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Since June, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has inspected at least 1,200 HUD-subsidized properties, agency data shows. But thousands of inspections are overdue, despite agency goals to eliminate the backlog in spring of this year. For public housing owned by housing authorities and privately owned multifamily housing that receives HUD funding, the agency relies on inspections to hold landlords accountable for unaddressed safety hazards. Last month, Streetlight reported that longstanding problems with the inspection program and HUD’s oversight place renters’ lives at risk. Since then, HUD’s inspections and oversight of the properties it subsidizes have drawn attention from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who urged HUD to ensure gas leak repairs were made at a Florida apartment complex at the beginning of August.

You're invited! FREE Homeownership 'House Party' Saturday, August 26th 9am-5pm Learn how you can achieve your dreams of owning a home!! REGISTER HERE - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-hud-homeownership-house-party-tickets-687448967367?aff=oddtdtcreator Date and time Saturday, August 26 · 9am - 5pm EDT Location Edward Waters University 1859 Kings Road (EWU Gymnasium) Jacksonville, FL 32209 The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development along with the City of Jacksonville, Jacksonville Housing Counseling Agencies and Housing Industry Partners is hosting a FREE Homeownership 'House Party' Saturday, August 26, 2023, from 9am-5pm on the campus of Edward Waters University (Gymnasium)

After Mayor Donna Deegan and a gaggle of reporters had gone, April Sizemore stood in her cramped apartment that still smelled of mold and suffered all the problems that had caused her to speak out in the first place: the roaches, the rats, the holes in the wall, the water leaks. Barely able to pay the $800 monthly rent, she grimaced at the water flowing from the bathtub tab that a malfunctioning faucet wouldn’t turn off. To Sizemore, it was the sound of money draining from her household finances because she’ll end up paying for the wasted water on her utility bill. “We can’t live like this, and no, I can’t afford anywhere else or otherwise I’d be gone,” Sizemore said. “But as a single mother of two children, I just can’t leave like that.”

A $650,000 settlement has been reached with Lohman Property Management over claims the landlords did not communicate claims for security deposits to their tenants and charged fees that were not part of the contracts the company had with renters. The settlement includes anyone in Florida who entered into a lease agreement for apartments at Eagle Gardens of Jacksonville, Arlington Eagle, Eagle Court, Eagle Landing of Orlando, Eagle Point of Daytona, Eagle Pointe I, Eagle Pointe II, Eagle Ridge, Eagle Summit, Jacksonville Village Apartments, Orlando on the Lake Apartments and Orlando Sky and had any portion of their security deposit retained after they moved out.

Suzanne Garrow could not believe the bold, black and discriminatory words that were published in the back pages of the Florida Times-Union. A classified advertisement toward the bottom of Page D6 on May 24, 2021, sought a “Mature Adult Only!” for a property on the Westside. Garrow, a staff attorney with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid in its fair housing division, recalls seeing the advertisement in the region’s biggest daily newspaper and wondering whether there was a wider problem. That question was answered last week when Jacksonville Area Legal Aid announced a settlement with Gannett Co., the Times-Union’s parent company. The media conglomerate agreed to provide its advertising terms and conditions to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to review and correct any issues identified by the federal agency.

Jacksonville Area Legal Aid settled a charge against Gannett Publishing Co. Inc. after the newspaper chain owner published classified advertisements placed by third parties that were allegedly discriminatory based on race, sex and familial status. Gannett did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gannett owns The Florida Times-Union and St. Augustine Record in Northeast Florida. The charge JALA filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Fair Housing and Opportunity alleged that in Gannett’s online and print media outlets it “makes, prints or publishes notices, statements and advertisements with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling indicating a preference limitation or discrimination based on membership in a protected class” in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act.