{"id":287086,"date":"2026-05-28T04:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/287086\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T04:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:22:14","slug":"hud-demands-tallahassee-return-1-million-for-troubled-lead-paint-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/287086\/","title":{"rendered":"HUD demands Tallahassee return $1 million for troubled lead paint program"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs is demanding the city of Tallahassee reimburse $1.03 million in grant money it received for its troubled program to remove lead paint<\/a> from low-income residences.<\/p>\n

The move by HUD comes just weeks after the federal agency designated the city\u2019s $4.4 million lead hazard based paint control grant as \u201chigh risk\u201d over concerns including door replacement costs at a\u00a0Holton\u00a0Street apartment complex and said the city’s program was under audit.<\/p>\n

Kennedi Rice, a government technical representative for HUD, wrote the city May 26 to say it had reviewed materials submitted by the city in response to the agency’s concerns about the grant, which was funded through the Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes.<\/p>\n

She said that “unfortunately,” HUD determined that the documents were “insufficient” to establish compliance with federal requirements, statutory eligibility standards, grant-specific requirements and program regulations.<\/p>\n

“Accordingly, HUD has determined that costs associated with the\u00a0Holton Street Project are ineligible for reimbursement under the grant,” Rice wrote. “As a result, the\u00a0city is required to reimburse HUD all lead-based paint, lead-based paint hazard, and healthy homes hazard evaluation and control funds linked to the Holton Street Project\u00a0and staff work time funds associated with the project.”<\/p>\n

City vows to appeal HUD’s decision to claw back $1 million<\/p>\n

In an email Wednesday, May 27, Assistant City Manager Christian\u00a0Doolin\u00a0informed city commissioners and top city officials of the latest developments.<\/p>\n

\u201cLate yesterday afternoon, I received official notice from HUD deeming the work completed at\u00a0Holton\u00a0Street ineligible for reimbursement citing insufficient documentation and requiring the city to reimburse up to $1.03 million in funds used for lead abatement,\u201d\u00a0Doolin\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The city of Tallahassee has spent more than $1 million in federal grant money to replace lead-paint contaminated doors at Holton Apartments, located at 2500 Holton St. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development placed the grant on “high risk” status and under audit in May 2026.<\/p>\n

He added that staff believes previously submitted documentation addresses HUD\u2019s requests \u201cand subject to further information from HUD, we intend to appeal the determination of ineligibility\u201d to ensure a \u201cfull and comprehensive review.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe anticipate the appeal process may take some time as our appeal makes its way through review,\u201d\u00a0Doolin\u00a0wrote.<\/p>\n

Doolin\u00a0suspended all city work related to the federal grant on May 8, after HUD filed its notice of the high-risk designation.<\/p>\n

In a memo to the city, the agency said the designation was \u201cbased on multiple compliance, performance and monitoring concerns identified through ongoing grant oversight and the monitoring visit conducted on March 2-3, 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

HUD points to ‘questionable cost reasonableness’<\/p>\n

HUD complained that the city grant program was limited largely to a single multifamily property,\u00a0Holton\u00a0Apartments, 2500\u00a0Holton\u00a0St., which didn\u2019t align with agency guidance, and cited \u201cquestionable cost reasonableness,\u201d including remediating and replacing lead contaminated doors at $8,400 a pop.<\/p>\n

The HUD dollars are designed to be used to identify and remove lead paint from housing built before 1978 as part of an effort to prevent childhood exposure to lead, which can cause permanent brain damage.<\/p>\n

Rice wrote in the letter that the main purpose of the grant is to “maximize the number of children under the age of six protected from lead poisoning” through comprehensive lead removal in eligible housing. She said grant recipients must “utilize cost-effective lead hazard control methods,” and “maintain qualified and properly certified personnel” in addition to implementing “meaningful outreach and affirmative marketing strategies.”<\/p>\n

