Three cleanouts. Roughly $28,000. Work finished, invoices unpaid, and a hurricane now pushing floodwater into houses nobody is maintaining.
An Indiana vendor confirmed to Foreclosurepedia that 24 Asset Management owes him for three cleanouts totaling around $28,000. He did the work. He has not been paid. Foreclosurepedia is reporting the figure as the vendor stated it.
The Running Total Moves Again
Foreclosurepedia’s running total of money owed to Labor by 24 Asset Management stood at $325,679.50 before this vendor came forward. Add his $28,000 and the total reaches at least $353,679.50, with the upper end of the range at $358,679.50.
That is a sum of separate claims, not an audited figure, and each claim is counted once. It is also a floor. Every number in this series exists because one Field Service Technician or Inspector decided to say out loud what the company would rather keep quiet.
The Contract Is Gone. The Houses Are Not.
HUD has moved this work to Alpine Companies. Alpine has said it will not ramp up services in the Carolinas until sometime in November. Until then, no working crew is assigned to those properties, and the storm does not care about the calendar.
Hurricane Isaias has just come through, and the widespread flooding is compounding conditions at HUD homes that were already going without maintenance. Standing water does not wait for a procurement schedule. Neither does mold, and neither does the repair bill HUD will eventually pay. The problem is that HUD M&M FSM awardees have historically attempted to have Labor foot that bill. It won’t fly this time.
A GAO protest is always possible on awards of this size, and a protest can stall the work further. If one is filed, the mid-November estimate slips and every flooded house waits longer. Foreclosurepedia expects Labor to be told to hold on. Labor has heard that before, usually right before the checks stopped.
HUD Will Not Say Why It Is Staying Out
Foreclosurepedia put the non-payment and the photo allegations in writing in front of Craig Karnes, Sharon Washington, and LaShura Ford. HUD has already written that it is aware of the relationship between 24 Asset Management and Assero. Awareness has not produced action.
This is an old posture. In a 2003 meeting with the industry, HUD officials said that non-payment between contractors was a trading partner issue and not theirs to resolve. Twenty-three years later, the line has not moved, and the unpaid total has.
So Foreclosurepedia asks again. Why is HUD refusing to involve itself when federal money flowed through this contract and the people who earned it were left holding invoices? Why has none of it been referred to HUD’s Inspector General? What does HUD know that Labor is not being told? And who inside the agency decided that silence was the safer answer?
Will Labor Even Come Back?
Alpine now needs Field Service Technicians and Inspectors in the Carolinas, in Indiana, and across the awarded areas. Those are the same people 24 Asset Management left unpaid. Foreclosurepedia has tracked more than $353,000 in debt, and that is only the debt that has been reported.
Why would anyone accept the next work order from the next HUD contractor when HUD has done nothing about the last one? Labor has watched the agency stand aside while invoices aged past 90 days. That memory does not wash out with a new letterhead.
The awards are nearly two weeks old. No one has said whether Alpine will pay more, pay faster, or shorten the payment window. Without a written rate and a written pay date, Labor has every reason to expect the same terms that produced this debt. Foreclosurepedia has asked. Alpine has not answered.
Alpine’s Website Tells Labor To Keep Its Information Away
Foreclosurepedia opened alpinecompaniesinc.com. The browser flags it “Not secure” and warns visitors not to enter sensitive information. That is the front door of a company holding more than $51.5 million in HUD awards.
The footer reads Copyright 2022. The site was never built out and has not been maintained since. Its navigation offers only Home and Contact, and the three content boxes under the banner are empty placeholders.
Onboarding a vendor network means collecting tax forms, insurance certificates, banking details, and identification from thousands of people. Foreclosurepedia expects Labor to ask where that information goes before sending any of it. Alpine owes them an answer, and an encrypted site would be a start.
The Economics May Doom It Before It Starts
Diesel set an all-time record of $6.53 a gallon on September 22, according to AAA, and sits at $6.28 today. A year ago it was $3.67, an increase of about 71 percent. Regular gasoline is now $4.37, up about 41 percent over the same year.
Inflation is spiraling and tariffs are digging in across the supply chain. Cleanouts run on diesel trucks and trailers. Inspections run on gasoline and long drives, for pay that has historically sat between $7 and $9 each. Labor is being asked to absorb all of it at old rates.
Foreclosurepedia believes the Carolinas ramp-up could be doomed before it starts. The properties are flooded, the old contractor owes the people who did the work, the new contractor has not named its terms, and the agency in charge is looking away.
Take It To HUD OIG
Federally funded work is a federal matter, and the HUD Office of Inspector General takes complaints about fraud on HUD contracts. Foreclosurepedia’s latest newsletter statistics show that many Field Service Technicians and Inspectors have already filed. If you have not, this is the moment.
A complaint is strongest when it is specific. Gather the work orders, invoices, completion photos, the dates the work was finished, and every message in which you were promised payment or told to wait. Identify the HUD property addresses and the company that assigned the work. Keep copies of everything.
Say plainly that you performed work on a HUD-funded contract and were not paid. Name the company and the people who gave you the work orders. Make sure you tell HUD OIG the names that were involved! Report what happened, what you are owed, and what you can document.
Each complaint that documents unpaid work on federally funded orders makes the pattern harder to dismiss as one vendor’s billing dispute. The HUD OIG hotline is 1-800-347-3735, and complaints may also be filed online through the HUD OIG website. A filing costs you nothing. Silence costs you the money.
The Questions HUD And Alpine Owe Labor An Answer
Who is inspecting these flooded properties right now? Who is securing the water damage? Who pays the Field Service Technicians and Inspectors already owed on federally funded work? And will Alpine put a higher rate and a faster pay date in writing, or is this the same old arrangement under a new name?
Neither has answered. Foreclosurepedia will update this piece as the record develops.
