U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is demanding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development inspect a series of Section 8 properties across Florida that he says have been neglected.
The demand came in a letter written by Senator Rubio to HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge on May 18, 2021. In the letter, Rubio mentions Ocala Place as one of the 29 properties in Florida “with failing [Real Estate Assessment Center] scores” that have not been “inspected in several years.”
“I remain concerned that the lack of timely and regular inspections has allowed conditions to decline at other properties in Florida, and perhaps throughout the country,” said Rubio. “Ocala Place in Ocala received a score of 21 out of 100 and was most recently inspected on September 11, 2019,” explained Rubio, who indicated that the HUD has provided more than $60.6 in federal financial assistance to the 29 properties in question.
The Senator, who last visited Ocala and The Villages along the campaign trail in the past few years, made further reference to properties in Jacksonville and Quincy, Florida as ones his staff had visited and determined were “unsafe and unsanitary.”
“This lack of inspection would apparently violate HUD’s Uniform Physical Condition Standards, which clearly states that properties with failing inspections must receive annual inspections, and that properties with standard scores must receive inspections every two years to ensure properties meet acceptable housing conditions,” continued Rubio.
He concluded the letter with a list of demands, including a timetable to describe the dates by which each property will receive a REAC inspection.