Man Charged With Public Assistance Fraud After Cocoa Housing Authority Audit
COCOA, Fla. -- Today,
Cocoa Police charged 41-year-old Kendrick Lorenzo Bacon with five criminal counts related to public assistance fraud following an
on-going audit of the Cocoa Public Housing Authority which was recently taken over by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD).
Cocoa Police say that the audit revealed that in
2011, 2012 and 2013, Bacon received over
$15,000.00 in public assistance benefits, but lied about questions related to drug activity and other arrests on his initial and re-certification applications for public assistance.
Bacon is a participant
in the Housing Choice Voucher program (known as Section 8), a social service
program for the disbursement of federally funded subsidies in the form
of rental assistance. The Section 8 program is
administered by the Public Housing Authority of the City of Cocoa with funding issued from HUD.
When police arrived at
Bacon’s apartment this afternoon to arrest him, they were advised that
Bacon was currently in the Brevard County Jail on unrelated charges.
Bacon has been charged with Public Assistance
Fraud – 3 counts, organized fraud – 1 count, making false statements to
obtain public aid – 1 count and theft. Bacon is being held on
$29,000.00 bond.
Police say that HUD representatives
currently working in the Cocoa office advised that they are happy to be
working with local law enforcement and that they expect all tenants to
abide by local and federal regulations.
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