How to Fill Out and Submit the Occupancy Certification Form

To fill out the occupancy certification form, list every person who will live in the unit with their legal names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers, report all sources of income for adult household members, disclose the net cash value of your assets, sign the required HUD consent forms, and return the packet with dated third-party documents to your Public Housing Agency (PHA) or property manager. In HUD’s Public Housing and Housing Choice Voucher programs, the certification is the HUD-50058; in subsidized multifamily housing, it is the HUD-50059.¹ You will fill one out at move-in and again at every annual reexamination.

Confirm Which Form You Have

HUD does not publish a single document titled “Occupancy Certification Form.” The label covers whichever certification your program uses. The HUD-50058 is completed by PHAs administering Public Housing and Housing Choice Vouchers, and it covers new admissions, annual reexaminations, interim reexaminations, portability moves, and end of participation.¹ The HUD-50059 is completed by private owners of HUD-subsidized multifamily properties to certify that your eligibility, rent, and assistance payments were calculated under HUD’s rules.² The information you supply is essentially the same for both.

List Every Household Member

The first block asks for identifiers for every person who will live in the unit, adults and children alike. You will enter legal names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. Federal regulation requires each applicant and current participant to disclose a complete and accurate SSN for every household member, along with documentation to verify it.³ Children under six who have not yet been assigned an SSN get a 90-day grace period after being added to the household.

For each adult, expect fields for current employers with names and addresses. Every adult member must also sign HUD consent forms (HUD-9887 and HUD-9887-A) authorizing the release of income and financial information at move-in and again at each annual recertification. Refusing to sign is grounds for denial or termination of assistance.⁴

Report Every Source of Income

You must report annual income from all sources for every household member who is 18 or older, and for the head of household or spouse regardless of age. For dependents under 18, only unearned income is counted.⁵ Income includes wages, Social Security benefits, pensions, welfare payments, and virtually every other recurring payment your household receives. The form has separate fields for each type. Enter the gross amount before deductions for each source.

One exclusion to be aware of: if you have a live-in aide who helps care for a household member with a disability, the aide’s income is not counted toward your household total.⁵ The aide must be essential to the care of the disabled member, must not be obligated to support your family, and would not be living in the unit except to provide those services.⁶

Disclose Your Assets

You must disclose the net cash value of all assets owned by anyone in the household: savings and checking accounts, stocks, bonds, real property, and similar holdings. The Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA) set a hard cap. For 2026, families with net assets above $105,574 are generally ineligible for assistance.⁷ That figure is adjusted for inflation each year.

If your household’s total net assets are at or below $52,787 (the 2026 threshold), you can self-certify the amount without providing bank statements, though the PHA must verify your assets at least once every three years.⁸ Above that threshold, bring current account statements and records for every asset.

Claim the Deductions That Lower Your Rent

Your total tenant payment is generally 30 percent of your monthly adjusted income. Federal statute sets it as the highest of 30 percent of adjusted monthly income, 10 percent of gross monthly income, or the welfare rent where applicable.⁹ For most families, the 30 percent figure applies.

Adjusted income is lower than gross income because HUD requires several deductions. Make sure your certification captures each one that fits your household:

Dependent deduction of $500 per dependent for 2026.⁷
Elderly or disabled household deduction of $550 for 2026, available when the head, co-head, or spouse is 62 or older or has a disability.¹⁰
Childcare deduction for reasonable anticipated childcare costs for children under 13 that enable a household member to work or go to school. Any outside reimbursement is subtracted first.¹¹
Medical expense deduction, available only to elderly or disabled households. Unreimbursed medical expenses must exceed 10 percent of annual gross income before the excess qualifies.¹⁰

Your PHA or property manager runs the calculation, but you should track it yourself. If you forget to mention daycare costs or an out-of-pocket medical expense, your rent may be set higher than it should be. Raise it at the certification interview.

Gather the Supporting Documents

Every number on the form needs backup. Pull these together before your appointment:

Four to six consecutive recent pay stubs. Fewer cannot be accepted as standalone verification of employment income.⁴
Award letters from the Social Security Administration, state welfare agencies, unemployment offices, or any other source of non-wage income, showing the current monthly amount.
Current statements for all bank accounts. Below the $52,787 self-certification threshold, a signed declaration may suffice until the next three-year verification cycle.
Your most recently filed IRS Form 1040. Some programs use adjusted gross income from the 1040 as one method for calculating annual income.¹²
Birth certificates, passports, naturalization certificates, or other proof of citizenship or eligible immigration status for every household member. HUD encourages PHAs to require this documentation.¹³
Social Security cards or other acceptable SSN verification for each household member.

