Fort Worth Still Overcoming Federal Housing Aid Miscues

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – The Pierce family has lived in the southwest part of the city for generations. But they never had new housing like the glittering Lincoln Heights Apartments.

"Oh, they're beautiful," Toni Pierce said while sitting in her new apartment. "They're exactly what the neighborhood needed. They're modern."

Normally the federal government sends Housing and Urban Development money to a city to build projects like that one. The city keeps the paperwork proving it followed federal guidelines.

But Fort Worth had a major lapse in its book keeping.

"Between the years of 2002 and 2007 HUD was looking at the projects and making sure the money was being used in an appropriate manner," said city spokesman Jason Lamers. "In some instances, they found some problems with documentation and some of the projects weren't meeting the requirements set by HUD."

Fort Worth couldn't show documentation HUD required to prove it had done the work properly. In other instances, the city simply did not follow HUD guidelines for projects. HUD was threatening to cut off federal money.

For all those miscues, the city had to return around $3 million to HUD.

That left the city to pay for work already carried out. The poor oversight, in part, cost the Fort Worth housing director his job two years ago. But even this week, Fort Worth will have to return $200 thousand to HUD.

The good news is HUD will eventually put that money back into Fort Worth projects since the city has worked to regain the agency's trust.

"If you ask HUD officials right now they'd tell you we're exemplary partners," Lamers said.