INDIANAPOLIS — What are the city and federal government going to do to fix the problems with the Indianapolis Housing Agency?
Residents tell WRTV they have been asking the question but are not getting any answers.
"They said there's gonna be a lot of changes on the way for all of us. 90% of people in there are either disabled, as myself, or on disability, and I mean, everything's still the same," Eric Epperson, Barton Tower resident, said.
Another day, another problem for residents relying on assistance from the Indianapolis Housing Agency.
They need to do some up-keeping of the roaches, the bare bugs and the mice.
"Upkeep, give us some paint. Let somebody paint our apartment. Get these roaches out," Mary Evans, Barton Annex resident, said.
IHA serves around 20,000 Indianapolis residents.
It's under a criminal investigation after being hit with a ransom ware attack two-years-ago that crippled phone and payment systems.
"All our personal information has been hacked with IHA," Torrence Johnson said.
Johnson says people living there can't get any answers or help.
"They really have forgotten about us. You know, they just kick us to the wayside, and they're constantly raising the rent. What are you raising the rent for? You haven't done nothing," Johnson said.
The city says the agency failed to keep track of its money and was not providing the assistance it should for nearly 1,500 residents. That's why the city and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development took control in April.
The city and the federal government promised to clean up the IHA mess.
"Have you seen any changes since the city and HUD took over," asked WRTV's Rachael Wilkerson.
WATCH PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Indianapolis Housing Agency no longer in control, HUD and city take over operations
"No. What changes? What's changed? Ain't no change has been made around here, and that ain't no lie. They shouldn't let us live like this. We are senior citizens. We shouldn't have to live like this. I bet they don't, all of them that works down there at IHA and HUD," Tammie Groom said.
Residents at Barton Tower and Barton Annex aren't convinced changes are coming.
"It's not even just here, it's all over the IHA properties. I'm speaking for everybody," Johnson said.
Groom shared a video of the water in bathroom coming out brown.
"Who wants nasty water," she said.
The city says it, along with HUD, is still in the process of figuring out what all needs to be repaired.
Throughout the past four months, it says it has recovered $4.3 million in funds that the agency should have been granted, but never was.
"Again, this is funding that IHA was entitled to, but due to capacity issues, was not fully accessing. In terms of the overall financial picture for IHA, that is still in progress with a dedicated HUD technical assistance team providing that support," Aryn Schounce, Senior Policy Advisor to Mayor Joe Hogsett and the acting recovery monitor for IHA, said.
That money will be used towards improvements on IHA properties to help fix some of those conditions that residents are concerned about.
It's also being used to help fix the downed phone line. The timeline for that, the city says, is six to nine weeks. The voicemail system has been a major problem.
"We're currently working on the phones," Schounce said. "They were actually rolled out and in June, and we ran into both a hardware and a software issue related to IHA. So, we are basically pivoting so that we can put in place a new server, a new software in order to get those phone systems operational, but also the voicemail system linked to it."
"Did they ever give an amount as to what the total debt was," asked WRTV.
"Due to the system outage from the cyber attack, IHA was not able to close out their year in financials for 2023 and at this stage, the recovery team has made the decision to essentially just move forward as if we will never have access to that data again, because there's no indication from the federal law enforcement agencies that are involved in the cyber attack investigation," Schounce said.
It's also working to establish resident councils at all of the IHA properties. Right now, there is only one.
Violence reduction teams are visiting with troubled sites, particularly Hawthrone Place.
The city also wants residents to know that if a landlord has evicted or threatened to evict during this process, that is a violation of the law.
WRTV is still waiting for HUD's response.
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