KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tens of millions of federal tax dollars go to help Kansas City's low-income families rent housing.
But only 10 people check to make sure that housing investment is being protected.
"Need to be able to see the house number from the street and they apparently painted over the post there, went right over the numbers so they're correcting that right now," said Gary Swaim of the Kansas City Housing Authority.
Swaim was watching a crew make some minor repairs as he was inspecting a home on Bellefontaine.
The home is one of nearly 7,500 properties in the Authority's Housing Choice Voucher Program, formerly known as Section 8.
"Need to look at the door, make sure it's properly weather stripped, looks good," Swaim said as he inspected the front door.
Under the program, the Authority pays part of the tenant's rent each month based on the tenant's income. To protect that investment, homes are inspected annually.
"Make sure the water is hot," Swaim said as he inspected the bathroom sink.
The Kansas City Housing Authority does about 12,000 inspections each year.
The problem is Swaim is one of only 10 inspectors who do all that work.
"Mathematically, it comes down to about five or six inspections per inspector per day," said Ed Lowndes, Kansas City Housing Authority Director.
"It's probably closer to eight to 10, I would say," Swaim said.
"If I had more funding, I'd hire more inspectors," Lowndes said.
According to Lowndes, there are times when inspectors are so overwhelmed with work, the Kansas City Housing Authority will hire private contractors to keep up with inspection demand.
Funding for the Kansas City Housing Authority's Voucher Program did jump from about $53 to $55 million from 2016 to 2017, a roughly 4 percent increase.
But that funding, which is done over the calendar year, is expected to level off this year.
"The funding that we receive is not fully adequate for what really should be used to fund the program," Lowndes said.
Lowndes in particular points to an overwhelming demand for the program.
To properly gauge that demand, Lowndes has a waiting list.
Lowndes said the high point was reached in 2014 when 17,700 families were on the waiting list for the voucher program.
In October 2015, the Authority began the process of purging the list.
The Authority sent postcards to families on the waiting list asking if they wanted to stay on it.
If they said no or there was no response, the families were removed from the list.
In December 2015, Lowndes said there were 13,750 families on the waiting list.
After the purge in January 2016, there were 3,300 families on the waiting list.
Now, less than two and a half years later, the waiting list for the voucher program has more than tripled to 10,300 families.
If you put your name in to get to the back of the line today, Lowndes said it would take five to seven years to get a voucher and move into a subsidized home.
"We try to make it as easy as possible for them as well as ourselves. You know, making sure the property is ready when they come out," said Tina Courter, Vivid Properties Manager.
The privately-owned, Kansas-based Vivid Properties owns more than 100 homes in the metro, many of them in the voucher program.
Courter said even when a tenant gets a voucher, it can take months to get the mandatory home inspection before that family can move in.
"We could always use more help," said Swaim.
"We absolutely agree with that," Courter said.
In addition to move-in and annual inspections, there are follow up inspections for unresolved issues and tenant complaint inspections.
Some of them can be serious like a clogged sewer line at a home on East Sixth Street leaking into another Vivid Properties voucher program home.
Before the Authority came out, a Vivid maintenance man fixed the problem with the neighbor's sewer line.
The clog was caused by a dead rat.
There was nothing close to that serious at the Bellefontaine annual inspection.
Workers were able to fix a few issues Swaim had on his list while he was there.
The last item was removing bars on the outside of the home's bedroom window so the tenant could escape in case of a fire.
If issues aren't addressed while the inspector is on site, the inspector must return in 30 days for a follow-up inspection to make sure everything on the list is fixed.
Swaim won't have to return to the Bellefontaine home for a follow-up inspection.
"If it's a big long list. I can't wait for 30 or 40 minutes for them to fix everything. You got to go to the next place. Yes, I'm on a fairly tight schedule," Swaim said.
While Lowndes acknowledges he could use more inspectors to do the seemingly endless work, he won't be able to hire any new ones without a significant budget increase.
He said he's had 10 inspectors for the last several years.
