costs add up quickly when a housing agency has many units. “That’s the kind of stuff, though, that we had been preparing for as soon as we started hearing about NSPIRE,” Ricker said. “Many (housing authorities) were going to kind of wait and see how their inspections turned out before they made those repairs because the new protocol actually mandates that every item that was identified must be repaired, which was not the case before,” he said.RAD Program Opens Funding Streams For ModernizationPublic Housing is typically funded by HUD, which allocates federal money earmarked for housing, but that money barely covers the costs of basic maintenance by housing agencies. Installing new outlets and smoke alarms is expensive, and many housing authorities like OCHA have found themselves with unmet capital needs. Tulsa is leading the way in Oklahoma toward ensuring its public housing supply meets NSPIRE standards of modernization and renovation. Tulsa Housing Authority has converted 1,380 public housing units to a project-based Section 8 platform. This conversion is through HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration, or RAD, a program that’s been open for a decade and offers housing authorities more flexibility in funding modernization projects. Hud explains: “Under Section 8, the property has access to the new financing tools safely used by the rest of the affordable housing industry and, with the long-term Section 8 contract, the property is insulated from the Federal funding decisions impacting public housing.”HUD estimates housing agencies are struggling with a  $115 billion backlog of public housing capital needs. Public housing agencies that have converted their housing stock through RAD have generated an estimated $11.7 billion in construction improvements across 1,380 properties, raising $13 for each HUD dollar allocated. Tulsa soon will convert its remaining 240 public housing units through RAD, but in the meantime, its Hewgley Terrace scored 93 on its first NSPIRE inspection in February. Oklahoma City Housing Authority also plans to convert its public housing inventory to HUD’s project-based Section 8 platform through the RAD program. “That’s part of our strategy on some of those properties that have the under 60 scores,” Mills said.OCHA has already converted two senior living communities and one other complex through the RAD program. “So when we switch under RAD like Tulsa’s done, then it lets (OCHA’s development department) go out and get low-income housing tax credits,” Mills said. “We can get loans, we can get other grants.”OCHA Makes Necessary Repairs, Lags in Requested MaintenanceCaruthers said she is glad HUD has rolled out NSPIRE, focusing more on the inside of public housing units. She said it’s important for homes to pass inspections for the safety of those who live there. But Caruthers is concerned that the new inspection protocol may be forcing OCHA to prioritize things like smoke alarms and GCFI outlets while she is left waiting for other important maintenance requests to be addressed. Caruthers was at home when her rental house was inspected in April as part of the sampling of 30. She said a group of about five inspection officials spent about five or six minutes going through her home. “They go room to room and they look at the doors, the locks, the windows and the smoke detectors,” Caruthers said. Only two deficiencies were noted on the inspection report for Caruthers’ house – a damaged fascia on the roofline and accumulated litter in an undesignated area. Caruthers said she requested the inspectors look at the items for which she had submitted maintenance requests, including her broken sink, broken latches on her windows and water leaks, but those items weren’t noted on the inspection report and weren’t immediately addressed.OCHA did add smoke alarms to the bedrooms in Caruthers’ home, she said. “They’re fixing everything that HUD is requiring them to fix,” Caruthers said. “But my sink’s been messed up since February.” Heather Warlick is a reporter covering evictions, housing and homelessness. Contact her at (405) 226-1915 or [email protected]. More from Heather Warlick OKC Fails Housing Inspections, Tulsa Embraces HUD TransitionOklahoma City public housing this year received an unusually low inspection score of 7% as HUD rolls out NSPIRE, a new inspection protocol that some Oklahoma housing professionals see as an unfunded mandate. Low-income Renters Have Little Recourse Against Bad LandlordsWhile most landlords maintain their rental units to conform to health and building codes, many of Oklahoma’s most vulnerable renters risk fines and retaliation such as being kicked out of their homes when they report extreme disrepair to city officials. For landlords, retaliating against tenants who complain is legal. State Education Department Seeks Bids for 55,000 Classroom BiblesThe Oklahoma State Department of Education is seeking bids for 55,000 Bibles for classrooms with specific requirements. But bid documents indicate they can only be met by versions endorsed by former President Donald Trump or his son, raising concerns about competition and legality. The post OKC Fails Housing Inspections, Tulsa Embraces HUD Transition appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.