We audited the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh's (Authority) administration of its housing assistance payments for leased housing under its Moving to Work Demonstration program agreement based on our analysis of various risk factors relating to housing authorities administering a leased housing program within our region. This is the first of two audit reports we plan to issue on the Authority's program. The audit objective addressed in this report was to determine whether the Authority properly maintained documentation to support housing assistance payments and accurately calculated them.

The Authority did not properly maintain documentation to support housing assistance payments and did not always accurately calculate housing assistance payments for its leased housing. We identified deficiencies in 28 of the 30 tenant files that we reviewed. The Authority did not maintain complete documents required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and its own administrative plan, resulting in unsupported housing assistance payments of $58,470. It also made ineligible housing assistance payments totaling $12,180 because it did not execute housing assistance payments contracts within 60 days of the beginning of the lease term, and it made housing assistance payments before the effective date of the related housing assistance payment contract. Lastly, the Authority inaccurately calculated housing assistance payments, resulting in $4,811 in overpayments and $1,708 in underpayments.

We recommend that HUD require the Authority to correct the errors in the tenant files identified by the audit, provide documentation to support housing assistance payments totaling $58,470 or reimburse its leased housing program for the payments that it cannot support, reimburse its leased housing program $16,991 for the ineligible payments and overpayments, and reimburse applicable tenants $1,708 for the housing assistance underpayments.