A senior executive at the Atlanta Housing Authority who oversaw one of the nation’s largest Section 8 housing assistance programs has pleaded guilty to charges she pocketed tens of thousands of dollars for a family rental property.
Tracy Denise Jones, a former Atlanta Housing senior vice president of the Housing Choice Voucher Program, initially pleaded not guilty in December but changed her plea before U.S. District Judge Jean-Paul Boulee on Monday in Atlanta, according to court records.
She faces a maximum sentence of 55 years in prison on the three counts combined, but there is no mandatory minimum sentence on the combined counts and she is likely to face far less time when she is sentenced May 5.
Jones could pay up to $1.5 million in fines, in addition to restitution and forfeiture.
In December, prosecutors filed a criminal information for conspiracy to commit theft of Section 8 funds, wire fraud involving COVID-19 relief funds and credit application fraud for a mortgage.
Jones fraudulently collected $36,387 in Section 8 housing assistance payments for a Fayetteville property where a woman identified as M.D. lived with Jones’ two grandchildren until February 2023, the information said.
She fraudulently obtained $27,000 in COVID-19 relief funds, according to prosecutors.
In addition, Jones and M.D. submitted a fake domestic violence claim to transfer M.D.’s housing benefits from Atlanta Housing to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the DOJ alleged.
Jones also secured a $291,780 FHA-insured mortgage by falsely claiming the Fayetteville property was her primary residence when she refinanced, prosecutors said in the Dec. 19 information.
As senior vice president over the Housing Choice Voucher Program, Jones oversaw a program that serves 27,000 of Atlanta’s neediest families and more than 43,000 people.
Internal records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show Jones received generally favorable performance reviews during her tenure as an executive.
Atlanta Housing released some personnel records to the AJC but redacted salary information and did not produce internal investigative records related to the criminal case.
Atlanta Housing spokesperson Carolyn Smith told the AJC in a Jan. 5 email that Jones had been on a leave of absence since Dec. 22, 2025, and said Tuesday Jones was no longer an employee.
In response to Jones’ guilty plea, Smith noted the housing authority had “policies and internal controls in place designed to safeguard public resources.”
“During the hearing it was established that safeguards were deliberately circumvented by the individual involved,” Smith said, without going into further detail. “Consistent with our policies and applicable law, Atlanta Housing has taken appropriate action and continues to strengthen its oversight and compliance practices.”
Robert Page, a spokesperson with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, declined to comment.
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