HUD Inspect
Is Publicly Subsidized Housing Decent, Safe and Sanitary?
by Molly Parker, The Southern Illinoisan,
Dan Nguyen, special to ProPublica,
Sophie Chou,
ProPublica and the 2018 ProPublica Hack Week Participants.
Published November 16, 2018 | Data as of March 2019 | Updated December 12, 2019
In exchange for millions of federal dollars each year, apartment complexes subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development must pass inspections demonstrating that they are decent, safe and sanitary places to live. But residents across the country have discovered that passing scores on HUD inspections often don't match the reality of their living conditions. Look up housing complex scores near you. Read the Series →
This database was last updated in December 2019 and should only be used as a historical snapshot. The data is current as of March 2019. More recent Physical Inspection Scores are available from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Failed Latest Inspections
Failed Latest Inspections
Mapping Failure
Each dot below represents a housing development that failed its most recent HUD inspection.
Inspection Failure Rates by Year
The percent of properties that failed their HUD inspections has increased since 2014, combining both public housing and subsidized private multifamily complexes.
Failures by State
| Failure Rate, Most Recent Inspection | ||
|---|---|---|
| State | Public Housing (%) | Private Multifamily Complex (%) |
| North Dakota | 30.4 | 14.4 |
| District of Columbia | 26.2 | 17.7 |
| Maryland | 26.0 | 2.8 |
| Delaware | 22.2 | 3.5 |
| Louisiana | 18.7 | 6.3 |
| New Mexico | 18.4 | 3.1 |
| Virginia | 18.1 | 3.1 |
| New Jersey | 17.8 | 6.7 |
| Indiana | 17.7 | 2.8 |
| Wisconsin | 17.5 | 3.5 |
| Illinois | 15.1 | 6.4 |
| Alaska | 14.3 | 8.9 |
| New York | 13.9 | 3.6 |
| Connecticut | 12.4 | 4.3 |
| Arkansas | 12.0 | 6.1 |
| Kentucky | 10.5 | 3.2 |
| Pennsylvania | 10.3 | 1.6 |
| Oklahoma | 10.1 | 5.1 |
| Michigan | 10.0 | 1.9 |
| California | 9.3 | 2.4 |
| North Carolina | 8.7 | 1.2 |
| Washington | 8.7 | 3.4 |
| West Virginia | 8.5 | 3.6 |
| Arizona | 8.2 | 1.6 |
| Florida | 8.1 | 3.3 |
| Ohio | 8.1 | 1.9 |
| South Carolina | 7.6 | 1.8 |
| Tennessee | 7.2 | 5.0 |
| Alabama | 6.3 | 3.2 |
| Nevada | 6.3 | 3.6 |
| Texas | 6.3 | 2.7 |
| Nebraska | 6.2 | 1.9 |
| Georgia | 5.5 | 3.8 |
| Montana | 5.3 | 3.7 |
| Mississippi | 5.1 | 8.0 |
| Kansas | 4.6 | 1.8 |
| Rhode Island | 4.3 | 1.8 |
| Missouri | 4.1 | 3.1 |
| Massachusetts | 4.0 | 1.2 |
| New Hampshire | 3.8 | 1.1 |
| South Dakota | 3.6 | 1.7 |
| Minnesota | 1.2 | 3.3 |
| Colorado | 0.0 | 3.1 |
| Hawaii | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Idaho | 0.0 | 6.9 |
| Iowa | 0.0 | 4.9 |
| Maine | 0.0 | 1.1 |
| Oregon | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Utah | 0.0 | 3.0 |
| Vermont | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| Wyoming | 0.0 | 6.3 |
HUD's House of Cards
HUD’s flawed oversight of living conditions in federally subsidized housing can leave people living among rats, roaches, mold and other dangerous conditions for years. The lack of solutions for small and midsized cities is the affordable housing crisis nobody’s talking about. Read the ongoing project here.
Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Note: This database contains all inspection reports made available to the public by HUD from 2013 to March 2019. If a property is inspected multiple times within a short time period, it is possible that HUD has not publicly released all of those inspection scores. Data for multifamily complexes only includes facilities with an active HUD contract.
For a week in the summer of 2018, the news applications team at ProPublica, as well as members of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network staff, gathered in New York to build an interactive database together. Major parts of HUD Inspect were completed in that week. In May 2019, we updated our database of inspection results.
The contributors participating in our “Hack Week” were: Katlyn Alapati, Setareh Baig, Lilia Chang, Sophie Chou, David Eads, Rachel Glickhouse, Corey Jeffers, Ryann Jones, Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee, Ally Levine, Jeremy Merrill, Rahima Nasa, Beena Raghavendran, Frank Sharpe, Al Shaw, Mike Tigas, Sisi Wei and Derek Willis.