GAO Report Finds Weaknesses in Data Collected on Service Providers in the Multifamily Housing Program
By: Richa Goel, Policy & Legislative Affairs Data Analyst
June 2, 2026 — On June 1, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report titled “Weaknesses in Data Quality and Use Limit HUD’s Ability to Assess Effectiveness of Service Coordinators.”
The report reviews “service coordination in rural assisted housing” by examining:
- The quality and use of data collected by federal agencies on rural service coordinators
- The effect of service coordination on residents’ well-being
- Challenges to rural service coordination and methods to address these challenges
Service coordinators are employed by some owners or managers of affordable housing to “link residents to supportive services such as health care, meals, and transportation.” HUD operates two programs which “fund and collect data on service coordinators in public housing and in privately owned multifamily housing,” the Service Coordinators in Multifamily Housing Program and the Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency program.
GAO notes that HUD collects some information on service coordinators, but comprehensive data are not available. The report found that “data on budget-funded service coordinators in HUD Multifamily Housing are not reliable” and performance reports prepared by service coordinators are not routinely analyzed by HUD.
Additionally, GAO interviewed local stakeholders who “reported that service coordinators in federally assisted housing benefit residents’ well-being.” Selected studies found varied impacts.
Stakeholders and researchers interviewed by GAO identified key challenges to rural service coordination such as “managing multiple funding sources, limited service providers, and long distances between properties and services.”
Based on their findings, GAO recommends that HUD:
- “Develops and uses uniform procedures for entering data into iREMS that improve the quality of information on budget-funded service coordinators.”
- “Establishes a process to use the performance information collected for the Service Coordinators in Multifamily Housing Program to analyze program outcomes.”
The full report can be found here.
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