Any person who by means of any fraudulent misstatement or willful misrepresentation made in connection with an application for tenancy or renewal of tenancy in a housing project of a local housing authority misleads, defrauds, or induces the authority to fix a rental payment for his or her tenancy at a sum less than required under the regulations of the local housing authority shall be answerable to that authority for payment of a sum equivalent to the difference between the rental charged to the tenant and the rent which the tenant should have been charged in accordance with the regulations of the local housing authority, and in the event such payment is not made it shall be recoverable in a civil action. In any such civil action where fraud is proven, the court may, as a penalty receivable by the authority, assess an additional sum of money up to but not in excess of the entire amount of the difference in rent charged to the tenant and that which should have been charged but for the willful misrepresentation and misstatements.