HUD Bad Landlord Complaints

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

The database of all complaints submitted against federal housing landlords via the Multifamily Housing Complaint Line for the past 10 years from the date this request is processed, or however long such data is maintained.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Shawn Musgrave

Hello,

This FOIA request has yet to receive a case number or acknowledgement. Please acknowledge receipt and provide an estimated date of delivery.

Thank you.

Hello,

This is the second followup I have sent regarding this FOIA request, which was originally submitted nearly two months ago. Please confirm receipt and provide an estimated date of delivery, as required by the FOIA statute.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock

Hi Mr. Musgrave:

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has received your FOIA request dated June 5, 2013, however, we need to know whether you are seeking copies of the actual complaints or the number and types of complaints. Please respond to this email and let me know.

Thanks,

Sandra J. Wright
Team Leader/FOIA Specialist
Office of the Executive Secretariat
Room 10139
Office - (202) 402-5510
(Fax) - (202) 401-7947

Ms. Wright,

If the database is not available, please send the number and types, yes.

Thank you,
Shawn

Hello,

Just checking in to see whether any progress had been made on this request.

Thanks!

-Shawn

Hello,

Checking in again.

Thanks,
Shawn

Hello,

Is there any update on this request?

Thank you!

-Shawn

Ms. Erlandson,

Thank you very much for tracking this down. Per my original FOIA request, I would like to request this database as far back as it is available.

Thank you!

Best,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock

Hello,

I am interested in the database or spreadsheet of all complaints submitted to the Multifamily Housing Complaint Line.

Thanks!

-Shawn

Hi Jane,

Thanks so much for your recommendations on the phone earlier. Per that conversation, I will submit a separate request for the inspections databases and regional follow-up data.

In the meantime, please continue processing my request for the Multifamily Hotline complaints.

Thanks again!

Best,
Shawn

Hello,

Checking in again on this request -- is there an estimated delivery date on the complaints database?

Thank you,
Shawn

Hello,

Thank you for getting in touch. Responses to your points below:

1) I would like a database of all complaints submitted to the Multifamily Housing Complaint Line, regardless of inspection status, etc.

2) What would be the appropriate office to follow-up with when it comes to inspections?

Thank you,
Shawn

Hello,

This is a continuation of my original FOIA request, and not a new one. That first request went more than a month without reply, so I cannot be assigned any fees under FOIA.

Please proceed with my request as you indicated: for a data file containing all complaints.

Thank you,
Shawn

Hello,

Apologies for any confusion.

This is all still with regards to FOIA 13-FI-HQ-01658, which was submitted to HUD FOIA office on 5 June 2013. The response of 18 August 2013 (attached) did not complete that request, as it provided only summary statistics of complaints received by the Multifamily Housing Complaint Line.

At that point, Ms. Wright of the HUD FOIA office referred me to Ms. Erlandson for a complete database of complaints. Based on the coded complaints in the attached table and previous emails, this database exists and is releasable.

Please continue processing this request and provide an estimated date of delivery for the database.

Thank you,
Shawn

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 5, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 5, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

There has been no update on this request since September. Please advise?

Thank you.

Ms. Wright,

This request has been "in process" for several months. Please provide an update and let me know if I can make any clarifications, but I believe I have been clear about the information and even database names that I am seeking.

To reiterate, this is a media request, not a commercial one, so fees ought to be minimal. Furthermore, given the considerable delay in response and lack of followup from your office, I respectfully ask for a fee waiver both in terms of your obligations under FOIA as well as the public interest served by publishing information about recalcitrant landlords.

Please get in touch right away if there are any lingering questions about what records I seek, and to provide an estimated date of delivery.

Thank you,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock

Ms. Wright,

As I've outlined numerous times, the response of August 18 did not fulfill my request. Your office provided aggregate numbers of complaints, not the complaint database itself. While I indicated that I would accept summaries if the database is not available, subsequent conversations with you and Ms. Erlandson suggested to me that this database can, in fact, be released, and I asked that this be done to fulfill my original request.

If you have closed my request in your system, that closing was done in error. It is unnecessarily burdensome on me to require a new request be submitted, unless that request could be expedited.

Please advise.

