The Boston Housing Authority, the city’s largest housing provider, failed to consistently maintain its public housing in a “decent, safe, and sanitary condition,’’ according to a newly released federal audit.
Problems were found in 31 of 36 housing units examined in 2023 by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General, according to the audit, released last week.
Additionally, the agency failed to perform dozens of required inspections during fiscal years 2023 and 2022, the HUD office said.
Of the units with problems, more than half had deficiencies that existed at the time of the authority’s last inspection. More than a third had “life-threatening deficiencies that needed to be corrected within 24 hours.’’ The defects included missing or inoperable smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, electrical hazards, security hazards, and blocked exits.
“HUD relies on public housing agencies to ensure that public housing units funded by HUD are decent, safe, and sanitary,’’ HUD Acting Inspector General Stephen M. Begg said in a statement.
The results of the audit come amid a housing crisis that continues to plague the region. BHA oversees about 10,000 public housing rental units in the city. Established in 1935 to provide stable affordable housing for low- and moderate-income residents, the authority is run by Administrator Kenzie Bok, a former Boston city councilor appointed to the post in August 2023 by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
In a statement responding to the audit, the authority said the quality and safety of its housing is “extremely important’’ to both Bok and the mayor, and the agency has already implemented reforms that will help fix the issues identified in the federal review.
Bok, according to the statement, “completely overhauled’’ the agency’s maintenance system since taking the reins of the organization, reducing the total number of work orders agency-wide in BHA units from more than 17,000 in March 2023 to 3,100 as of the end of February.
“BHA changed its processes so that every BHA unit is now inspected by an expert licensed staff inspector every year,’’ the statement said.
Last year, the authority digitized its entire work order system “to ensure that every emergency issue is tracked and rapidly addressed in real time,’’ according to the authority’s statement.
The audit found that not only did the authority fail to comply with federal requirements, but it also failed to meet its own policies requiring maintenance superintendents to inspect the authority’s buildings and grounds quarterly.
According to the audit, the authority provided the last quarterly inspection report for only seven of 24 buildings identified as having deficiencies. It could not locate the last quarterly report for the remaining 17 buildings.
In addition, the audit reviewed the inspection history of 55 units, finding that the authority failed to perform 37 of the 103 required inspections during the agency’s 2022 and 2023 fiscal years.
Problems also riddled building exteriors and common areas in the vast majority of buildings the audit examined, with officials faulting heating and cooling equipment on the sites, fire exits, and fire control panels, plumbing, and infrastructure such as stairs and railings.
For instance, at the Franklin Field development in Dorchester, toilet leaks and rodent infestation were observed in a teen center community bathroom. Residents told officials that such conditions were a recurring issue. Next to the center, water leaks and standing water was spotted near electrical equipment. Elsewhere in that development, a hallway light was improperly wired.
In recent months, Franklin Field tenants have complained about shoddy maintenance and poor living conditions. Last year, allegations of disgraceful living conditions at Franklin Field drew the attention of the state’s attorney general, who sued the authority over its handling of a tenant’s complaints about a unit infested with mice and mold.
Last year, Bok, the authority’s administrator, said the many complaints at Franklin Field, a sprawling complex off Blue Hill Avenue, reflect not a failure to care but a shortage of resources.
“People get tired of hearing how underresourced public housing is, but it really is,’’ she said at the time.
The vast majority of Franklin Field’s 1,000-plus residents are people of color, and the units are intended to house the working class and the poor. There are three separate housing programs that make up Franklin Field. For all three, the average household income is below $30,000 a year. For one of the three, it is below $14,000.
The audit also found problems at other locations, including some instances of the authority failing to identify glaring problems in its own inspections.
For instance, mold and mildew were observed in a unit at the Alice H. Taylor Apartments near the Roxbury-Mission Hill line. The authority failed to identify that issue in a March 2023 inspection, according to the audit.
Similarly, at the Roslyn Apartments in Roslindale, the authority failed to identify a rodent infestation in a March 2023 inspection.
“The Authority lacked staffing resources to inspect all units, create work orders, correct the deficiencies identified in the Authority’s properties during its own inspections,’’ read a portion of the audit’s conclusions.
The audit was triggered at least in part by media attention and public concern about the condition of subsidized housing properties, according to inspector general’s office.
In the units that had deficiencies, problems with windows were most common. Such issues were present in more than 40 percent of the problem housing units. The review also found issues with bathroom appliances such as tubs, sinks, and toilets, ventilation, electrical hazards, kitchen appliances, pest infestations, and air quality.
Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com
