SUMMERVILLE, Ga. — Multiple Georgia families are earning six-figure salaries, but living in taxpayer-subsidized public housing.
It is happening in the small Georgia town of Summerville more than anyplace else in the state, Channel 2’s Justin Gray learned through an open records request.
The town in Chattooga County, with a population of just 4,400, tops the list in Georgia with 26 over-income families.
That’s more than Atlanta with a population 100 times larger.
Based on numbers for 2014 Channel 2 Action News obtained from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, some families in Summerville public housing are making from $84,000 up to $139,000 per year.
A federal audit found more than 25,000 people nationwide living in low income housing, including more than 600 in Georgia, even though they aren't low income
Lisa Morrow, a single mom to a young son with Down syndrome, said she would have nowhere else to live without an affordable apartment in public housing.
“I’ve worked two jobs for as long as I can remember, and it’s frustrating that somebody’s on easy street like that,” she said. “They ought to be ashamed of themselves. They really should.”
Families only have to meet HUD’s income requirements to get an apartment one time. Once they are in, they can stay, regardless of changes to their income.
Morrow believes the answer is easy: over-income families should be kicked out.
The head the of Summerville Housing Authority, Regina Anderson, however, said that is not her office’s policy despite the list of 65 poor families waiting for an apartment.
“There’s no regulation that we have to make them move, so we let them stay,” she said.
Anderson says her hands are tied by law, but we found that that’s not true.
The federal regulation she referred to does give Anderson the power to evict high-income residents and has for years. HUD even sent a letter to every housing authority in the country in September encouraging them to "remove extremely over-income families from public housing."
“They’re just happy where they are,” Anderson told Gray.
“Don’t you think one of these working mothers that needs a place would be happy there, too?” Gray asked.
‘I’m sure they would,” Anderson responded.
Anderson said her current 2015 records show they don't have anyone making more than $100,000 a year.
The family from 2014 making $139,000 recently moved out.
Gray asked her about the letter from HUD encouraging her to remove the high-income residents, but didn't get a response to that.