Respectfully,
Shawn

Hello,

Checking in on this request -- I'm eager to resolve it and begin analyzing the data.

Best,
Shawn

Hello,

Unless it is unduly burdensome, I seek all fields recorded from complaints to the Multifamily Housing Complaint Line for however long such data is maintained.

If this is unduly burdensome (and please explain in detail why it is if that is the case), I would at minimum be looking for:

-Site address or relevant property indicator
-Date of complaint
-Category of complaint
-Description of complaint
-Resolution action (if an outcome or resolution is tracked in this database)
-Referral agency/entity (if referrals are recorded)

Please confirm how you intend to proceed with this request.

Best,
Shawn

Hello,

Please provide an update on this request. It is more than six months since I submitted it to HUD.

Thank you,
Shawn

Ms. Wright,

Any update on this request? We're verging on 8 months.

Best,
Shawn

Ms. Wright,

Checking in again on this request.

Thank you for your help,

Shawn

Ms. Wright,

Please provide an estimated completion date for this request, which has been in process for more than 9 months.

Thank you,
Shawn

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 5, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

Thank you for sending. Can you please send a digital copy of the redacted data? This scanned one is extensive but unreadable in parts.

Thank you,
Shawn

Ms. Wright,

Can you clarify whether redactions were made in the spreadsheet file or on a PDF of the complaints record? The documents sent by CD are still not digital copies of the complaints database itself.

-Shawn

Ms. Wright -

As sent to me by email as well as by CD, this spreadsheet contains only complaints filed from August 2002 to December 2002. Please advise.

Shawn

Ms. Wright,

Checking on this.

-Shawn

Ms. Wright -

I clearly outlined on numerous occasions that this is a request for data held in the complaints database as far back as it is available -- your own letter indicated that the provided documents were meant to respond to my request for 10 years worth of data. Please advise as to whether additional documents will be forthcoming, or if you consider this request to be closed.

-Shawn

Ms. Wright -

I apologize that I was unable to call today. Over the next couple of days, it will be much easier to communicate with me by email than by phone. Can we sort out whatever clarification you need by email?

-Shawn

Ms. Wright -

As I indicated in the voicemail I just left, it is much easier to get a hold of me via email. I respectfully request that you get in touch today, as this request is more than a year overdue.

Best,
Shawn

Ms. Wright -

In the interest of expediency, please outline what you were planning to discuss by phone in an email addressed here.

-Shawn

Ms. Wright and Ms. Snowden:

I am in receipt of the attached letter requesting payment of more than $600 for documents responsive to a FOIA request submitted more than a year ago, for which HUD has numerous times provided documents insufficient even to its own description of the request. I have outlined the timeline of this request process below in an attempt to emphasize that this request certainly qualifies for a waiver of fees not only on public interest grounds, but on mishandling and excessive delay on the part of the HUD FOIA team.

The entirety of correspondence between myself and HUD FOIA staff can also be found online here: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/hud-bad-landlord-complaints-5938/

I will submit a formal appeal if necessary to move this request closer to completion, but wanted to give HUD FOIA the opportunity to rectify its processing errors without an appeal, if possible.

On June 5, 2013, I submitted a request to HUD for the following:

"The database of all complaints submitted against federal housing landlords via the Multifamily Housing Complaint Line for the past 10 years from the date this request is processed, or however long such data is maintained."

After more than two months of fragmented communications with a handful of members of the HUD FOIA and data analysis team, I received the attached final response for FOIA request 13-FI-HQ-01658, signed by Ms. Dolores Cole and dated August 18, 2013. This response provided aggregate numbers for complaints submitted to the indicated hotline from 2003 through June 18, 2013, rather than the complaint data itself for the previous 10 years as requested.

While I had indicated to HUD FOIA staff that I would accept aggregate numbers if the database itself was unavailable, subsequent conversations had confirmed that the database was, in fact, available for release. When I contacted HUD FOIA staff to indicate that my FOIA request had not been completed as submitted and that the database itself had been confirmed to be available, it took several more weeks simply to establish with the HUD FOIA staff that this request remained unfulfilled. On November 29, 2013, Ms. Wright suggested that I would need to submit a new request, which I refused to do in light of the considerable delays I had already endured, as well as given that my original request had not yet been completed as submitted. Again, the table of aggregate numbers provided did not complete my request as submitted.