All third-party documents must be dated within 120 days of the date the owner receives them to count as valid verification.⁴ Stale paperwork is one of the most common reasons a certification stalls, so time your requests to banks and employers accordingly.

Submit the Packet

Your PHA or property manager typically starts the recertification process about 120 days before your anniversary date by sending a notice and a document list.¹⁴ Use that window to gather the items above and schedule your interview.

Most agencies accept submissions in person at the local office. Some offer a secure online portal for uploading scans. If neither works for you, certified mail with a return receipt creates a paper trail confirming delivery. If a disability makes it hard to complete or submit the paperwork, you can request a reasonable accommodation from your property manager or PHA, in writing or verbally. That request can take up to 30 days to process, so make it early.

What Happens After You Submit

The agency does not simply take your word for it. Owners and PHAs are required to use the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system as a third-party source during every recertification.⁴ EIV pulls employment and benefit data through agreements with the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.¹⁵ It flags discrepancies: an employer you did not list, Social Security income that does not match your reported amount, a new job the database picked up.

If something does not line up, expect a follow-up interview or a written request for clarification. Reexaminations happen at least once a year.¹⁶ The PHA adjusts your total tenant payment and housing assistance payment based on what it finds. Income up means rent up. Income down should mean rent down.

Report Changes Before the Next Annual

You cannot wait until next year’s recertification to mention that your daughter moved out or that you started a new job. Federal rules require you to promptly notify your PHA when any family member leaves the unit, and to request PHA approval before adding any new member. Births, adoptions, and court-awarded custody must be reported promptly as well.¹⁷ The regulation says “promptly” without specifying an exact number of days; your PHA’s administrative plan may set a stricter window, often around 10 business days, so check your lease or admissions policy.

These updates trigger an interim reexamination, and the PHA recalculates your rent based on the new household or income. Skipping this step is where people get in trouble. If EIV later reveals unreported income, you can owe back rent for every month you underpaid.

The Cost of Getting It Wrong

The certification form itself carries a warning: signing it while knowing the information is false or incomplete is fraud. You could be evicted, required to repay all overpaid assistance you received, fined up to $10,000, imprisoned for up to five years, and permanently barred from future HUD housing assistance.¹⁸ State and local penalties can apply on top of that.

The HUD-50059 specifically references the False Claims Act, which provides civil penalties for anyone who knowingly presents a false claim to the government.² The most common triggers are unreported income and undisclosed household members, exactly what EIV is built to catch. If you made an honest mistake on a prior certification, tell your PHA before the agency finds it. A voluntary correction looks very different from a discrepancy the system flags on its own.

1
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Form HUD-50058 Instruction Booklet
2
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Owner’s Certification of Compliance with HUD’s Tenant Eligibility and Rent Procedures
3
eCFR. 24 CFR 5.216 – Disclosure and Verification of Social Security Numbers
4
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD Handbook 4350.3 – Occupancy Requirements of Subsidized Multifamily Housing Programs
5
eCFR. 24 CFR 5.609 – Annual Income
6
HUD Exchange. Can a Participant’s Unassisted Relative Become Their Live-in Aide
7
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 2026 HUD Inflation-Adjusted Values
8
HUD Exchange. Assets, Asset Exclusions, and Limitation on Assets Resource Sheet
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1437a – Rental Payments
10
VCU National Training and Data Center. HOTMA Overview
11
HUD Exchange. CoC Rent Calculation – Step 3: Determine the Childcare Deduction
12
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Policy Guidance 2024-07 Income Verification
13
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. PHA Letter on Citizenship and Immigration Status Verification
14
HUD Exchange. ACOP Toolkit – Annual and Interim Reexaminations Fact Sheet
15
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Enterprise Income Verification System
16
eCFR. 24 CFR 982.516 – Family Income and Composition: Annual and Interim Examinations
17
eCFR. 24 CFR 982.551 – Obligations of Participant
18
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Applying for HUD Housing Assistance – Is Fraud Worth It