A member of the Jacksonville Housing Authority's own governing board is suing the agency, alleging officials stripped her of her Section 8 housing voucher and demanded she repay more than $9,000 without ever giving her a hearing. Harriet Brock, who serves as secretary of the JHA board of commissioners while also relying on the agency's housing assistance as a resident, filed the federal civil rights lawsuit this month against JHA, CEO Cheron Corbett, and Andrew Denicola.
Brock filed the complaint, Case No. 3:26-cv-02559, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, according to court records. She simultaneously filed a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking emergency relief to halt her voucher termination while the case proceeds. As reported by Action News Jax, JHA determined there was unreported family income associated with Brock's household and moved to terminate her voucher and demand repayment, according to the complaint.
Brock's attorneys contend the agency terminated her voucher without providing an administrative hearing, and the lawsuit argues that the lack of a hearing violated her due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. Brock now faces potential loss of her housing as a result. She declined to comment on the case because of the pending litigation, per the same outlet's report.
The Dispute Over the Voucher Cutoff
The dispute centers on whether JHA terminated Brock's voucher without an informal hearing.
JHA, for its part, said in a statement that it is committed to integrity and compliance with all federal HUD regulations, per Action News Jax's report. The agency said it does not comment on, confirm or deny ongoing or potential investigations involving personnel, program participants or board members, and it added that its daily operations and housing assistance programs continue to function normally without interruption.
An Agency Under Sustained Scrutiny
The lawsuit lands amid what the agency itself has acknowledged is a stretch of institutional turmoil. JHA has faced a series of challenges in recent years, including vendor payment concerns, the outsourcing of dozens of positions, and a wave of executive and board member resignations, the station reported. A former JHA deputy chief financial officer also faced criminal charges, and Jacksonville's Office of Inspector General has conducted multiple investigations involving the agency.
Those inspector general probes have turned up specific findings that echo the concerns raised in Brock's case. A December 2025 investigation found that JHA's Operations Compliance Department failed to follow internal policies in managing more than $70,000 in tenant fraud and unreported income between March 2023 and April 2025, and that none of the identified cases had been referred to collection agencies or law enforcement, according to the Jax Daily Record.
An earlier inspector general report, issued in December 2023, found that of nearly $2 million loaded onto utility reimbursement payment cards for JHA tenants between October 2022 and October 2023, only 13.5 percent, or $268,473, was actually spent on utility expenses, First Coast News reported at the time. Auditors recommended the agency instead pay utility providers directly rather than issuing cards with cash withdrawal features.
Leadership Turnover Set the Stage
Corbett, who is also known as Cheron Corbett Waller, assumed the CEO role full-time in April 2025 after being selected in January of that year, becoming the first woman to serve permanently as the agency's chief executive, per News4JAX. Her appointment followed more than a year of executive instability at JHA, including the January 2024 resignation of former President and CEO Dwayne Alexander, who alleged he was being improperly forced out by city officials following inspector general reports into utility card waste and a review by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to Action News Jax.
The turnover extended to the agency's finance office as well. Former JHA Deputy Chief Financial Officer Gregory Williams was arrested in August 2024 and charged with credit card fraud after a city inspector general probe revealed he allegedly stole $9,500 in prepaid cards intended for residents in need, the outlet reported. Former Commissioner Andrea Reyes led a CEO search committee and resigned effective August 5.
JHA serves Jacksonville and Duval County, overseeing roughly 2,881 public housing units and managing nearly 7,870 Housing Choice Vouchers, according to Jacksonville Housing. Brock's case now puts the agency's own governance structure in an unusual spotlight, with a sitting board commissioner suing the very agency and chief executive she helps oversee, while broader questions about JHA's due process compliance remain pending in federal court.
