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*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***
HUD’S SACKED INSPECTORS WERE PURVEYORS OF BLIGHT, MISERY
VENTURA, Calif. (October 24, 2025) – The names alone became infamous: Pruitt-Igoe, Queensbridge Houses, Robert Taylor Homes, Jordan Downs, Marcy Projects and Cabrini Green. Largely memory-holed, the public housing projects were synonymous with poverty, despair, violence, blight, tragedy and massive deferred maintenance.
Today, about 5 million public and voucher-supported dwelling units are overseen by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Many suffer from unaddressed lead exposure, mold, and lack of habitability. Typical is the blighted public-housing at Yamacraw Village in Savannah, Georgia. Tenants at Yamacraw say the housing authority has ignored broken windows, broken streetlights, peeling paint, mold, rats and cockroaches for years. The refrain is a common one.
In mid-October, HUD fired all its 90 building inspectors at its Real Estate Assessment Center. Cashiering this group will hardly be noticed. For decades, they have collectively and individually violated federal law requiring the inspection of government-subsidized properties at three-year intervals. The dysfunction and lawlessness has been an open secret. Only the government itself could get away with neglect at this scale.
Had they been doing their jobs – an impossibility from the outset – each inspector would have had to inspect 55,555 housing units annually or 1,068 housing units every week. The use of dubious outside contractors in a futile attempt to reduce the backlog created a petri dish for potential fraud and self-dealing. Internally, the inspection process became a pencil-whipping exercise.
Besides the long-term effects of mold exposure, drafts caused by cracked and broken windows, lead exposure and other deferred maintenance, some of the neglect has recently grabbed headlines. A gas explosion this month in a public housing project in New York’s Mitchel Houses in the Bronx caused the chimney of the 20-story building to collapse, sending bricks and debris tumbling to the sidewalks as residents ran out of the building.
HUD recently removed public access to inspection scores and training materials, citing a website overhaul, reported the publication CRE Daily. The agency has a track record of dodging accountability through these types of maneuvers. Over the years, HUD has delayed or refused to address U.S. Freedom of Information Act requests.
Since its inception as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” program, HUD has become an ever-expanding organism with a singular goal of self-preservation above all else. It has morphed into a full employment program for housing bureaucrats. It’s become an elephantine bureaucracy. The experiment needs to be ended.
Mercifully, hundreds of HUD employees have been shown the door during the current government shutdown. This follows reductions earlier this year, with reports indicating potential for more extensive cuts to come.
Blighted public housing always starts with the best of intentions – helping the working-class find affordable housing. But, as it turns out, federal and local governments aren’t good landlords. Intellectuals romanticize public housing. But unlike the private sector, the state, over time, has a track record of minimizing and deferring maintenance.
Look for a rebranding of the term “public housing” to “social housing” by idealogues in government and closely aligned nonprofits.
Anyone wondering about HUD’s failures need look no further than its own headquarters. It’s called the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building. In June, HUD employees were moved from the building as it became a health and safety hazard. This is due largely to the agency’s noncompliance with basic building and safety standards over many years.
HUD’s building at 2415 Eisenhower Avenue near L’Enfant Plaza had backlogged over $500 million in deferred maintenance. According to the agency itself, the deferred maintenance led to severe health and safety threats, leaks, and structural and maintenance failures.
In February, HUD’s public employee union sounded the alarm on fraud, waste and abuse at the federal agency. The union had been contacting key legislators. It followed the submission of Inspector General complaints detailing systemic mismanagement under the leadership of HUD's Public and Indian Housing division.
According to an Inspector General’s report last year, HUD couldn’t account for spending at its two largest programs. It was the seventh straight year officials couldn’t estimate the scope of incorrect payouts at internal divisions that account for two-thirds of the department’s total annual expenditures.
But in the creation of slum housing at scale, there is no more effective agent than HUD. To think otherwise allows hope to triumph over experience. Federal housing bureaucrats want the public to memory-hole infamous places like Pruitt-Igoe, Queensbridge Houses, Robert Taylor Homes, Jordan Downs, Marcy Projects and Cabrini Green. Americans should never forget them, or an immoral organization’s neglect and incompetence.
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Become my Patron! My name is Jeremy Bagott. I’m a licensed real estate appraiser, author, and former newspaper editor. I investigate the shadowy intersection where federal guarantees, sponsorships, and grants meet private enterprise — a space rife with self-dealing, cronyism, and taxpayer exploitation. Each week, I expose corruption and abuse in the federally backed housing sector — stories often ignored by mainstream media. I don’t hide my reporting behind paywalls or offer exclusive content, but this work requires time, independence, and resources. I rely solely on readers who believe truth-telling still matters. If you'd like to support this effort, please consider supporting me on Patreon here (patreon.com/jeremy_bagott). I accept no support above $5.00/month from any patron.
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