DuPage housing feud escalates
An already bitter dispute between the DuPage Housing Authority and a company that manages two senior housing projects has become more vitriolic.
Authority officials are calling for action to be taken against The Stough Group for not informing them about an on-site property manager being accused in August of exposing himself to a 61-year-old female tenant at the Rose Glen apartment complex in Roselle. Then in December, the 27-year-old worker was charged with aggravated battery after a confrontation with an elderly man at a property Stough Group manages in Bellwood.
“I am not happy that we weren't notified,” said Thomas Good, chairman of the housing authority board.
The Wheaton-based agency has sent letters to the Illinois Housing Development Authority and SunAmerica requesting a corrective action plan be devised for Stough Group's management of Rose Glen and the Myers Commons apartments in Darien, another Section 8 project.
The IHDA has an interest in properties managed by Stough Group. SunAmerica, a private housing financing company, is a limited partner in Myers Commons and has an interest in properties managed by Stough Group, officials said.
DHA officials wrote in the letters that Stough Group “failed to remove the perpetrator from all contact with vulnerable elderly residents.”
“The authority believes that your involvement is required because the past conduct of the current management of these two facilities shows a pattern of failing to (ensure) that management is staffed with individuals who are attuned to the needs of an elderly population,” according to copies of the letters obtained by the Daily Herald.
But Jason Racine, an executive vice president of Stough Group, said the company isn't legally obligated to give arrest information to the DHA. He called the agency's letters a “smoke screen” to deflect attention away from its failure to meet contractual obligations.
The Stough Group and its partners have been receiving rent subsidy payments from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development since the Myers Commons and Rose Glen projects were awarded separate Section 8 contracts in 2005 and 2007.
Starting next month, the DHA is planning to withhold payments until Myers Commons Senior Housing I L.P. and Rose Glen Limited Partnership I return millions of dollars in overpayments.
The overpayments were discovered when a series of federal audits found that the authority misspent or failed to account for more than $10 million in federal money.
Now officials with the authority, which was revamped after the audits, estimate that about $4.3 million in federal money was overpaid to Myers Commons and Rose Glen.
The owners of Myers Commons and Rose Glen disagree. They are suing the DHA and are trying to prevent the authority from stopping future payments.
DHA officials sent their letters to the IHDA and SunAmerica a week before both lawsuits were filed. Authority officials say they're voicing concerns about the arrests now because they just recently found out about them while doing an internal investigation of the Rose Glen and Myers Commons deals.
“The DuPage Housing Authority has zero tolerance for criminal acts, elder abuse and harassment and intimidation of residents,” officials said in a statement.
The on-site property manager was charged with disorderly conduct and possession of drug paraphernalia after a 61-year a woman who lives at Rose Glen told Roselle police that the man exposed himself to her during an Aug. 12 conversation. The man has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is awaiting a hearing date, court records show.
Racine said the employee was placed on administrative leave before being reassigned to the Prairie View apartments in Bellwood. As for the December confrontation that happened there, Racine said there's “absolutely no merit” to the resident's claim that the worker hit him.
Nevertheless, Racine wrote in an April 13 letter to the IHDA that the employee has since been terminated “based on additional information we have now received.”
A spokeswoman said the IHDA is continuing its own investigation, which started as soon as it was contacted by the DHA.
On Friday, Racine declined to say why the worker was terminated. Instead, he criticized the DHA for not coming to Stough Group directly with its concerns.
“The DHA's misrepresentations and disinterest in discussing any concerns it may have directly with The Stough Group reflects the true color of (executive director) David Hoicka and the new DHA administration,” Racine said. “It simply disgusts me.”
Hoicka said it would have been futile to ask Stough Group to correct itself. So the authority contacted SunAmerica and the IHDA to fix the problem.
“They are the ones calling the shots,” Hoicka said. “They are the ones who have the money invested. They are the ones who control the manager.”
Calls to SunAmerica were not returned.
Feud: DHA to withhold payments to developers