The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the Wichita, KS, Housing Authority’s Housing Choice Voucher program. We selected the Authority for review because it received more than $12 million in Section 8 funding in both 2011 and 2010. Also, it is one of the largest housing authorities in Kansas and had not been reviewed by HUD OIG. Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority administered its Housing Choice Voucher program in accordance with applicable regulations.

The Authority did not always properly administer its Housing Choice Voucher program. It oversubsidized 30 of the 94 households reviewed and did not verify the use of additional bedrooms for medical or exercise equipment. Also, it did not accurately complete the tenant recertification form for 44 of the 94 households. This condition occurred because the Authority’s quality control reviews were inadequate and the Authority did not have a system to track and verify tenants who were approved for an additional bedroom for medical or exercise equipment.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s Kansas City Office of Public Housing require the Authority to reimburse its Housing Choice Voucher program $67,269 from administrative fee reserves. Also, HUD should ensure that the Authority develops and implements a more comprehensive quality control program for its tenant files to ensure that it complies with HUD requirements and a process to track and perform annual inspections of households that receive an extra bedroom for medical or exercise equipment.