Eureka Gardens

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, tomorrow I will be visiting the Eureka Garden Apartments in Jacksonville, FL, which is a Section 8 apartment complex that is supposed to provide affordable and safe living conditions for low-income members of the Jacksonville community, but it doesn't. Instead, its tenants have been subjected to dangerous, often downright disgusting living conditions for years. They raised their concerns repeatedly with the managers of the facility and local officials, only to be met for the most part with bureaucratic indifference.

My staff and I have been working on this since it first came to light last fall, but there has been a frustrating, disturbing lack of progress from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and, more importantly, from the owner of the complex.

Frankly, I have had enough. I am heading down there tomorrow to see what we have to do and whom we need to put pressure on to get things moving. I will be touring the facility and meeting with Tracy Grant, who is the president of the tenants association. I will be joined by Councilman Garrett Dennis, Jacksonville Mayor Len Curry, and Pastor Mark Griffin of Wayman Ministries, who will be meeting with residents. I intend to commend the residents tomorrow for how united and resilient they have been throughout this ordeal, even while the Federal Government failed them.

For years the Department of Housing and Urban Development has certified this facility and as a result has put hundreds of families at risk. When HUD inspected the property last summer, they passed the complex with a score of 85 out of 100. Less than a month later, residents were complaining about how bad their living conditions were.

When my staff visited the complex, it was nearly unlivable. They saw crumbling stairs, black mold, and exposed electrical wiring that had been covered up by a trash bag. They smelled the natural gas that would soon hospitalize residents days later. This was and is unacceptable.

For months, my office, along with Mayor Curry, the city council, and the tenants association, pushed to have improvements and repairs done to this complex. In February, HUD finally had a date by which all repairs must be completed. When the time came to reinspect Eureka Gardens, it passed inspection, and they eventually renewed their contract with the property's owner, but the residents continued to say what they had said all along: HUD's inspections aren't working.

Just recently, HUD revealed that Eureka Gardens passed with a score of 62. The passing score is a 60. However, a senior HUD official admitted that HUD officials do not believe the property would currently pass another inspection. HUD essentially admitted that it had certified a failing facility. Something is clearly wrong with the inspection process, and Floridians are being hurt because of it.

I will be down there tomorrow to find out how we can put an end to this problem once and for all. The residents of Eureka Gardens cannot be forced to suffer under mismanagement and apathy any longer. Children cannot continue to be put at risk due to gas leaks and other hazardous conditions. HUD cannot be allowed to continue to rubberstamp approval of failing housing complexes, only to further slum-like conditions for the most vulnerable tenants.

I will continue to look for solutions to help make sure the conditions in Eureka Gardens are fixed and aren't repeated anywhere else. If we determine that congressional action is necessary, then I am prepared to take it. The residents of Eureka Gardens deserve safe living conditions, and we will make sure that is exactly what they get.

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