Certified Occupancy Specialist (COS) Practice Exam

In HUD programs, a dependent is a specific category of household member used for eligibility and rent calculations. The official definition is a household member who is under 18, or a full-time student who is over 18 and not the head of household or the spouse. This matters because dependents are treated differently in income and occupancy calculations than other adults. It helps distinguish who counts as a dependent for program rules from the broader group of people living in the unit. The other options are too broad or not aligned with how HUD partitions household members for these purposes.