California Code of Regulations
Title 25 - Housing and Community Development
Division 1 - Housing and Community Development
Chapter 6.5 - Program Operations
Subchapter 2.5 - Applicant Verification Requirements
Article 3 - Procedures for Determining and Reporting Eligibility
Section 6939 - Who Must Perform Verifications

(a) Each sponsor shall perform eligibility verifications as required by this subchapter. (Section 432 of the PRAWORA, as amended by Pub. L. 104-208 (8 U.S.C. § 1642(d)), does not require nonprofit charitable organizations to verify eligibility.) The failure to perform eligibility verifications may, in the Department's discretion, be considered a default under the loan or grant to the sponsor. In those situations in which an applicant for a public benefit is seeking a public benefit directly from the Department, the Department shall perform the verification of eligibility.

(b) Each sponsor, including local governmental entities, shall perform the tenant verifications required pursuant to this section as part of its ongoing project management responsibilities. Each such project sponsor, or the department where it has performed the verification of eligibility, shall maintain the appropriate documentation as part of each public beneficiary's program file. In the case of governmental sponsors, where an applicant's eligibility for a public benefit has already been verified as part of an eligibility process for another federal, state, or local program subject to PRAWORA, that verification shall be deemed adequate for purposes of this subchapter and documentation of the verification shall be maintained in the public beneficiary's file.

(c) Any sponsor that verifies eligibility may consider the costs involved in performing the verifications to be a project expense; and may charge applicants, but not existing tenants, a reasonable fee for determining eligibility.

(d) The Department shall charge a fee not to exceed $13, for each verification it performs.

(e) The Department shall not be liable for any action, delay, or failure of the INS in conducting the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system or other verification process.