LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Agents with the FBI searched a Little Rock office building Thursday as an investigation into problems at the agency that oversees public housing in the city escalated.
The Metropolitan Housing Alliance Chairman Kerry Wright said the agency cooperated with the investigation and assisted agents during their late-morning search.
Wright said investigators with the Inspector General of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development had examined the Central Arkansas Housing Corporation (CAHC) files in December.
The CAHC is a nonprofit created in October 2006 by the housing authority. Former commission members established it to develop and construct residential housing in Little Rock.
"HUD came in and was only able to search about 20 percent of the items they wanted to look at," Wright said. "It looks like they felt like there's something there that the FBI needed to look into."
The investigation by federal authorities has been going on for several years, with two reports by HUD inspectors labeling the agency "troubled" amid questions over missing and unallocated funds and poor accounting practices.
The most recent finding in September 2023 led to the firing of two commissioners, Lee Lindsey and Leta Anthony, while two other commissioners resigned or left when their terms expired. Lindsey and Anthony are also among the principals in the CAHC, with the crossover of their work on the public board and not-for-profit corporation drawing scrutiny.
Both Lindsey and Anthony are suing the city for wrongful termination.
Wright, who had only joined the commission last year, was allowed to remain. He said the agency had shuttered the CAHC offices, and its 13 employees no longer work there.
But with the investigation facing delays even before the pandemic, Rep. French Hill (R - Ark.) used his time during a House Financial Services committee hearing Thursday to demand answers from HUD secretary Marcia Fudge after the most recent inspectors report.
"This report details the laxity and malfeasance that has been allowed to fester in the Little Rock Housing Authority," said Hill. "It describes lapses in unit inspections going back to 2017, unauthorized transfers of funds to unknown accounts, deceased citizens continuing to receive housing vouchers, $700,000 under the CARES Act unaccounted for, and the housing authority's inability to produce an audited financial statement since 2019."
Fudge assured her she shared the same concerns and touted efforts to work through the backlog of inspections nationwide.
"That 2020 report is one that I received when I entered HUD," Fudge said. "Since that time, we have reduced our I.G. directions by 1,000. There were thousands of them when I came in."
Wright and a statement from an FBI pointed out that Thursday's search was at a separate office building on 1000 Wolfe Street and did not disrupt the MHA's business.