  The feedback from an active galactic nucleus (AGN) is frequently invoked as a
mechanism through which gas can be heated or removed from a galaxy. However,
gas fraction measurements in AGN hosts have yielded mixed support for this
scenario. Here, we re-visit the assessment of fgas (=MHI/M*) in z<0.05 AGN
hosts in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) using two complementary
techniques. First, we investigate fgas for 75 AGN host galaxies in the extended
GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey (xGASS), whose atomic gas fractions are complete to a
few percent. Second, we construct HI spectral stacks of 1562 AGN from the
Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey, which enables us to extend the AGN
sample to lower stellar masses. Both techniques find that, at fixed M*, AGN
hosts with log M*>10.2 are HI rich by a factor of ~2. However, this gas
fraction excess disappears when the control sample is additionally matched in
star formation rate (SFR), indicating that these AGN hosts are actually HI
normal. At lower stellar mass, the stacking analysis reveals that AGN hosts are
HI poor at fixed stellar mass. In the lowest M* regime probed by our sample,
9<log M*<9.6, the HI deficit in AGN hosts is a factor of ~4, and remains at a
factor of ~2 even when the control sample is additionally matched in SFR. Our
results help reconcile previously conflicting results, by showing that matching
control samples by more than just stellar mass is critical for a rigourous
comparison.
