Section 8 Tenant Gets Pinched For Allegedly Scoring $115K In Rental & Utility Assistance Payments While Failing To Disclose That She Owned Two Homes & Had Cash In Two Bank Accounts

In Delaware County, Pennsylvania, The Delaware County Daily Times reports:

• A Ridley Township woman who owned two homes and had cash in two bank accounts that she failed to disclose on her annual housing and utility assistance forms has been charged with felony theft and related offenses.
  
  Rakeema Harris, 41, of the 100 block of Ladomus Avenue, was preliminarily arraigned Sept. 14, when she was released on $25,000 unsecured bail.
  
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  Harris, according to the affidavit of probable cause, was on the Housing Choice Voucher Program [Section 8] receiving Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) and Utility Reimbursement Payments (URP) through the Delaware County Housing Authority since April 2009. From May 1, 2009 through July 15, 2015, she received $111,266 from HAP and $4,552 from URP – payments totaling $115,778.
  
  Her benefits were terminated on July 31, 2015, “for failure to give true and complete information on her personal declaration form,” a form required to be completed each year, the affidavit states.
  
  According to the affidavit, Harris purchased a property in Philadelphia in July 2012 and a property in Ridley Township in January 2015 – properties she never disclosed on the forms.
  
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  In addition to theft by deception and theft by unlawful taking offenses, Harris is charged with receiving stolen property and tampering with public records.

For more, see Ridley woman charged with subsidized housing fraud.