At its October 8 meeting, the TDHCA Governing Board heard a report from Deputy Executive Director Brooke Boston on the Compliance Division, TDHCA’s largest division, along with the division’s Productivity Summary. Its work begins once a development is awarded and continues for the life of the property.
The division’s 45 staff are led by Compliance Director Wendy Quackenbush and managers Amy Hammond (compliance monitoring), Manuel Peña (physical inspections), and Peter Jones (migrant labor housing). Boston said that while no property wants to be found out of compliance, the industry holds the team in high regard.
The Portfolio
TDHCA monitors 2,859 active properties with 357,061 units, and 334,597 of those units are low-income. Executive Director Bobby Wilkinson noted that the portfolio represents more than 10% of the rental housing stock in Texas. More than half of the properties have 100 units or more. The division is funded by the per-unit compliance monitoring fee that owners pay.
Source: TDHCA Compliance Division Productivity Summary, October 2026.
Inspections and File Monitoring
Every property receives a physical inspection under NSPIRE, HUD’s national inspection standard, every three years, and properties scoring 69 or below are inspected annually until they improve. Tenant files are reviewed every three years, or every five years for housing tax credit properties past their initial 15-year compliance period. Findings carry a 90-day corrective action period, health and safety deficiencies must be reported within three days, and uncorrected findings are referred for enforcement.
In fiscal year 2026, the division completed 1,084 NSPIRE inspections and 758 file monitoring reviews covering 14,059 unit files. Manuel Peña, manager of physical inspections, reported that the average inspection score rose from 86 to 88. A Board member suggested posting scores publicly, and staff agreed to look into it. Members should follow this closely, since public scores would put each property’s results in front of residents, lenders, and local officials.
Source: TDHCA Compliance Division Productivity Summary, October 2026.
HFC and PFC Audits
The division now reviews annual audits from housing finance corporations and public facility corporations. It has received 267 HFC audits and processed 167, and it has received and processed 200 PFC audits. Another 146 HFC audits are expected as extensions expire, making this the fastest-growing part of the division’s workload for members with HFC or PFC partnerships.
Other Work
- Utility allowances: 1,249 approved in 2025 and 828 so far in 2026.
- Migrant labor housing: 783 facilities licensed and 844 inspections conducted with the Texas Workforce Commission in fiscal year 2026.
- Technical assistance and training: About 400 requests handled since September 2025, and 1,306 training certificates issued.
- Complaints: 619 handled in 2026, more than triple the volume of a decade ago.