Finding 1154817 (2024-004)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
E
Questioned Costs
$1
Year
2024
Accepted
2025-09-23

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: Incomplete documentation of tenant income eligibility for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, affecting compliance with HUD regulations.
  • Impacted Requirements: Missing utility allowance calculations, discrepancies in 50058 forms, incorrect tenant rent calculations, and unlocatable tenant files.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Focus on recruiting and training staff on HUD requirements and streamline processes to enhance documentation and compliance efficiency.

Finding Text

2024-004 Eligibility Controls and Compliance Criteria As a condition of admission or continued occupancy, require the tenant and other family members to provide necessary information, documentation, and releases for the Authority to verify income eligibility (24 CFR sections 5.230, 5.609, and 982.516) Condition Incomplete documentation of tenant’s income eligibility for participation in the Housing Choice Voucher Program. During the sampling of forty (40) tenant files we noted: (A) seven (7) did not include utility allowance calculation; (B) two (2) 50058 forms did not agree with the Housing Assistance Payments made to landlords; (C) two (2) tenant rents did not fall between 90% and 110% of the HUD FMR for the areas; and (D) four (4) of the selected tenants did not have a file that could be located during our testing. Context The Authority manages over 600 Housing Choice Vouchers and 600 Port-In Voucher during the year. We sampled 40 tenant files for multiple compliance requirements. Cause The failure to meet compliance requirements noted above can be attributed to a combination of factors, including major staff turnover, which led to a loss of institutional knowledge and expertise critical for the preparation and maintain the required documentation in tenant files. Effect Compliance with income limits and eligibility could not be demonstrated for sampled tenants. Therefore, ineligible individuals may be receiving HAP assistance and /or HAP is being incorrectly calculated based on unverified incomes. Recommendations It is recommended that the Authority: (1) Prioritize the recruitment and training of new staff to fill critical roles, ensuring they are well-versed in HUD requirements and (2) Revise and streamline internal processes to improve efficiency and reliability in meeting HUD's requirements for determining tenant eligibility. Questioned Costs The exact monetary impact needs further investigation to determine the amount for the period of non-compliance. Management Views We agree with this finding and have outlined our plan of action in our Corrective Action Plan.