Another two months later, in January 2014, Ms. Wright confirmed that she had received a CD-ROM of the requested data, but it would not be until May 29 that this data would be released. The attached cover letter signed by Ms. Cole included a new FOIA number (14-FI-HQ-00347) despite my explicit indication on several occasions that this was a continuation of my request as submitted nearly a year earlier, rather than a new request as HUD FOIA staff attempted to assert.

The data sent on May 29 was not only in a non-native format -- i.e., scanned printouts of spreadsheets rather than the spreadsheets themselves -- but included only complaints filed from August 2002 to December 2002. That is, HUD FOIA staff released 4 months of data from 12 years earlier, without indication or comment as to why this release varied so widely from the scope of my request as summarized in the first paragraph of the May 29 cover letter. Again, I had communicated the scope of my request (complaints submitted to the hotline for the previous 10 years) to Ms. Wright and a HUD data analyst on a number of occasions, and a number of communications with HUD FOIA staff confirmed that the request scope had been conveyed sufficiently as to eliminate confusion.

I pointed out this discrepancy by email to Ms. Wright twice before receiving response. In her July 8 response, Ms. Wright provided no explanation for the discrepancy between my request and the documents provided, but simply indicated that "this information is what the program office provided to the FOIA Branch."

After a series of back-and-forth voicemails and unanswered email queries, I received the attached letter of July 31, signed by Ms. Snowden and referring to FOIA tracking number 14-FI-HQ-00347. That letter requests payment of $669.06 for 3,967 pages of duplication.

By this email, I once again assert to HUD FOIA that my original request submitted in June 2013, 13-FI-HQ-01658, remains unfulfilled. Aggregate statistics provided in August 2013 under the incorrect pretense that the underlying data itself was unavailable did not fulfill HUD's obligations to provide data under FOIA, and so it is wholly incorrect to demand such steep payment to cover fees for a FOIA now overdue by more than a year.

Furthermore, the latest fee letter demands such a steep fee for duplication, when I have explicitly requested the data in electronic format. HUD FOIA has failed to date to adequately explain its inability to provide data in native electronic format as required under the amended FOIA statute.

Finally, the data requested are of considerable public interest, pertaining as they do to safety and quality of life matters within federally-funded public housing units. Given the interest in this same issue at a number of public housing developments around the country (including in New York City and the Bay Area), it is clear that the public interest and government accountability will be served by releasing such a critical representation of HUD's oversight of public housing maintenance.

In summary, I respectfully insist that HUD comply with its obligations under FOIA by acknowledging that my original request remains unfulfilled as submitted, revising its fee estimate in light of my request for data rather than duplicated copies of printed out spreadsheets, and promptly fulfill a request overdue by more than a year. As an additional matter, I request a full waiver of fees in light of the considerable delay, public interest in the requested data and my status as a journalist.

Please let me know if any of the above is unclear in any way, or if I should need to formulate it as a formal appeal in order to move this process forward. I look forward to your prompt reply.

Respectfully,

Shawn

Hello,

I respectfully insist on a response within the next business day or I will submit an appeal and begin exploring litigation to obtain the requested data.

Best,
Shawn

Hello,

Please provide an update on this request.

Best,
Shawn

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 5, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #14-FI-HQ-00347 ; 13-FI-HQ-01658.

Thank you for your help.

Hello -

Yes, I am still interested in receiving the remainder of the documents.

Thank you,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock

Hello -

Yes, please continue to process this request.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock

Eugene -

That's correct. My request covers the years 2003 to 2013.

Best,
Shawn

Hi Mr. McGirt,

Thanks so much for checking in. We would appreciate any additional materials.

Best wishes,
Beryl, MuckRock

Hello -

Yes, please continue to process this request.

Thank you,
Shawn

Hello Ms. Wright,

We've been directed to you for a status on this FOIA request. Could you please provide an update on where it stands?

Thanks so much!
Beryl

Hi Sandra -

Thank you. The summaries are fine for my purposes.

Best,
Shawn