HUD HCV Guidebook § 2.2
Screening and Other Requirements at Admission (HUD HCV Guidebook)
Operative Text
Disclosure of Social Security Numbers and compliance with verification requirements. The household must9 sign consent forms and provide requested verification materials to allow the PHA to verify the household’s information. The applicant must10 also disclose and document the SSNs of all family members (with a few exceptions described in Section 8, Disclosure of Social Security Numbers). SSNs only need to be verified once per household member. Background screening. The PHA must11 conduct background screenings to ensure no member of the household is subject to a lifetime sex offender registration requirement. All adult household members must12 sign a criminal background consent form to authorize the PHA to conduct background screenings. PHAs may establish additional nondiscriminatory criteria for admission. If the PHA chooses to establish additional criteria, the standards must13 be applied consistently and be listed in the PHAs’ administrative plan. Details on which other types of activity may result in denial of assistance and the PHAs options for setting additional criteria are discussed in Section 9, Background Screening. Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system searches. PHAs must11 use HUD’s EIV system to search for all household members using the Existing Tenant Search and all adult household members in the Search for Former Tenant. All adult household members must also sign the HUD-52675. The PHA may be required to deny assistance to household members who are already receiving assistance from another program or who owe an outstanding debt to another PHA. More information on the required searches and interpreting the results is provided in Section 10, EIV Searches at Admission.
HUD Housing Choice Voucher Guidebook § 2.2 establishes several requirements that must be met before a household can be admitted to the Housing Choice Voucher program. Applicants must disclose and document Social Security Numbers for family members, sign consent forms, and submit verification materials. The administering Public Housing Authority (PHA) is required to run background screenings—including a mandatory lifetime sex offender registry check—and conduct searches through HUD's Enterprise Income Verification system to identify duplicate assistance or outstanding debts to other PHAs. Any additional admission criteria a PHA adopts must be nondiscriminatory, consistently applied, and published in the PHA's administrative plan.
Plain English — not legal advice.
Under HUD Housing Choice Voucher Guidebook § 2.2, the admission screening process is administered by the PHA rather than the landlord directly, but property owners participating in the program benefit from understanding what the PHA is required to verify before a voucher is issued. Compliant PHAs collect signed consent forms, verify Social Security Numbers, conduct mandatory sex offender registry checks, and run EIV system searches on all household members before approving assistance. Landlords working with voucher holders can generally expect that these baseline screening steps have been completed by the PHA prior to the household receiving a voucher.
General guidance for property managers — not legal advice for your specific situation. Consult an attorney for advice on your case.
HUD Housing Choice Voucher Guidebook § 2.2 outlines the information and documentation that applicants are required to provide during the admissions process, including Social Security Numbers and signed consent forms for background and income verification checks. Applicants have the right to know that any additional screening criteria a PHA uses beyond the federal minimums must be nondiscriminatory, consistently applied, and listed in the PHA's publicly available administrative plan. Households who believe a PHA's admission criteria were applied inconsistently or in a discriminatory manner may consider contacting a local tenant-rights organization, reviewing the PHA's administrative plan, or filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
General guidance for tenants — not legal advice for your specific situation. Consult a tenant-rights organization or attorney for advice on your case.
Generated September 26, 2026 — auto-generated, not yet human-reviewed. See /transparency for methodology.
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