In general, household income must be recertified on an annual basis to ensure compliance with ongoing occupancy requirements. The recertification must use the same definition of income as the initial certification, but procedures for documenting income during recertifications differ. Let's take a closer look at these differences:

• HOME Recertifications. After initial verification using third party source documentation, the PJ may allow project management to perform such reviews every sixth year only (under this approach, full verification via source documentation is performed for all tenants in years 6, 12 and 18 of the affordability period). In the interim years, tenants may provide either a written statement from a government agency that provides benefits to the family and examines the family's annual income each year (e.g., TANF or Section 8), or a statement of annual income from the family with a certification that the information is complete and accurate. Every sixth year, property management is required to perform a full review of tenant eligibility in all units and collect complete third party source documentation.
  
  
• LIHTC Recertifications. Tenants are required to annually submit a certification with third party source documentation to demonstrate their annual income. After the owner has verified all of the documentation, the tenant signs the recertification form. An owner may request a waiver from the recertification requirements if all units in the project are LIHTC units.

For projects that combine HOME funds and housing tax credits, owners may seek a project waiver from the state-allocating agency to allow certification documentation similar to HOME.