The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of tenants who improperly received multiple housing subsidies in the Section 8 and public housing programs. Our objective was to determine whether HUD ensured that housing authorities resolved items listed on the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system’s multiple subsidy report in a reasonable amount of time.

We found that HUD did not ensure that housing authorities resolved an estimated 3,636 items listed on the EIV multiple subsidy report in a reasonable amount of time, to eliminate the occurrence of an estimated $340,679 in improper subsidy payments.

We recommended that HUD notify housing authorities of the possible imposition of sanctions on those housing authorities that 1) fail to recover or attempt to recover improper subsidy payments or 2) fail to properly use the EIV system. Additionally, we recommended that HUD modify the EIV multiple subsidy report to show the date that the tenant was flagged as potentially receiving multiple rental assistance and include an aging table to identify how long tenants have appeared on the report. Finally, we recommended that HUD implement a process to monitor and follow up with housing authorities on all tenants listed on the EIV multiple subsidy report that have been flagged for 6 months or more and ensure housing authorities implement appropriate corrective action(s) to eliminate the occurrence of improper subsidy payments.