Quality Control for Rental Assistance Subsidies Determinations
(June 2001, 85 p.)
Early in 2001 the Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) took an important step to improve the effectiveness
of its rental housing assistance programs. Through the Rental
Housing Integrity Improvements Program (RHIP), HUD worked
to identify the best methods of reducing costly errors in
the local administration of both the public housing and Section
8 programs. The Quality Control for Rental Assistance Subsidies
Determinations study provided the impetus for much of this
effort. The study found that substantial errors were being
made in the income and rent determinations that set the amount
HUD pays on behalf of families receiving public housing and
Section 8 program assistance. Through miscalculation of income
and other errors, overpayments of more than $600 million were
made, whereas rent underpayments totaled $1.7 billion - nearly
three times the amount of the overpayments.
The data collection for this study was done in mid-2000.
On-site tenant interviews, file review, and independent third-party
income verifications were conducted by an independent contractor
for a nationally representative sample of families who receive
public housing and Section 8 assistance. Using these data
and adhering to all HUD requirements, the Department made
income, rent, and subsidy determinations based on adherence
to all HUD guidelines. These determinations were then compared
to those made by local public housing and Section 8 project
staff. This allowed the Department to identify the most serious
errors, their costs, and their apparent causes, and formed
the basis for many of the corrective actions that are now
being developed. Successive Quality Control studies will provide
periodic performance indicators and verify the effectiveness
of HUD's corrective actions.
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