LR landlord facing ban for 1 year

Housing voucher agency says inspection standards not met

The Metropolitan Housing Alliance will ban a landlord at a Little Rock apartment complex from participating in its voucher program for a year, the board of commissioners decided Thursday.

Five units at the Barrington Hills apartment complex at 1221 Reservoir Road had not met inspection standards. Those tenants are receiving vouchers to relocate, and about 30 units that met standards will remain under contract, according to a report the board received Thursday.

The agency’s staff, under the previous executive director, had opted to issue a sixmonth ban in June. According to the report, a shorter time frame for the ban was chosen in part because the coronavirus pandemic has caused delays in leasing and resulted in tenants having difficulties finding units.

The housing authority provides rental assistance for people with lower incomes to live at private properties through the federal Housing Choice Voucher program.

According to the housing authority’s policy, the agency “reserves the right to issue a one year ban to landlords that have a history of not meeting the time standards of repairs.”

The board and staff previously disagreed on whether the policy meant the agency had to issue a one-year ban, or if it meant that the housing authority could issue a ban of up to one year. At July’s board meeting, the board decided to defer to the agency’s interim executive director since July, Nadine Jarmon.

Jarmon initially told the board Thursday that the agency would go forward

with the six-month ban, and in the future have bans for time frames other than six months go before the board.

But commissioners said they were worried about consistency in enforcing the policy.

“That opens up a can of worms,” Chairman Kenyon Lowe said.

Board member Leta Anthony said decisions about that policy should be up to the board and not by discretion of staff.

Jarmon said she would issue a revision to the notice that the ban would extend another six months, ending in June 2021.

A phone number listed on the website for the Barrington Hills apartment complex was out of service Thursday.

One tenant with a Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing voucher at the apartment complex was given a voucher to relocate because of water issue at the tenant’s unit in April, the housing authority previously told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.