Fraud Prevention and Recovery Program

The Board of Commissioners and management of the St. Petersburg Housing Authority (SPHA) are committed to eliminating fraud and recovering resources lost by fraudulent activity by residents, clients, landlords and suppliers. Fraud is a crime, which diverts scarce resources away from the neediest of our clients.

SPHA formed its Fraud Prevention and Recovery program in 2001, with the goal of reducing the incidents of fraudulent activity in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV)/Section 8 program and saving taxpayer dollars.

The Fraud Prevention and Recovery team members train HCV/Section 8 staff, development managers and other SPHA staff on how to identify fraudulent tenant activities, investigate any potential cases of fraud, and work closely with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), local, state and federal law enforcement agencies for prosecution of offenders. This partnership has resulted in numerous arrests of the worst offenders and saves the taxpayers thousands of dollars, annually.

One half of the funds recovered by SPHA’s Fraud Prevention and Recovery team is reinvested in fraud recovery efforts and the other half is returned to HUD.