Nicole Faison: Ensuring efficiency at HUD

For years, the Department of Housing and Urban Development faced a real quandary: Many public housing tenants were underreporting their income to the government, putting HUD in the position of providing housing to some who should not have received it. Yet the government had no effective way of verifying the true earnings of such tenants.

That's where Nicole Faison came in. Hired by HUD to fix the problem, she developed what is called the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) database to restore integrity to the system.

Accessible to housing authorities around the country, the EIV system allows employees to determine -- by typing in a tenant's Social Security number -- whether residents are receiving Social Security, welfare or unemployment benefits, or are earning more than they have claimed.

Now almost three years old, the EIV system has reduced the total number of improper federal subsidies paid each year, saving the government billions of dollars and opening housing spots for tens of thousands of eligible, low-income families who had been stuck on a waiting list.

Faison, the acting director of HUD's Financial Management Center, said that since its launch, the system has identified approximately 430,000 families in the public housing and housing-choice-voucher programs that may have provided inaccurate income information to HUD.

"The EIV system gives us an opportunity to consult with the family to see what is true and what's not true," said Faison. "EIV is a proactive approach to addressing these situations."

Faison said the verification system also sends a clear message to the community that, no matter the jurisdiction, "the right families are getting the right benefits."

"It all goes back to restoring public trust," she said.

David Vargas, associate deputy assistant secretary at HUD, said housing authorities love the computerized database because it allows them to quickly validate income, rather than put them through a laborious and ineffective paper chase.

"Nicole made this happen. She is very committed to what she is doing," said Vargas.

Deloris Sawyer, director of the federal housing program for the Las Vegas Housing Authority, has seen firsthand the impact of the EIV system on her agency and the community she serves.

Last year, Sawyer collected more than $350,000 in underpayments as a result of the database, and she projects that by the end of 2009, the housing authority will have collected $500,000 from tenants who underreported incomes this year.

Faison said hearing about that kind of success gives her immense satisfaction. She started her housing career working for the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, gained grass-roots experience, and has applied the lessons she learned to the national level.

"I went into public service because I wanted to ensure families who are in need of affordable housing can get access to it," she said. "To have one impact on one family is gratifying, but to have impact on many, many lives, you can't put a price tag on it."

This article was jointly prepared by the Partnership for Public Service, a group seeking to enhance the performance of the federal government, and washingtonpost.com. Visit www.ourpublicservice.org for more about the organization's work.