Citing software snafus, scheduling issues and pandemic problems, the Tulsa Housing Authority has failed to complete an annual audit since its 2019 financial statement. But with any luck, agency leaders and governing board members hope to approve audits for 2020 and 2021 by the end of 2024.
While the situation was not discussed at this morning’s Tulsa Housing Authority Board meeting, it did draw conversation between agency leaders and board members at the Aug. 8 meeting. Aaron Darden, THA’s president and CEO, described a meeting involving his senior staff members, at least one board member and a representative of CliftonLarsonAllen Wealth Advisors, a large accounting and auditing firm with which the agency has contracted to complete the Tulsa Housing Authority audits.
“I think with CLA’s representative there and speaking, I think the committee got a chance to see some of the frustrations that we’ve been dealing with in terms of what CLA has been giving us ever since we’ve been trying to do this real push over the last year-plus with them,” said Darden, who clarified he did not attend the meeting personally. “This timeline shifting really is falling in line with some of the struggles that we’re having with CLA and the resource commitment.”
Board member David Walker did attend the meeting with CLA’s representative, and he offered a blunt assessment.
“I did feel in that meeting that there was — it was kind of like a cover-up for them saying why they weren’t where they are supposed to be, and a lot of the shift came back to THA,” Walker said. “I can’t speak to whether that was true or not, but my sense was it was more meaningful for them to tell us why they didn’t do what they were supposed to be doing. (…) She wasn’t well represented.”
Ginny Hensley, THA’s vice president for communications and public affairs, provided NonDoc with additional explanation for why THA has not had an audit completed since 2019.
In an Aug. 21 email, Hensley said “factors contributing to the delay” include:
- Issues with conversion to TENMAST/MRI software about three months prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which spurred a subsequent 2023 conversion to a Yardi software system;
- Impacts of COVID-19 and THA staff being out of the office full-time from March 2020 – to July 2021; and
- Staffing and scheduling issues with auditors.
“THA is working to complete all audits as quickly as possible and has kept our Board of Commissioners and HUD apprised throughout the process. A third-party accounting firm (BDO) was hired to help compile reporting and provide additional capacity,” Hensley said. “Our auditors are also providing additional resources. These will both ensure we can complete multiple audits in a shorter time frame. THA’s current software will create efficiencies that we will see in 2023 and forward. This will put us back on a typical audit schedule.”
After today’s meeting Hensley provided a brief update on the delayed Tulsa Housing Authority audits.
“Our 2020 audit is in final review and we will have the final version next week,” she said. “The 2021 audit work with CLA has started as well.”
September meeting features re-vote on August items
While THA board members did not discuss the audit issues during their meeting Thursday, they did hear about other items that made their Aug. 8 agenda.
However, because the Aug. 8 agenda was not publicly posted online or at THA headquarters in compliance with the Open Meeting Act, the board voted again Thursday on three items:
- Approval of the board’s June 11 meeting minutes;
- Approval of a project-based voucher contract with Zimmerman Properties, which is developing Eastland Apartments at the intersection of East 21st Street and South 140th Avenue;
- Approval of signatory changes on all THA bank accounts with Bank of Oklahoma.
On Thursday, the board also approved a resolution accepting a $5.5 million contract award from the City of Tulsa to support development of a new 257-unit public housing complex next to THA’s headquarters along East Independence Street at the site of the former Sunset Apartments, a dilapidated complex acquired and demolished last year by THA.
Called the Hilltop project, the new apartment complex is proposed for two phases of construction:
- 107 low-income housing tax credit units, with 20 of those units dedicated to a HOME-ARP program that are “attached with additional case management supports,” Hensley said;
- 150 other units.
While a fence surrounds the planned development site, ground has yet to be broken as THA awaits approval of HOME-ARP program funding from the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency, Hensley said.
“If those funds are not awarded the project will not move forward,” she said Aug. 21.
The City of Tulsa has a significant need for additional low-income housing units. At Thursday’s meeting, Darden discussed the backlog of pending applications for housing and housing assistance programs faced by THA.
“In total, our waitlist is close to 69,000 (applications),” Darden said.
He and Terri Cole, senior vice president of housing operations, clarified that the 69,000 pending applications reflects both project-based vouchers for units owned by THA and Section 8 “housing choice” voucher applications that tenants can use for privately owned units whose landlords accept that voucher.
In all, the THA application waitlist currently has 12,000 individuals seeking housing assistance.
As a result, Darden announced a Sept. 18 application cutoff date for River West Apartments, a THA-owned complex just north of West 23rd Street between Interstate 244 and the Arkansas River. Cole said some applicants have been waiting more than two years and that accepting more applications would only exacerbate wait times.
“Most people, when they apply, they need housing at that time,” Cole said. “So to give those people (time) on the waiting list that is over two years, that’s not good practice.”
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Scattered Sites program sold 217 homes to private owners
As city leaders, program participants and the general public await four years worth of Tulsa Housing Authority audits, the full financial impact of a major public housing policy decision at the agency remains unclear.
In October 2020, the THA board approved the sale of more than 200 single-family homes that had been operated by the agency as project-based voucher residences under a “Scattered Sites” program moniker.
According to the Tulsa World, THA finalized the sale of 217 homes throughout the city in 2022 following federal review. The formerly THA-owned homes in the Scattered Sites program were sold to private landowners.
At the time, Darden said the cost of the Scattered Sites program “does not make financial sense,” while also promising that the buyers would be required to allow current tenants to remain the houses and and required to accept THA-administered housing subsidies.
“What we didn’t really want was a situation where someone comes in and purchases those homes, flips them and increases the purchase price,” Darden said in 2022. “We just didn’t want that to happen. So what we did was required they stay affordable.”
The Tulsa Housing Authority’s next meeting, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, is set to include a public hearing on its federally required 2025 public housing agency plan.
