The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) investigated 15 housing authorities and found that about 25,000 families with incomes that exceed eligibility limits lived in subsidized housing in 2014.
More than 1,900 of those families in public housing earned more than six figures each year, such as:
- A Lake Linden, Mich., family with $401,000 in job earnings lived in a public apartment with a $29,600 earnings cap.
- A San Francisco, Calif., family with a $437,000 income refused to vacate its subsidized housing.
- A Puerto Rico family with $6.1 million in assets lived in affordable housing designed for those with incomes under $20,000 per year.
According to the District Chronicles, the situation is most pronounced in New York. During the period HUD investigated, some 10,250 subsidized housing units managed by the housing authority are occupied by residents whose earnings exceed income limits.
HUD estimates that about 580,000 low-income families are waiting on federal subsidized housing vacancies. It costs about $104 million a year to support federal housing.
In 2004, HUD tried to prevent high-income residents from living in low-income housing. A revised rule gave local public housing authorities the ability to draft guidelines that require tenants to move out if their incomes surpassed federal eligibility thresholds. However, all the housing authorities in HUD’s 2014 audit still allowed over-income families to remain in subsidized housing.
“The bureaucrats in charge of the public housing programs have no incentive to kick people out, once they begin earning too much money to live in housing projects,” said David Williams, the president of the Washington, D.C.-based Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
