HUD’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) audited a site’s Section 8 housing assistance payments program based on a citizen’s complaint alleging mismanagement of its housing assistance payments contract. The audit objective was to determine whether the management agent administered the site’s program in accordance with the owner’s contract with HUD and its own requirements.

The audit found that the management agent didn’t always administer the site’s program in accordance with HUD’s and its own requirements. Specifically, it didn’t always correctly calculate and support housing assistance payments for the program households and properly administer the site’s waiting lists. As a result, the site inappropriately received more than $85,000 in ineligible and more than $6,000 in unsupported housing assistance. If the management agent doesn’t correct its tenant certification process, HUD could overpay the site more than $76,000 in housing assistance over the next year. In addition, housing assistance may have been unjustly denied or delayed for eligible applicants on the site’s waiting lists.

OIG recommended that the Director of HUD’s Chicago Office of Multifamily Housing Programs require the site owner to reimburse HUD from non-project funds for the ineligible housing assistance payments, reimburse the appropriate households for the underpaid housing assistance, reimburse HUD for the overpayment of housing assistance due to unreported income, support or reimburse HUD from non-project funds for the unsupported housing assistance payments, update the waiting lists to include applicable notations, and implement adequate policies, procedures, and controls to address the issues cited in this audit report.

• HUD Audit 2017-CH-1005, August 2017