The Department of Housing and Urban Development says it has lifted 77 public housing agencies out of troubled status since January 2025, and has declared seven others in substantial default. The numbers came in an Oct. 30 announcement launching a public online dashboard that scores every housing authority in the country. The release does not name the seven agencies or say when each was declared.
What can a tenant look up on HUD’s new dashboard?
HUD calls it the PHA Accountability Dashboard, where PHA stands for public housing agency. Residents and the public can search by housing authority, by state or nationwide. For each agency it shows a current performance score from two HUD grading systems, the Public Housing Assessment System and the Section 8 Management Assessment Program.
Each agency also carries one of four designations: High Performer, Standard, Substandard or Troubled. The dashboard lists the public housing units and housing choice vouchers the agency manages, its voucher and funding utilization rates and its budget authority, meaning the federal money it has to spend. Custom reports can be filtered to show troubled, substandard, standard or high-performing agencies, those in receivership or monitorship, and those facing a funding shortfall.
Is a tenant’s own housing authority on the troubled list?
That is the question the 77 and the seven leave open for anyone living in public housing or holding a voucher. Neither figure says which agencies they are, so the quickest way to find out is to type the local authority’s name into the dashboard and read its designation and score.
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What does substantial default mean for an agency?
HUD has used the label this year with real consequences. On Feb. 10 it declared the Manhattan Housing Authority in Manhattan, Kansas, in substantial default for failing to comply with its federally required recovery agreement, and placed it under monitorship. HUD-appointed monitors now oversee operations, review procurement, financial controls and program administration, and track the agency’s progress toward recovery milestones. If that progress stalls, HUD may escalate up to taking possession. Deputy Secretary Andrew Hughes said at the time that “HUD is restoring accountability to Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) nationwide.”
On May 5 HUD went further in Little Rock, Arkansas. It declared the city’s housing authority in substantial default, took possession of its programs, operations and assets, and dissolved its locally appointed board of commissioners. HUD says it will keep control until the agency shows sustained compliance and can run itself under federal standards. HUD said the agency needed a 96% occupancy rate under its 2024 recovery agreement but reported about 89% for 2025, had not put in place a required third-party management intervention for underperforming properties, and had held a Troubled or Substandard designation for nearly a decade. The release does not say whether either agency is among the seven in the latest count.
What did HUD say about the 77 that recovered?
The Oct. 30 release gives the number and no names, no dates and no list of what each agency did to leave troubled status. It says HUD “also declared 7 PHAs in substantial default” by taking swift action to protect residents and uphold safe housing conditions. HUD Secretary Scott Turner is quoted saying that “every family and individual in federally assisted housing deserves a safe home and a well-managed housing authority.”
The release also lists five other enforcement actions Turner’s department took in 2026, including suspending funding to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority over alleged fraud and suspending the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority for not using HUD disaster funds in recovering communities. It states no total for how many agencies HUD oversees, so the 77 and the seven cannot be turned into a share of the system from the release alone.
Is your housing authority on HUD’s troubled list?
An agency’s score is out of a tenant’s hands. A troubled or substandard designation at the office that runs your housing is a reason to look closely at everything else in the household budget that is within reach.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
