Mayoral candidate Josh Kraft criticized the Wu administration’s dealing with of what he referred to as “deplorable conditions” discovered by a federal audit of Boston Housing Authority properties Wednesday — to which the Wu marketing campaign responded he ought to be “ashamed of misleading the public.”
“In February, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a scathing audit of how BHA has been spending its rental assistance dollars,” stated Kraft. “It found problems with 31 of 36 homes inspected by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and four months later, as federal support continues to shrink, it seems that nothing has changed here at home.”
Kraft, who held a press convention exterior of the Mildred Hailey flats in Jamaica Plain flanked by residents and group members, cited the OIG audit of BHA’s public housing program launched in February.
The audit, Kraft cited, exhibits BHA didn’t carry out 37 required inspections in fiscal years 2022 and 2023. In a pattern of 31 properties with recognized points — out of 36 whole inspected by the OIG — over half had the identical issues as in a earlier inspection and over a 3rd had “life-threatening deficiencies that needed to be corrected within 24 hours.”
The audit interval coated inspections and different knowledge from April 1, 2019, via March 31, 2023, although it was partially prolonged via August 2023, in line with the OIG report. Wu’s mayoral time period started in November 2021.
The Wu marketing campaign vehemently pushed again on Kraft’s claims Wednesday.
“Under Mayor Wu, the BHA has fully overhauled its maintenance systems and leadership since the data reflected in the HUD OIG report, cutting its open work orders by more than 90% in the last 9 months,” a Wu marketing campaign spokesperson stated. “Every single maintenance issue mentioned in the OIG report has been resolved.”
Kraft claimed Wednesday the inspection points “in most cases still have not been addressed over the past 24 months.”
The incumbent marketing campaign argued Wu has “invested more city dollars” into housing than any Boston mayor and acknowledged BHA properties have scored a mean 95 of 100 in 2025 HUD inspections.
“Josh Kraft can’t be bothered to learn about the hard work of the people who already show up to serve Boston’s public housing communities every day; he shouldn’t be trusted to lead them,” stated the Wu marketing campaign.
Kraft described residing situations together with lacking smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, blocked exits, and a selected occasion of damaged elevators on the Ruth Barkley Flats leading to aged and disabled resident sleeping in wheelchairs, climbing as much as seven flights of stairs and being briefly relocated to resorts.
The Wu marketing campaign stated over $60 million was invested within the Mildred Hailey for a whole bunch of recent models, a group middle, play space and extra opening inside coming months. At Ruth Barkley, the spokesperson stated, town has invested within the “long-deferred modernization of ten critical elevators.”
The Trump administration introduced plans to chop the federal rental housing funds by 40% final month, Kraft stated, “effectively ending the Section 8 housing program” for no less than 8,000 Boston households.
Kraft stated he would take steps together with “hiring qualified city staff” and “working closely with disadvantaged communities.”