“Based on HUD’s review, the Holton Street Project did not sufficiently demonstrate compliance with these core program requirements and objectives,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The city of Tallahassee paid a contractor $8,400 per door that was replaced at the 2500 Holton Street apartment complex. According to a resident, the new doors are lighter weight and easier to open and close. The doors that were removed tested positive for lead.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as previously reported by the Democrat, a former city housing employee filed\u00a0whistleblower\u00a0retaliation complaints<\/a> with the city and HUD\u2019s offices of inspector general alleging she was fired in February after reporting problems with the grant, from high costs to vendor work done without proper EPA certification.<\/p>\n

The grant, which HUD awarded in 2022, included $4 million for lead-paint abatement and $400,000 to other household dangers like radon. The city pledged $865,000 in matching funds, which put the entire cost of the project at nearly $5.3 million.<\/p>\n

The city planned to do lead-paint remediation at two\u00a0south-side\u00a0apartment complexes: Holton Apartments\u00a0and Palm Beach\u00a0Pointe\u00a0Apartments, 635 Palm Beach St. Work began in September at\u00a0Holton\u00a0Street, a 100-unit complex, and was finished earlier this year. Work never started at the second location.<\/p>\n

HUD grant controversy becomes latest city commission blowup<\/p>\n

The HUD grant took center stage at the City Commission\u2019s May 13 meeting, which came just hours after the Democrat broke news of the whistleblower allegations. Commissioners Jeremy\u00a0Matlow\u00a0and Jack Porter peppered staff with questions about the grant problems while Commissioners Dianne Williams-Cox and Curtis Richardson defended Chief Cornerstone Construction Company, the city vendor hired to replace lead contaminated doors.<\/p>\n

They both said they knew the owners personally, and Richardson said they were “upstanding individuals.”<\/p>\n

Williams-Cox accused the media of \u201chelping things go in a direction that maybe they should not go\u201d and added that \u201cwhat we should be doing is informing and not inciting.\u201d She also downplayed the whistleblower complaint as something that \u201chappens all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Manager Reese Goad acknowledged then that while the city was working with HUD, it was in jeopardy of losing the grant and may have to repay the federal government.<\/p>\n

The meeting ended on a dramatic note as Mayor John\u00a0Dailey\u00a0blasted\u00a0Matlow\u00a0for a Facebook post<\/a> in which he confused a city employee in the housing department with Goad\u2019s brother-in-law and blamed the two of them for the grant mess.\u00a0Matlow apologized for the mistake.<\/p>\n

On May 27,\u00a0Matlow\u00a0responded to\u00a0Doolin\u2019s\u00a0latest email asking for more documentation on the city\u2019s grant program, including procurement and competitive bid records.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see a change order that wasn\u2019t competitively bid, but I don\u2019t see documentation that included adequate market comparisons, independent cost estimates or other records to substantiate a price of $8,450 per door,\u201d\u00a0Matlow\u00a0wrote.<\/p>\n

Assistant City Manager Wayne\u00a0Tedder\u00a0responded that staff would provide him with the detailed records, which he said the city uploaded to HUD\u2019s grant administration portal. The city also gave a copy of its 126-page response to HUD to the Democrat.<\/p>\n

“The city is committed to a successful implementation of this grant in a manner that satisfies HUD\u2019s standards and compliance requirements,” the city said in its response.<\/p>\n

Doolin, in his May 27 email, said the appeals process “may take some time” and that he and Kimball Thomas, director of housing and community resilience, were meeting the next day with HUD officials.<\/p>\n

Rice, the HUD representative, wrote that the city’s grant will remain under the high-risk designation and related special conditions until all deficiencies have been adequately resolved “or HUD decides to take further grant enforcement action.”<\/p>\n

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: HUD demands city return funds for troubled lead paint program<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs is demanding the city of Tallahassee reimburse $1.03 million in grant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[8447,27850,121586,121585,121584,30416,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-287086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-city-commissioners","tag-hud","tag-lead-abatement","tag-lead-hazard-control","tag-lead-paint","tag-lead-poisoning","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}