MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee will pay outstanding rent vouchers for 500 residents within the next few days, according to interim Executive Director Ken Barbeau.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Milwaukee's Housing Authority failing to pay rent for 500 'Section 8' tenants
Wednesday, TMJ4's Jenna Rae broke the news that the agency had not paid its portion of rent for hundreds of Milwaukee residents.
"We're tired of being patient," said Scott Cimbalnik, landlord and owner of SAC Investments.
Landlords and tenants on Section 8 vouchers said they've been left in limbo.
"If I don't help myself, perhaps some other progress will come out of this for someone else," tenant Crystal Brame said.
Brame, a Section 8 voucher tenant, contacted TMJ4 News after discovering HACM hadn't paid its portion of her rent in months.
"I had did the re-certification way back in March. Got the confirmation that it's completed, got another confirmation email, everything was good on my end," Brame explained.
Cimbalnik says HACM owes him nearly $10,000 in unpaid rent.
Watch: HACM's Executive Director says outstanding Section 8 vouchers will be paid after months of delays
"This is the most delinquent I've ever seen the Section 8 program," Cimbalnik added.
TMJ4's Jenna Rae has reported on HACM's financial woes and troubled agency for years. No one with the agency has ever agreed to do a sit-down interview with her.
Thursday, its interim executive director, who was appointed in January and has been responsible for cleaning up the agency's mess, agreed to talk.
"The last 10 months have been a challenge. You've obviously, you've seen the news, you've been on the news. We had a lot of challenges that we encountered at the beginning of the year," Barbeau said.
Those challenges include reconciling millions of dollars of misappropriated funds, additional financial overhaul, and outsourcing its largest housing voucher program, Section 8.
CVR Associates now manages HACM's Section 8 program.
"It's taking longer because as they dig in, there's a lot more issues than they expected going in," Barbeau said.
The federal government required CVR to inspect 100 percent of its tenants on vouchers
"We had decided that we would pay people out three months, cause at that time, we thought that was going to be the length of time typically that it would take us," Barbeau said.
"For a little cushion," Rae asked.
"For a little cushion. It's actually taking us longer, and so yesterday morning, we had gotten a complaint from a landlord last week, and we looked into it. So, we decided to extend it from three months to six months," Barbeau explained.
"Does that mean that you're paying these outstanding 500 resident vouchers today?" Rae asked.
"It will be within the next couple of days," Barbeau responded.
TMJ4 will be sure to follow up with landlords and tenants to confirm.
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