Quality Control for Rental Assistance Subsidies Determinations
Final Report for FY 2004
(July 2005, 270 pages)

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The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Quality control for Rental Assistance Subsidies Determinations studies provide national estimates of the extent, severity, costs, and sources of rent errors for the Public Housing, Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher, Section 8 project-based, and Section 202 and Section 811 programs with PRAC or PAC tenant subsidies. These so-called "deep subsidy" programs account for nearly all of HUD's current housing assistance outlays administered by the Offices of Housing and Public and Indian Housing, as well as the large majority of units assisted by HUD. This study was designed to measure the extent of administrative error by housing providers. The errors we evaluated in this study affect the rent contributions tenants should have been charged. The findings presented in this report are a result of data collected from August 2003 through January 2004 for actions taken by public housing authority (PHA) and project staff during FY 2004(October 2003 through September 2004). These findings show that errors in the Public Housing, Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher, Section 8 project-based, and Section 202 and Section 811 programs with PRAC or PAC tenant subsidies continued to decline compared with results from previous studies.

HUD's rental housing assistance programs are administered on HUD's behalf by third-party program administrators, including PHAs, public and private project owners, and contracted management agents. In the programs examined, eligible tenants are generally required to pay 30 percent of their income toward shelter costs (rent plus utilities), with HUD providing the balance of the rental payment. New program applicants are required to provide certain information on household characteristics, income, assets, and expenses that is used to determine what rent they should pay. Existing tenants are required to recertify this information annually and also, in some circumstances, when there are significant changes in household income or composition. Applicant or tenant failure to correctly report income may result in HUD's over- or underpayment of housing assistance. The failure of the responsible program administrator to correctly interview the tenant or process, calculate, and bill the tenant's rental assistance may also result in HUD's over- or underpayment of housing assistance.