Corrective Action Plan

Finding ref number: 2024-004 Finding Caption: Housing Voucher Cluster Eligibility Controls and Compliance Name, address, and telephone of Authority contact person: Michael Bishop 2900 NE 10th St. Renton, WA 98056 425-226-1850 x 317 Corrective action the auditee plans to take in response to the finding: (If the auditee does not concur with the finding, the auditee must list the reasons for disagreement). Prior RHA staff were not ensuring that the Utility Allowance schedules were being completed correctly and matching up to the 50058, which made the HAP incorrect. Of the forty (40) tenant files sampled by the auditors, seven (7) files did not have utility allowances calculated; two (2) files had 50058’s that did not agree with the HAP payments being paid to the landlords and four (4) files could not be located for testing. RHA had sent all of its paper files to a scanning company to have everything scanned and saved back onto our server for safekeeping. RHA has gone paperless and will not keep paper tenant files again. Some of the files that the auditors requested were either not scanned yet or we could not find. Staff continue to be trained and educated on the importance of ensuring all documents on in the digital tenant file with backup documentation for income / asset verification as well as ensure that the 50058 UA matches the 52667 form and scanned into their digital file of the voucher holder. These issues should begin to decrease as we cycle through and get all paperwork caught up. 2024 Annual Reexams were behind due to staffing issues in 2023 and into 2024. Finding ref number: 2024-004 Finding Caption: Housing Voucher Cluster Eligibility Controls and Compliance Name, address, and telephone of Authority contact person: Michael Bishop 2900 NE 10th St. Renton, WA 98056 425-226-1850 x 317 Corrective action the auditee plans to take in response to the finding: (If the auditee does not concur with the finding, the auditee must list the reasons for disagreement). Prior RHA staff were not ensuring that the Utility Allowance schedules were being completed correctly and matching up to the 50058, which made the HAP incorrect. Of the forty (40) tenant files sampled by the auditors, seven (7) files did not have utility allowances calculated; two (2) files had 50058’s that did not agree with the HAP payments being paid to the landlords and four (4) files could not be located for testing. RHA had sent all of its paper files to a scanning company to have everything scanned and saved back onto our server for safekeeping. RHA has gone paperless and will not keep paper tenant files again. Some of the files that the auditors requested were either not scanned yet or we could not find. Staff continue to be trained and educated on the importance of ensuring all documents on in the digital tenant file with backup documentation for income / asset verification as well as ensure that the 50058 UA matches the 52667 form and scanned into their digital file of the voucher holder. These issues should begin to decrease as we cycle through and get all paperwork caught up. 2024 Annual Reexams were behind due to staffing issues in 2023 and into 2024. Finding ref number: 2024-004 Finding Caption: Housing Voucher Cluster Eligibility Controls and Compliance Name, address, and telephone of Authority contact person: Michael Bishop 2900 NE 10th St. Renton, WA 98056 425-226-1850 x 317 Corrective action the auditee plans to take in response to the finding: (If the auditee does not concur with the finding, the auditee must list the reasons for disagreement). Prior RHA staff were not ensuring that the Utility Allowance schedules were being completed correctly and matching up to the 50058, which made the HAP incorrect. Of the forty (40) tenant files sampled by the auditors, seven (7) files did not have utility allowances calculated; two (2) files had 50058’s that did not agree with the HAP payments being paid to the landlords and four (4) files could not be located for testing. RHA had sent all of its paper files to a scanning company to have everything scanned and saved back onto our server for safekeeping. RHA has gone paperless and will not keep paper tenant files again. Some of the files that the auditors requested were either not scanned yet or we could not find. Staff continue to be trained and educated on the importance of ensuring all documents on in the digital tenant file with backup documentation for income / asset verification as well as ensure that the 50058 UA matches the 52667 form and scanned into their digital file of the voucher holder. These issues should begin to decrease as we cycle through and get all paperwork caught up. 2024 Annual Reexams were behind due to staffing issues in 2023 and into 2024. Finding ref number: 2024-004 Finding Caption: Housing Voucher Cluster Eligibility Controls and Compliance Name, address, and telephone of Authority contact person: Michael Bishop 2900 NE 10th St. Renton, WA 98056 425-226-1850 x 317 Corrective action the auditee plans to take in response to the finding: (If the auditee does not concur with the finding, the auditee must list the reasons for disagreement). Prior RHA staff were not ensuring that the Utility Allowance schedules were being completed correctly and matching up to the 50058, which made the HAP incorrect. Of the forty (40) tenant files sampled by the auditors, seven (7) files did not have utility allowances calculated; two (2) files had 50058’s that did not agree with the HAP payments being paid to the landlords and four (4) files could not be located for testing. RHA had sent all of its paper files to a scanning company to have everything scanned and saved back onto our server for safekeeping. RHA has gone paperless and will not keep paper tenant files again. Some of the files that the auditors requested were either not scanned yet or we could not find. Staff continue to be trained and educated on the importance of ensuring all documents on in the digital tenant file with backup documentation for income / asset verification as well as ensure that the 50058 UA matches the 52667 form and scanned into their digital file of the voucher holder. These issues should begin to decrease as we cycle through and get all paperwork caught up. 2024 Annual Reexams were behind due to staffing issues in 2023 and into 2024. Finding ref number: 2024-004 Finding Caption: Housing Voucher Cluster Eligibility Controls and Compliance Name, address, and telephone of Authority contact person: Michael Bishop 2900 NE 10th St. Renton, WA 98056 425-226-1850 x 317 Corrective action the auditee plans to take in response to the finding: (If the auditee does not concur with the finding, the auditee must list the reasons for disagreement). Prior RHA staff were not ensuring that the Utility Allowance schedules were being completed correctly and matching up to the 50058, which made the HAP incorrect. Of the forty (40) tenant files sampled by the auditors, seven (7) files did not have utility allowances calculated; two (2) files had 50058’s that did not agree with the HAP payments being paid to the landlords and four (4) files could not be located for testing. RHA had sent all of its paper files to a scanning company to have everything scanned and saved back onto our server for safekeeping. RHA has gone paperless and will not keep paper tenant files again. Some of the files that the auditors requested were either not scanned yet or we could not find. Staff continue to be trained and educated on the importance of ensuring all documents on in the digital tenant file with backup documentation for income / asset verification as well as ensure that the 50058 UA matches the 52667 form and scanned into their digital file of the voucher holder. These issues should begin to decrease as we cycle through and get all paperwork caught up. 2024 Annual Reexams were behind due to staffing issues in 2023 and into 2024. Finding ref number: 2024-004 Finding Caption: Housing Voucher Cluster Eligibility Controls and Compliance Name, address, and telephone of Authority contact person: Michael Bishop 2900 NE 10th St. Renton, WA 98056 425-226-1850 x 317 Corrective action the auditee plans to take in response to the finding: (If the auditee does not concur with the finding, the auditee must list the reasons for disagreement). Prior RHA staff were not ensuring that the Utility Allowance schedules were being completed correctly and matching up to the 50058, which made the HAP incorrect. Of the forty (40) tenant files sampled by the auditors, seven (7) files did not have utility allowances calculated; two (2) files had 50058’s that did not agree with the HAP payments being paid to the landlords and four (4) files could not be located for testing. RHA had sent all of its paper files to a scanning company to have everything scanned and saved back onto our server for safekeeping. RHA has gone paperless and will not keep paper tenant files again. Some of the files that the auditors requested were either not scanned yet or we could not find. Staff continue to be trained and educated on the importance of ensuring all documents on in the digital tenant file with backup documentation for income / asset verification as well as ensure that the 50058 UA matches the 52667 form and scanned into their digital file of the voucher holder. These issues should begin to decrease as we cycle through and get all paperwork caught up. 2024 Annual Reexams were behind due to staffing issues in 2023 and into 2024. Corrective action the auditee plans to take in response to the finding: (If the auditee does not concur with the finding, the auditee must list the reasons for disagreement). Prior RHA staff were not ensuring that the Utility Allowance schedules were being completed correctly and matching up to the 50058, which made the HAP incorrect. Of the forty (40) tenant files sampled by the auditors, seven (7) files did not have utility allowances calculated; two (2) files had 50058’s that did not agree with the HAP payments being paid to the landlords and four (4) files could not be located for testing. RHA had sent all of its paper files to a scanning company to have everything scanned and saved back onto our server for safekeeping. RHA has gone paperless and will not keep paper tenant files again. Some of the files that the auditors requested were either not scanned yet or we could not find. Staff continue to be trained and educated on the importance of ensuring all documents on in the digital tenant file with backup documentation for income / asset verification as well as ensure that the 50058 UA matches the 52667 form and scanned into their digital file of the voucher holder. These issues should begin to decrease as we cycle through and get all paperwork caught up. 2024 Annual Reexams were behind due to staffing issues in 2023 and into 2024.

Categories

Questioned Costs HUD Housing Programs Eligibility

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 1154814 2024-003
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1154815 2024-004
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1154816 2024-003
    Material Weakness Repeat

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
14.871 Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers $10.76M
14.879 Mainstream Vouchers $1.46M