Premier Management is Montgomery County’s public housing authority and administers rent-vouchers and operates properties for thousands of low-income residents. Officials with the agency said they are working with HUD to resolve any issues and want to be removed from the watch list. The agency will undergo a compliance review later this month.
Jennifer Heapy, the new CEO of Greater Dayton Premier Management, said the agency’s mission is to provide safe, affordable housing to eligible residents in the county, and it is the agency’s duty and responsibility to provide reasonable accommodations when requested.
“We take this very seriously,” she said. “This happened prior to my tenure … but I take responsibility.”
In August 2013, Renee Jordan, who is legally blind, filed a federal lawsuit against Premier Management, claiming the public housing authority was violating federal law.
Jordan participates in the housing voucher program. For years, she has requested Premier Management send her taped audio recordings as communications instead of letters she cannot read.
In 2003, Premier Management, then the Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority, agreed to honor Jordan’s request, court records state.
But three years later, Jordan filed a discrimination complaint with HUD, alleging Premier Management routinely did not provide her with audio recordings.
In 2007, HUD and Premier Management said it would give Jordan audio correspondence, as part of a voluntary compliance agreement.
But a couple years ago, Jordan again complained that she was not receiving audiotapes. Her attorneys said she received fewer than 20 recordings over 10 years.
Premier Management responded that it could not provide audio recordings of all communications, because it would be a financial and administrative burden.
But a federal judge last year granted Jordan’s request for an injunction, ordering Premier Management to provide correspondence in audio format. The parties eventually settled the dispute, and Premier Management agreed to pay Jordan $26,000, as well as $106,500 in legal fees.
“Despite federal law and GDPM’s own policy statements, GDPM believed it was not required to provide Ms. Jordan audiotapes of written correspondence,” said Matthew Currie, managing attorney for Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, which represented Jordan. “The court found no support for GDPM’s strained interpretation of the applicable regulations.”
HUD also placed Premier Management on its Civil Rights Threshold List for violating the voluntary compliance agreement.
Appearing on the Civil Rights Threshold List makes Premier Management ineligible for HUD discretionary funds, including Jobs-plus Community Revitalization grants, which can be up to $200,000 for job training, as well as funding for security upgrades, such as new cameras. This is the agency’s first time on the list.
Between March 23 to 27, the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Columbus Fair Housing Center, is conducting a compliance review at Premier Management to determine whether the agency should be removed from the watch list, said Gina Rodriguez, a HUD spokeswoman.
Nationwide, about 100 agencies are on the Civil Rights Threshold List, she said.
Premier Management also was investigated because the HUD Chicago Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity received two fair housing complaints from Carla Taylor and the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center, alleging the agency did not fulfill a reasonable accommodation request.
Taylor wanted to move from a second-floor apartment to a first-floor unit because she has medical issues and physical limitations, according to the complaint. The center said Premier Management did not process her reasonable accommodation request in a timely manner, violating the federal Fair Housing Act.
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley recently told Premier Management the civil rights issues have put the city at a disadvantage.
“We want you off the list too, because it affects our ability to partner and bring dollars into the city,” she said.
Heapy, who took over as interim CEO in June, said Premier Management serves many people with disabilities, and her agency must work to reasonably accommodate their needs.
Premier Management issues about 3,400 vouchers each month, and it also serves about 3,000 people who use the agency’s public housing facilities.
Heapy said the agency and board have worked hard to resolve the complaints and have clarified their policies and procedures to properly serve clients.
“There is no further action that needs to be resolved, and the accommodations have been provided,” she said.
Heapy said the Premier Management employees responsible for denying the requests for accommodations no longer work for the agency, except one, who remains on the payroll but was disciplined. She declined to say whether the others were fired.
“I think it was a matter of interpretation by some former employees as to whether or not these accommodations were required to be provided,” she said.
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