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U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Arkansas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, released a staff report examining Public Housing Agencies nationwide.
According to a news release, this report is "the culmination of a year-long Subcommittee-led investigation into serious mismanagement of PHAs across the country."
In early February, Meuser, Hill and U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Nebraska, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, sent letters to 32 housing agencies designated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as "troubled," seeking information on living conditions, management, and financial oversight.
This was followed by an Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing examining management failures at agencies and ways to improve conditions for residents. During the hearing, witnesses outlined severe shortcomings at housing agencies due to mismanagement from previous administrations and discussed best practices for reversing the trend.
On March 13, 2026, Chairman Meuser held a Subcommittee field hearing in Little Rock, Arkansas, focused on failures at the city's PHA--the Metropolitan Housing Alliance (MHA)--and its impact on residents. Committee leadership also sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas urging an investigation into MHA.
Federal law requires PHAs to provide housing that is decent, safe, and sanitary. However, the Subcommittee's investigation found that many troubled PHAs failed to meet these requirements due to management issues and oversight problems, resulting in significant waste of taxpayer resources and poor living conditions.
The Housing Authority of Champaign County is a good example of a PHA that has implemented commonsense Trump Administration policies, such as Moving to Work (MTW) requirements and voluntary time limits, that strengthen public housing standards and promote solutions that improve financial management.
"For years, the Biden Administration allowed PHAs to fail without proper support or oversight. Mismanagement and a lack of accountability in PHAs have wasted taxpayer dollars meant to support our most vulnerable citizens and led to unacceptable living conditions," said Meuser, according to the news release. "This report shows that taxpayers and residents pay the price when leadership at PHAs falls short. Democrat administrations allowed this problem to fester for far too long. I appreciate Chairman Hill's leadership, as well as President Trump and HUD Secretary Turner for their efforts to enhance federal support for public housing and demand greater accountability. This report supports and builds on that work to ensure that taxpayer-funded resources are well managed, and that Americans in need can benefit from decent, safe, and sanitary housing. I look forward to implementing our report's recommendations and providing these crucial reforms to America's most vulnerable citizens."
According to the news release, the hearings determined that frequently, PHA Boards lack sufficient understanding of housing programs to effectively manage the PHA; HUD's assessment systems disincentivize rent collection; troubled PHAs have insufficient data retention and due diligence standards across their operations, but particularly as it relates to their contracting and procurement standards and PHAs struggle to find staff
The report urges PHAs to develop systems and policies to enhance oversight of employees and contractors, conduct self-inspections at least quarterly and require before-and-after photos of maintenance work and digitize their records, strengthen oversight of staff and contractors, and better enforce rent collection. HUD and Congress should set baseline qualifications for PHA board members and executives and give HUD the authority to remove poor leaders. Congress, the report says, should consider legislation that permanently allows for and encourages PHAs to implement time limits and work requirements on public housing assistance for able-bodied adult residents.