In all but two cases, the landlord marked, “No.” “I don’t know who that person is at all, and we’ve been here since we moved in 2018,” she said.Įvery application submitted to MVCAP by the landlord asks whether the tenant receives rent assistance, such as Section 8. The application lists the tenant’s name as Leon Haynes and says he has no phone. She said she didn’t get other rental assistance last year.įreedom for Living received $8,400 total in county assistance for Smith’s rental unit, which is her full $1,050 monthly rent for eight months. This includes Tammy Smith, who said she paid $341 a month and GDPM covered the rest of her rent through a Section 8 housing voucher. Several tenants said they received housing assistance from agencies such as Greater Dayton Premier Management for the same months that the pandemic relief program paid Freedom for Living. “If he got four grand for me to stay here and I’ve been paying, then he’s been overpaid,” Ewing said. Freedom for Living received $4,815 in rent assistance last year for Ewing, claiming he didn’t pay his $535 monthly rent from April through December. “(I want) to get my money back.” Explore Federal rental assistance checks went to landlords of uninhabitable properties, newspaper investigation findsĭon Ewing said he fell behind on rent last year but caught up after Freedom for Living filed for eviction in June. I don’t have money to go somewhere else,” he said. “It pissed me off but I don’t want to get evicted. Gibson said the landlord offered him three months of rent, not telling Gibson they were paid for eight months by the government. He had no idea Freedom for Living received $7,200 in September in his name – eight months of rent at $900 a month.Īfter the Dayton Daily News started contacting tenants, Gibson was one of several who said the landlord reached out to them, credited their accounts and asked them not to talk to anyone about the program. He showed the Dayton Daily News electronic records saying he then continued paying his rent and $75 monthly late fees, finally getting caught up this year by spending $2,000 from his tax return after multiple eviction threats. He sought rental assistance but believed he didn’t get it. Vaughn Gibson fell behind last year after losing his construction job. We are continuing to work closely with Montgomery County and will look into the most recent cases that DDN has brought to our attention,” MVCAP President Lisa Stempler said. “MVCAP is grateful for the investigative efforts of the Dayton Daily News staff. Explore Here’s how some local governments spent $153M in federal CARES Act funds The partnership provided rent assistance to nearly 1,600 residents. The county paid Miami Valley Community Action Partnership to administer the program. The rental assistance program in this story was created by Montgomery County using $5 million of a $92.7 million payment it received through the CARES Act. “We don’t want to make a comment,” Alicia Draines said when reached by phone. Company officials declined answer questions from the Dayton Daily News. GDPM and county officials are expanding cross-checking rental assistance programs to detect duplicate payments as one of several oversight efforts in response to the newspaper’s investigation.įreedom for Living is controlled by Antoine and Alicia Draines, according to business records.road, 34 units managed by Freedom for Living received pandemic rental assistance. Four tenants said they paid their full rent themselves for the same months Freedom for Living got assistance.Six applications listed tenants who don’t live at those units or who moved in months after the landlord claimed they stopped paying their rent.Greater Dayton Premier Management, the local public housing authority, removed the property management company and its affiliates from the Section 8 program after finding suspected fraud.Eleven renters said they received government rental assistance from programs such as Section 8 housing vouchers at the same time the county program paid rent, meaning the company possibly received double payments from federal programs.
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