In November 2024, as Houston’s housing authority transitioned between software systems, some basic accounting for its programs went seriously awry in ways that are still being remedied, according to a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and obtained through a records request. Financial records stopped aligning, and staff could not access crucial files needed to verify their tenants’ eligibility for affordable housing. Missing documentation can put a tenant’s housing at risk.
It is unclear how long the agency, which has rebranded as Housing Alliance HTX, was unable to access the records; when asked, a spokesperson for the agency said the Chronicle was allowed, under state law, to file a records request to ascertain the dates. The agency wrote HUD that it “anticipated that all system conversion-related issues will be resolved by December 31, 2026,” and that the alliance’s new president, who came on board in February 2025, had “assessed financial reporting to ensure there were ‘no criminal issues’ or ‘large amounts’ of unaccounted money.”
The new details emerged in an action plan alliance officials sent to federal officials in a letter dated March 27. The document outlines steps to address failures in the agency’s affordable housing programs and financial reporting that have plagued the agency since 2019. It said that, since the audit in question, the agency had already created a vice president of compliance role, reviewed an unspecified number of Housing Choice Voucher files for completeness and was considering whether the finance department needed additional staff. It was adjusting errors in its accounting entries as they were discovered and was making “necessary process and procedural changes.”…