Housing Authority chairman says voucher mixup shows need for top to bottom changes inside department

Justin Gray
·2 min read

Channel 2 Action News is getting answers for a Fulton County woman who was told her identity had likely been stolen to obtain a Section 8 voucher.

Everything Jennifer Jones owns is currently sitting in the back of her car.

She, her daughter, and grandson can sometimes be found sleeping at Walmart parking lots, and on other nights, at extended stay hotels.

“I’m having to sleep sitting up. I can’t lay the seat back, you know?” Jones said.

Jones told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray that each month she calls the Housing Authority of Fulton County to check her place on the waitlist for a Section 8 housing voucher. She’s been on the list since 2020.

“She said, ‘So you’re not in a place?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not. I haven’t been contacted.’ She said, ‘Well, I have someone under that name and that Social living in an apartment,’” Jones said the housing authority told her.

Jones said the housing authority asked her to provide her driver’s license and Social Security card and have launched an investigation.

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For now, Jones is hoping to earn enough by driving for DoorDash to rent a room to sleep in.

“I’m struggling right now with a place to stay and someone is out there living under my information. How do you do that? How? Tell me,” Jones said.

The chairman of the board of the Housing Authority of Fulton County now says Jones’ situation was actually over a clerical error and is an example of why the authority needs to be reorganized top to bottom.

Chairman Antavius Weems is the one who stepped in to get to the bottom of Jones’ problem. He said staff mixed up names and once they asked both women for documentation, they realized this was not a case of identity theft as they had told her.

Weems told Gray that the office needs to be restructured to better serve Fulton County.

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