Huggins was in charge of the THA’s housing choice voucher program, which was designed to help low-income residents afford private housing by paying rent subsidies directly to landlords.
As WCTV reports, Huggins would allegedly replace landlords’ bank information with her own. She also allegedly used former THA tenants’ information to file false claims for housing vouchers before directing those funds to her bank accounts.
Huggins faces decades of prison time
Huggins is facing up to 30 years of prison for each of her 39 counts of bank fraud — up to 1,170 years in prison for those charges alone, although the average sentence for one offence is just 22 months.
She racked up these charges over the course of two years from 2023 to 2025. An official statement from Dr. Tamara Berry-Andrews, Executive Director, said the THA had been working with law enforcement since 2024 in an official statement.
“[The THA] has cooperated with federal authorities throughout this matter and appreciates the work of our law enforcement partners,” she said.
Leon County Commissioner David O’Keefe, who’s currently up for re-election, spoke out against Huggins’ alleged actions — and how long she was able to get away with it — in a Facebook post. Tallahassee is situated in Leon County.
“This is exactly why I became a CPA and auditor,” he wrote. “What jumps out isn’t the dollar amount — it’s that one employee allegedly could change a landlord’s payment information and approve it, with no one required to check their work. A basic two-person check could have easily prevented this.”
It’s vital for any organization to institute two-person checks on financial processes like this to protect against fraud. When dealing with already underfunded programs, these necessary double checks sometimes fall through the cracks, but those oversights can have painful consequences for the people those organizations are supporting.
THA also dealing with federal budget cuts
Unfortunately, the THA isn’t going to get more funding anytime soon. In December 2025, the organization had to delay housing choice voucher payments thanks to funding shortfalls from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In her official statement, Dr. Berry-Andrews said this shortfall was not caused by Huggins.
