A former Atlanta Housing Authority executive was convicted and sentenced after using her office to funnel federal housing and pandemic relief money to her rental property and family, and then lied on loan and relief applications to cover it up.

Tracy Jones, who served as Senior Vice President over the Housing Choice Voucher Program at the Atlanta Housing Authority from April 2017 until her guilty plea, was found to have abused her position to steer limited Section 8 assistance into her own pockets. Court documents show she orchestrated falsified paperwork and used a shell business and a false name to hide the fact that family members were placed into the Section 8 program and housed in one of her rental homes.

Investigators say Jones improperly obtained more than $36,000 in Section 8 funds by arranging for payments on behalf of relatives who actually occupied her property, a clear violation of rules that bar housing authority staff and landlords from benefiting directly. She then obstructed probes by submitting a false affidavit and persuading friends to produce misleading documents and testimony on her behalf, according to the charges.

Prosecutors also tied Jones to fraud against pandemic relief programs, alleging that two business entities she controlled collected over $27,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration by falsely claiming employees, business activity, and 2019 gross revenues of more than $56,000. On one denied application she appealed with statements that included:

• “I am truly a[n] honest business owner[.]”
• “I hear the stories how people abused the PPP loans to establish a lavish lif[e] style. That is not me. My business is small and is growing, but I [am] one of the legitimate and honest business that can use all the help I can.”
• “I also serve a community of low income families in my business, renting one of my three homes to a low income family as well as serve other owners of low income rental properties.”

The scheme extended into mortgage fraud when Jones refinanced her Section 8 rental and declared a $219,780 loan application listed the property as her primary residence, that it was not a rental, and that she did not own any other property. Those representations were false, the government says, and they formed part of a pattern of misstatements used to obtain federal money and favorable loan terms.

U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg put the case bluntly: “Jones violated the trust of the community, the taxpayers, and the needy families she was supposed to assist, using her senior position at one of the largest housing authorities to steal limited public funds,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “Her theft of that money meant other members of the community went without much-needed relief. Our office will continue to vigorously act to hold people like Jones, who violate the public trust and pilfer from the treasury, accountable.”

HUD’s investigators echoed that tone. “Tracy Jones abused a position of trust by diverting funds from multiple federal programs, undermining assistance intended for vulnerable communities and struggling businesses during the pandemic,” said Special Agent in Charge Jerome Winkle with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG). “HUD OIG will continue to work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners to aggressively pursue those who exploit HUD-funded programs for personal gain.”

After pleading guilty on February 2, 2026, Tracy Denise Jones, 61, of Atlanta, Georgia, received a sentence on May 20, 2026 of nine months in prison, followed by nine months of home detention and 15 months of supervised release. The court ordered restitution totaling $65,598.80 and imposed a fine of $63,546 for the combined theft, fraud, and credit application offenses linked to Section 8 payments, pandemic relief funds, and the mortgage refinance.

The case was investigated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia prosecuting. Assistant U.S. Attorney Garrett L. Bradford handled the prosecution, which highlights coordinated enforcement against pandemic-era and program-specific fraud.

On May 17, 2021, the Department of Justice created a task force focused on COVID-19 fraud enforcement to concentrate resources and speed prosecutions of the most serious domestic and international actors who preyed on relief programs. That effort has been used to identify schemes, support investigations, and coordinate across agencies to protect scarce relief dollars intended for vulnerable people and small businesses.

Authorities encourage anyone with information about attempted fraud involving COVID-19 or related relief programs to contact the National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or submit a complaint through the NCDF web complaint form. For press inquiries about the prosecution, the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office provides contact options including phone at (404) 581-6016 and a public affairs email address for the office.