POTTSVILLE -- The John O'Hara Street Development in Pottsville is a public housing complex where most tenants have lower incomes, including tenants like Regina Sefing, who needs housing paid for, in part, with federal tax dollars.
She's lived there since August, but had to spend more than a year on a waiting list.
“I was just lucky that I had the right criteria that I got in,” she said.
There are income requirements to get into public housing, and those income limits depend on how many people are in a household.
For example, a family of four in Pottsville must have a total yearly income of less than $47,300.
And yet, documents obtained by Newswatch 16 shows dozens of families living in public housing in our area make tens of thousands of dollars over the initial income limit.
A single tenant of the Lackawanna County Housing Authority has an income $51,518.
A family of two living in the Wilkes-Barre Housing Authority reported an income of $72,815.
And we even found a family who recently lived in the Pottsville Housing Authority, making $100,747.
“When they went into the program, they weren't making that much money, if you're over income when you apply, you cannot get it,” said Craig Shields, director of the Pottsville Housing Authority.
He is talking about a loophole Newswatch 16 first told you about a year ago. As long as a family's income was under the limit when they first moved in, they are allowed to stay in public housing for life, no matter how much their income grows.
Lower income tenants like Sefing believe public housing high rollers should be forced out.
“They can buy their own house, yes. Because there are a lot of people here in Pottsville that do need it,” she said.
But housing authorities aren't mandated to kick out over-income residents. And it seems they actually have an incentive to keep them.
Many housing authorities complain the government only pays for part of the rent for lower income tenants and that government money is not always sure thing. But higher income tenants pay their entire rent on their own without any government help, saving them money.
“We're guaranteed 100 percent. And basically, with HUD cutting our funding, we need every dollar we can get,” Shields said.
David Fagula of the Luzerne County Housing Authority has two dozen families over the income limits and a one to two-year wait list, but agrees there is a place in public housing for higher income residents.
“I don't think by us forcing these 24 people out, that that would be a good financial decision for the housing authority. I don't think we should implement policies that would discourage people from improving their situation,” he said.
But there is movement underway in HUD that could force high earners out.
In an effort to reduce the number of over-income families residing in public housing, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, released a report last year recommending housing authorities force out high-earning tenants.
The Lackawanna County Housing Authority is implementing those recommendations and already forced one family out.
“Obviously, if there's somebody out there who's in need of that unit -- in desperate need of that unit -- they should be having that unit,” said Paul Walker, the chairman of the LCHA.
But Newswatch 16 found other housing authorities not complying, like the Wilkes-Barre Housing Authority. It has 172 families on its wait list with 18 families over the income limit.
The Luzerne County Housing Authority has 1,300 on its wait list with 24 households over income, but is also not following the recommendation.
Director David Fagula argues part of the reason is that moving a tenant out would create extra work.
“There's a high cost to that eviction, there's unit turnaround time, there's finding a new tenant, there's a loss of income,” Fagula said. “I don't think this particular issue at this time in our authority is a major issue.”
The Pottsville Housing Authority, which recently had a household earning six figures, also refuses to force out high earning tenants out because the report only offers “a suggestion, it's not law,” said Craig Shields of the Pottsville Housing Authority.
That's why Congressman Lou Barletta wants to change the recommendation of forcing out high earners into a mandate.
“We need to force HUD to not give local authorities the options to stay in housing when they don't need it,” he said.
HUD is considering a new rule to boot our high earning tenants. It’s asking for public comment about that here.