Division of Housing and Community Renewal

Section 8 Program Participant Eligibility (Follow-Up Report)

The federal Housing Choice Voucher Program, more commonly known as the Section 8 Program, helps low-income families, the elderly and the disabled afford housing in the private market by making monthly payments to their landlords to partly subsidize their rent. The Section 8 Program in New York State is administered by the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR).

In audit 2006-S-69, we examined whether DHCR was taking adequate steps to verify that Program participants with invalid social security numbers were, in fact, eligible for the Program. We found that DHCR often was not taking adequate steps in such circumstances, and as a result, sometimes made monthly housing payments on behalf of individuals who were not eligible for the Program. In many instances, these individuals were no longer eligible for the Program because they had died, but their deaths had not been reported to DHCR. We identified $93,619 in such payments that were made on behalf of 50 deceased individuals. We recommended DHCR take certain steps to provide better assurance participants were, in fact, eligible for the Section 8 Program, and when we followed up on these matters with DHCR officials, we found that they had implemented our recommendations.

For a complete copy of Report 2009-F-20 click here.