  We study the ergodic properties of excited states in a model of interacting
fermions in quasi-one-dimensional chains subjected to a random vector
potential. In the noninteracting limit, we show that arbitrarily small values
of this complex off-diagonal disorder trigger localization for the whole
spectrum; the divergence of the localization length in the single-particle
basis is characterized by a critical exponent $\nu$ which depends on the energy
density being investigated. When short-range interactions are included, the
localization is lost, and the system is ergodic regardless of the magnitude of
disorder in finite chains. Our numerical results suggest a delocalization
scheme for arbitrary small values of interactions. This finding indicates that
the standard scenario of the many-body localization cannot be obtained in a
model with random gauge fields.
