Milwaukee Common Council president José Pérez expressed surprise that he had not heard about the audits and pledged to take action.

The agency’s Section 8 office, which administers tens of millions of dollars in rent assistance, was severely short-staffed and lacked basic accounting safeguards, the report said.

A single staff member did the bookkeeping for — and issued — nearly $36 million worth of rent subsidies in 2021. And tenant Social Security cards were “displayed openly on unattended desks” as site reviewers walked through the office in October 2022.

This isn’t surprising. I toured the office where they were distributing pandemic rental assistance and there were stacks of papers everywhere. The processes were horribly inefficient.