JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A newly released report from the Office of Inspector General says most of the money designated for Jacksonville tenants to pay for utilities, was spent on unrelated expenses between Oct. 31, 2022 and Oct. 31, 2023.
The Office of Inspector General initiated a Management Review of the Jacksonville Housing Utility Assistance program in an effort to detect and deter wasteful expenditure of government funds.
The OIG reported that $1,990,166.21 was loaded onto 1,634 Jacksonville Housing tenant Utility Reimbursement Payment cards. However, only 13.49 percent or $268,473.42 were spent on utilities. More than $1.7 million were spent unrelated to utilities.
The OIG says the wasteful expenditure of governmental funds can be remedied with appropriate internal controls and recommended corrective actions by paying the utility reimbursement directly to the utility supplier on behalf of the family. Another move would be to direct ONBE to restrict URP cards for the Merchant Category Code related to utilities. However, the Jacksonville Housing Authority responded saying the funds were properly distributed.
In a letter from Jacksonville Housing Authority CEO & President Dwayne Alexander to Inspector General Matthew Lascell, Alexander says all families who qualified for utility reimbursement payments, received all of the money intended for them, but the money didn't have to be spent on utilities even if that's what it was intended for.
Jacksonville Housing defines utilities as water, electricity, gas, heating, refrigeration, cooking fuels, trash collection and sewage.
Alexander says the debit card also has an ATM cash option and the Department of Housing and Urban Development has no requirements on how families can use reimbursement payments.
HUD regulations as it pertains to the administration of the utility reimbursement payments intent and purpose, is to ensure families receive the correct amount of money, not how the money is spent by those families. It also says reimbursements do not receive enough funding to cover the average cost of heating and cooling their homes and when receiving utility reimbursement for JHA, it is simply a reimbursement of funds that were already paid to cover ongoing utility costs.
Alexander says the Jacksonville Housing Authority has not violated any federal regulation or internal policy related to the remittance of utility reimbursement payments to participants.
"JHA does not view the proper distribution of utility reimbursement payments to eligible families as a waste of federal funds," Alexander said.