Finding Text
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Federal Program Title: Housing Choice Voucher Cluster
Assistance Listing Numbers: 14.871 and 14.879
Federal Award Identification Number and Year: FL080; 20223
Award Period: October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023
Type of Finding: Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance,
Material Noncompliance (Modified Opinion)
Criteria or Specific Requirement: The PHA must have written policies in its HCVP administrative plan for selecting applicants from the waiting list and PHA documentation must show that the PHA follows these policies when selecting applicants for admission from the waiting list. Expect as provided in 24 CFR section 982.203 (Special admission (non-waiting list)), all families admitted to the program must be selected from the waiting list. “Selection from the waiting list generally occurs when the PHA notifies a family whose names reaches the top of the waiting list to come in to verify eligibility for admission (24 CFR sections 5.410, 982.54(d), and 982.201 through 982.207).
Condition: During the testing of the Housing Choice Voucher Program tenant files, certain special provision compliance deficiencies were noted as summarized below:
Waiting List New Tenants
Number of Instances -- Finding
25 -- The HUD-52578b Statement of Family Responsibility was signed and completed after the effective date.
14 -- The HUD-52578b Statement of Family Responsibility are missing.
2 -- The referral forms were missing from the tenant files.
2 -- The HUD-52646 vouchers were not properly signed.
14 -- The acceptance letters were missing from the tenant files.
6 -- The original applications were missing from the tenant files.
6 -- The original applications were missing from the tenant files.
Tenant Selected from the Waiting List
Number of Instances -- Finding
35 -- The tenant was not admitted in accordance with the applicant's selection policies found in the administrative plan.
2 -- The Authority provided status on the open items report but failed to provide supporting documentation or actions taken.
3 -- There was no documentation of reason for the tenant being denied from the program.
1 -- There was no letter notifying the tenant that their name had been selected from the waiting list.
Questioned Costs: Undeterminable
Context: Out of 60 new tenant files tested, 40 contained the errors noted above. Out of 60 tenants selected from the waiting list files tested, 43 files contained the errors noted above. The sample was a statistically valid sample.
Cause: The Authority failed to provide adequate monitoring and oversight of their waiting list to ensure compliance with HUD rules and regulations as well as their administrative policy.
Effect: The Authority may have tenants on the waiting list that are not eligible for an HCVP voucher, are no longer interested in the HCVP housing, or have moved away.
Repeat Finding: This is a repeat finding from previous years. The finding numbers are 2018-008, 2019-007, 2020-005, 2021-004, and 2022-004.
Recommendation: We recommend that the Authority designate an individual to maintain the waiting list and track all correspondence with potential tenants. We recommend that the Authority’s waitlist tracking software be monitored to ensure tenants are notified appropriately.
Views of Responsible Officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.