Two residential landlords in Cortez have paid $73,650 under a settlement agreement to resolve allegations that they charged excessive rent to low-income tenants in violation of a federal program.
The settlement was announced Monday in a release from the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado, Bob Troyer. According to the release, Deborah Conrads and Lawrence Conrads were accused of defrauding the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Choice Voucher Program. The program provides financial assistance to low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled for housing in the private market. Participating landlords receive payments directly from the public housing authority to cover much of the rent. Landlords agree to let the authority set the rent and not to charge anything additional. However, the Conrads were accused of charging tenants in one of their Cortez units extra, unauthorized rent as recently as 2014, and concealing the side payments from the Montezuma Housing Authority. The United States alleges the Conrads extracted at least $18,000 in excess rent from the family. Under the settlement, the Conrads did not admit any wrongdoing. In the release, HUD Rocky Mountain Regional Administrator Rick M. Garcia said such rental assistance is in high demand in the region, “and fraudulent practices within these programs will not be tolerated.”
