The Wake County Housing Authority (WCHA), the federally-funded agency that administers Section 8 housing vouchers and maintains hundreds of public housing units, has managed to (mostly) dig itself out of a $1.9 million hole. But it’s still designated as “troubled” by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and it’s running out of money fast.
At the WCHA’s board meeting last week, interim director Michael Best said the agency has managed to pay down about $1.3 million in past-due rental payments to local landlords this summer. That’s a sizable chunk of the original $1.9 million the WCHA owed when Best arrived in April.
“You steered the ship away from the iceberg,” board member Thomas Gulisano told Best during the meeting. “We’ve gone around it, not into it. So thank you.”
The agency came under fire earlier this summer from landlords and tenants alike for its failure to pay its share of rent for its Section 8 voucher holders. Best told INDY at the time that prior to his tenure, the agency failed to submit updated HUD paperwork for 260 voucher households who moved to Wake County from 114 other jurisdictions. Without that paperwork, the “initial” housing authorities didn’t know whether to send money, or how much, to the WCHA. Best initiated a laborious process of contacting each of the 114 public housing authorities individually to settle their accounts, and it’s paying off.
That progress notwithstanding, the WCHA is still in trouble. Best informed the board that its public housing units are at 82 percent capacity, well below HUD’s optimal occupancy rate of 95.5 percent. He added that the WCHA has been locked out of HUD’s grant disbursement system (the Line of Credit Control System, or eLOCCs), since May, blocking its access to federal funding.
It was unclear during the board meeting whether HUD had purposefully locked the WCHA out of eLOCCS or if there was a technical issue. Best did not respond to INDY’s request for clarification.
Regaining access to federal funds is the WCHA’s top priority, finance director Courtney Ozaki informed the board, because the agency currently has only $212,857 in its business bank account. Staff payroll and other outstanding expenses for the month of August total about $126,000, she said, meaning the housing authority will be left with about $86,000 at the end of the month if it cannot obtain new funding.
“As soon as we have access [to eLOCCS,], we can draw over $800,000,” Ozaki said.
The WCHA is still designated as a “troubled” housing authority based on its score of 34 of 90—a failing score—on its most recent public housing assessment, conducted by HUD in 2022. The failing score triggered the prescription of a “recovery plan” for the WCHA to increase occupancy, improve its financial performance, and improve the physical condition of its units.
On its website, the WCHA says it maintains 345 public housing units. When INDY requested more information about where these units are located and their occupancy rates, Best sent a list of 264 units. Confusingly, a note attached to the list says the WCHA has 337 units, 289 of them occupied. Best did not respond to INDY’s question about which of these numbers is correct; we will update this story if we hear back.
Section 8 voucher recipients and public housing occupants are feeling the effects of the disarray at the WCHA. Two months ago, INDY spoke to Nancy Powell, who had to leave her house in Wendell because the WCHA stopped paying its share of rent to her landlord. Earlier this month, she said the housing authority still owes money to that landlord—and has already missed payments to her new landlord.
“I’ve had issues with the housing authority not paying my prorated rent at my new location,” Powell wrote in an email to INDY. “This new property management company is what I would call no-nonsense, and I fear yet another negative outcome.
“I’m beyond in debt as I was forced to move and didn’t have the money to do so,” Powell wrote, adding that the Legal Aid attorneys she’s working with suggested she consider a class action lawsuit against the housing authority. That’s not something Powell is pursuing right now, she wrote. Instead, she is trying to get a meeting with the governor’s office to bring attention to her situation and others like it.
The WCHA is not the only public housing authority experiencing difficulties right now (although some of its problems are unique and self-inflicted). WRAL reported in June that the Durham Housing Authority owes more than $2 million. Meanwhile, President Trump’s FY26 budget request would slash HUD’s rental assistance budget by $26.72 billion, or 43 percent, from the current year, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, causing new problems for the already-embattled WCHA.
Chloe Courtney Bohl is a Report for America corps member. Follow her on Bluesky or reach her at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].