New Albany Housing Authority accused of deceptive repairs after failed federal inspection

NEW ALBANY, Ind. — The New Albany Housing Authority failed its federal inspection in 2024 after inspectors found over 100 deficiencies in 30 apartments and ordered immediate repairs for many deficiencies.

A whistleblower says some of those fixes were only meant to fool future inspectors.

Faulty outlets found throughout complex

One of the common findings across the complex during the 2024 inspection was faulty outlets that weren’t wired correctly or weren’t working. But a whistleblower says his bosses ordered him to make unsafe repairs designed to fool inspectors.

Melanie Malone has lived at the Parkview Terrace complex for four years. She depends on affordable housing because she’s too sick to work.

“It’s all right, but they got little mice and then (the) electricity in the kitchen. It just doesn’t work. And then I can’t even use my fireplace because it caught fire in the wall,” Malone said.

She says the plug for the electric fireplace in the living room caused burn marks. When she called maintenance, they told her not to plug in the fireplace anymore.

“It was a three-prong, and they changed it to a two,” Malone said.

Housing authority failed federal inspection

Malone’s apartment was one of 24 reviewed at the Parkview Terrace complex by Housing and Urban Development inspectors in August 2024. The inspection didn’t go well. The complex failed.

One of the report’s consistent findings was ground fault circuit interrupting outlets that were missing or wired incorrectly. Those are classified as severe deficiencies.

Pat Payne recently retired from New Albany Housing after doing maintenance work there for seven years. He did drywall work, electrical work, flooring and framing.

But he’s been troubled by the way he was told to fix these outlets.

“It was about a year and a half ago, maybe two, at this point that we were told to change out the GFIs, ground fault outlets,” Payne said.

Maintenance worker says he was told to bypass safety features

Payne says these outlets only have two wires running to them, but the GFCI outlets need a third. He says Property Service Director John Noble told him to fix it by wiring the outlet’s ground screw to its neutral connection.

“And so I, not being a trained electrician, I questioned how I was going to do it. So I went to my boss, John Noble, and talked to him about it. And he said to bypass that,” Payne said.

“So basically all I was doing is putting a GFI in the wall that was no different than the outlet that was already there,” Payne said.

Payne says that didn’t seem right. He checked with a licensed electrician he knew, who said it wasn’t. But when Payne questioned Noble about the fix, Noble said he didn’t care as long as it passed inspection.

Payne says he fixed 30 to 40 apartments this way, and that Noble gave the same directive to all maintenance workers.

Work orders show repairs completed after failed inspection

WAVE obtained work orders completed by maintenance the week of Aug. 26, four days after New Albany Housing’s failed inspection. The orders showed workers documenting they repaired these outlets at each apartment.

WAVE went to 26 apartments and asked tenants if they could check inside. Five let them in, including Malone.

When WAVE plugged the same type of tester the inspector used into the outlets, it showed they were wired correctly. But when they pulled the outlets off the wall, they found the bypasses, just like Payne said they would.

Expert says wiring violates electrical code

Kyle Krueger leads the codes and standards division with the National Electrical Contractors Association. He says wiring the outlet this way violates the electrical code.

“It creates an opportunity for unwanted current to end up on other parts of the system and potentially create a shock hazard, or even a fire hazard, potentially,” Krueger said.

“That is one way that you could potentially trick one of those devices,” Krueger said about the plug-in testers inspectors use.

City records show none of the maintenance staff are licensed electrical contractors, including Noble.

Property maintenance official declines to comment

When approached for comment, Noble said he couldn’t comment and referred questions to his supervisor, the executive director.

WAVE set up an interview with the executive director after providing our findings in an email. The Housing Authority agreed to a date and time, but on the day of the interview, the Housing Authority canceled four hours before it was scheduled to start, saying the executive director had to take a sudden trip out of town.

Malone says the situation makes her feel less safe.

“Yeah, because a fire can happen anytime,” she said.

Malone has nowhere else to go. It took about a year to get into the apartment because of the long waiting list.

Payne said he reported his concerns to the city building and fire departments, as well as the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Messages left for the fire marshal and building inspector were not returned.

The housing authority board meets on Feb. 18. WAVE plans to ask them how quickly they will order these repairs redone.

The Housing Authority sent this statement:

“The New Albany Housing Authority has been made aware of inquiries regarding electrical maintenance practices involving Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter outlets in certain older NAHA properties.

Many NAHA buildings were constructed decades ago, before modern electrical grounding standards were adopted. As a result, some buildings contain legacy two-wire electrical systems that do not include a separate grounding wire. This type of wiring was common at the time of construction and has historically remained in service under long-standing “grandfathering” protocols for older buildings.

Over time, NAHA upgraded outlets in these buildings to three-prong GFCI outlets so residents could use more modern appliances. A GFCI outlet does not require a grounding wire to function and improves safety by shutting off power if it detects an unsafe electrical imbalance.

As a public housing authority, NAHA is overseen by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is governed by HUD’s federal inspection program. In 2024, HUD implemented a new inspection system called NSPIRE, which introduced new outlet testing methods and requires prompt corrective action, often within 24 hours, when issues are identified.

NAHA has undergone one NSPIRE inspection. During that inspection, outlets were tested using a handheld device designed to confirm whether an outlet meets NSPIRE requirements. Where outlets did not pass the test, NAHA was required to address those findings within the required HUD timeframe. Once addressed, NAHA was not found in violation of HUD inspection standards.

NAHA acted promptly and in good faith to comply with HUD requirements and has since followed up with its licensed electrical engineer and NSPIRE training resources to discuss inspection outcomes and appropriate long-term modernization solutions for older buildings. Those discussions remain ongoing.

Resident health and safety remain NAHA’s top priority, and NAHA will continue making repairs and upgrades as feasible while responsibly managing limited public resources.”

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