A $1.6 million fiscal 2012 budget for the Vicksburg Housing Authority previously rejected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is headed back to the federal oversight department.

VHA’s board of commissioners approved the revised budget Tuesday. Commissioner Jay Kilroy said HUD rejected the first budget in September and asked that it be revised when it was returned with a list of questions for commissioners.

The new budget is about $400,000 less than the housing authority’s $2 million fiscal 2011 budget. It anticipates $600,000 in rental revenue from housing authority properties and a $1 million HUD subsidy.

Administration, which includes employee salaries and benefits, totals about $600,000. Other major expenses include $350,000 for contract maintenance services, $205,000 for building materials, $120,000 for landscaping and $75,000 for building maintenance supplies.

VHA oversees 430 rental units housing 1,283 people and six community centers at six sites across the city.

Kilroy said the first budget was developed by the board after former VHA executive director Dannie Walker left the housing authority in early September to take a similar position with the Ozark, Ala., Housing Authority.

“Dannie left before we could see the budget,” he said. “He had begun the first draft, but we never saw it. The deadline for submitting the budget was the same month he left, so we put a budget together and sent it to HUD. They rejected it.”

Kilroy said questions from HUD covered several budget areas, adding, “They send a lot of questions and ask you about salaries and maintenance costs and send you copies of other housing authority budgets to compare with yours.”

HUD’s biggest concern, he said, was VHA’s contract with the Vicksburg Police Department for security services, which was projected to run about $135,000 for fiscal 2012. The housing authority canceled the contract in January.

In another matter, executive director Ben Washington said a large backlog of people waiting to rent from the VHA had forced the housing authority to stop accepting applications for housing. He did not know when the authority would resume taking applications.

“We have a backlog of 180 people and we average about one to two vacancies a month, three at the most,” he said.

He said the authority eliminated the position of occupancy specialist, which handled the vacancies, as a budget move. He said closing applications for housing is a policy carried out by other housing authorities as a way to reduce their backlogs, but did not name any other housing authorities.

In other action, the commission:

• Approved the minutes of the Feb. 21 meeting.

• Approved paying the February bills.

• Accepted Washington’s report.

• Approved a $3,940 bid from Westling Landscape and Design of Clinton for mowing at the authority’s housing complexes.

• Approved a resolution establishing the housing authority’s Section 3 plan. The plan is a HUD requirement to fill job openings at VHA with housing complex residents and to encourage contractors with projects in the complexes to hire tenants or people from nearby neighborhoods.