The shear magnitude of the housing mismanagement and misappropriation of HUD funds is absolutely astounding. We say that because Reel Wamps did an independent review of the internal audit documents with the help of a housing expert who has dealt with HUD regulations for over 20 years. We assumed that these documents are the response to HUD’s demand for answers to numerous irregularities back in mid August.
It’s an automatic indictment.
The sticky tabs reflect the violations of HUD regulations and misappropriation of funds……each page is riddled with them. We stopped after about page 8. We didn’t want to waste anymore sticky notes. But it just went on and on. The woman asked, ” Do they know the tribe will have to pay this back and people will go to prison ? ” “Apparently not,” we said, totally disgraced.
Seeing it in black and white confirmed what we already knew
And all the Elders begging for weatherization. Nellie Hicks Ramos waited over two years for them to fix her windows and storm doors. The workers they sent were totally unqualified, not licensed, insured or bonded….they got paid for shoddy work, when they did anything, because they were relatives of a certain housing employee. The repairs are still incomplete.
This only reflects a year of evaluation of Housing books.There are $304,411 worth of expenditures during that time, for things like “rental down payment” “eviction prevention” “rental subsidy” and $97,526.50 for 26 “weatherization and rehab” jobs. We’ll do the math for you….that averages out to $3,751 each. You could get a new bathroom for that never mind rehab….and we’re sure many people with the right last name added on to their homes with the help of their relative. It is outrageous ! And illegal.
Rest assured, HUD is aware. And just because you got fired does not mean you are not going to be prosecuted.
Here’s the thing, they have the amount of money drawn down on the Housing account, but there is no justification for the expenditure. The auditor says that outright. There is no adherence to the guidelines for disbursement…..No validation of income, number of people occupying the home, what the total household income is, Social Security numbers are missing…people lied about the amount of rent they were paying ( doubling it in many cases ), and still got huge checks.
The 184’s are worse.
HUD knows about this too. That’s why it is ” in a moratorium.” The new director is there part time and babbles about not being responsible for the previous wrong doing. Why are we paying her? To answer the phone? Sure, but you’re not qualified to be there even part time and Shovel Ready Ceddie hired you too. Yah, so stop running your mouth, just stop talking.
It was just a free for all. The people who needed the help most were discriminated against.
A huge civil rights violation.
Blatant discrimination by people running the tribe and those they hired to spend federal money, were totally unqualified to run this very important program. None of them had a college education, certification or training to do any aspect of the jobs they were hired to do. The job requirements exist to prevent this kind of travesty and theft. That’s also a serious problem in other tribal programs where people are lying about their qualification for positions where people’s lives are at stake.
Yet another federal violation.
The chair of the Housing Commission shares much of the blame for this disaster in that she has been the head of the body that has oversight of the department for the last 5 years. She never did a thing about the gross mismanagement, or the hiring practices. She protected the White people she worked for on her day job, but she has allowed a very important staple in our efforts to improve our lifestyles to be ruined. Now that everything is falling apart..she’s acting like she didn’t know and she was so concerned. A disgrace.
The Housing Commission is not the only problem in this deal. It goes all the way to the top.
The Council leadership never established mandatory guidelines for anything. That is a glaring failure. In fact Shovel Ready Ceddie sanctioned every hire and was signing off on extensions for Joann and Nancy on the 184’s. More on “His HokaNess” later.
The Finance Director, Housing employees and all those people signing checks ( Shovel Ready Ceddie, Messy Jessie, Robbie, Tah Tah,Yvonne & The Deaconess) are also responsible for the wrong doing.The bank records are in tact. Get the Whistle Blower paperwork. Write the letter before it’s too late.
Just great people, just great.
We have more so stay tuned..
