Senators express concern over housing investigation story

Two senators expressed concerns Monday over an investigative report alleging financial mismanagement at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in a construction program that provides affordable housing. 

Senate Banking Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said their committee will look into the Washington Post's yearlong investigation into how HUD spent billions of dollars on local housing programs. 

“We are deeply concerned by these reports, particularly at a time when so many Americans are in need of affordable housing," they said in a joint statement.

"The committee takes its oversight responsibilities very seriously, and we plan to get to the bottom of this issue.”

The Post investigation found that local housing agencies received funding with few rules to follow, protections or even a way to track projects designed to provide affordable housing to the working poor.

About nearly 700 projects were awarded $400 million and many have languished for years, some a decade or more, the Post investigation found. 

The newspaper examined every major project currently funded under the HUD program -- a database of 5,100 projects worth $3.2 billion — examining more than 600 satellite images and collecting information from 165 housing agencies nationwide.