This report was issued from a developing series of six reports taking an in-depth look at how six communities used the pandemic funding they received to address a wide range of needs. This report focused on Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with a detailed look at eight of the 45 pandemic programs that provided funding to the community. This report was led by the Pandemic Relief Accountability Committee (PRAC) in coordination with HUD OIG as a…

On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act made available $5 billion in supplemental CDBG funding for grants to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic (CDBG-CV grants).  Because of similarities, we reviewed 132 CDBG-DR program audits and evaluations issued from May 2002 to March 2020 to summarize the common CDBG-DR program weaknesses and risks for CPD to consider to…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), has completed a survey of the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grantees.  Our objective was to determine the challenges that HUD and its CDBG-DR grantees are experiencing related to the COVID-19 pandemic and to help inform the Office of…

We conducted this limited review to identify the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) drawdown levels for the initial round of Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) funding.  In addition, we researched information published by grantees on how they have used and will use their funds.  Our objective was to highlight the grantees’ (1) drawdown…

We conducted an attestation review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Special Needs, Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Grants Program, regarding drug control accounting and associated management assertions for fiscal year 2019.  As required by Federal statute 21 U.S.C. 1704(d)(1), we reviewed HUD’s drug control accounting, including its written assertions.  Our responsibility is to…

Topic briefs are a tool we use to keep officials within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) informed of challenges so that its leadership can be better prepared to address them.  This topic brief describes our observations of the time it takes the Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) to complete risk-based scoring.  HUD implemented its risk analysis process to help CPD field offices…

We conducted an attestation review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Special Needs Assistance Continuum of Care, regarding drug control accounting and associated management assertions for fiscal year 2018.  As required by Federal statute 21 U.S.C. 1704(d), we reviewed HUD’s Report on Drug Control Accounting, including its written assertions.  Our responsibility is to express a…

Reissued 11/27/17 The subject report has been reissued to correct the memorandum number.  This reissued memorandum now correctly shows the report number.The number was corrected from 2018-AT-0801 to 2018-AT-1801. The purpose of this memorandum is to provide time-sensitive information regarding the Office for the Socioeconomic and Community Development’s (ODSEC) proposed framework for the administration of the Community…

We audited the Office of the Commissioner for Municipal Affairs’ (OCMA) Puerto Rico State Community Development Block Grant program.  We selected OCMA for review based on concerns regarding the slow progress of the Municipality of San Sebastian’s fine arts center.  The objective of this audit was to determine whether OCMA effectively used State Block Grant funds on a fine arts center that met a national objective of the…

HUD OIG assisted U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York in a civil investigation related to illegal-undocumented aliens  receiving Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) assistance.  The HOPWA program at 24 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Part 574 is a HUD Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) grant program that provides formula allocations and competitively awarded grants to…

We are conducting an audit of the City of Jersey City’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program based upon an Office of Inspector General (OIG) hotline complaint containing several allegations, one of which was that the City’s Division of Community Development’s lead risk assessor was not qualified or producing monitoring reports for rehabilitation work funded under the City’s Homeowner Rehabilitation Program.  The…

We reviewed the City of Richmond’s Filbert Phase 1 and Filbert Phase 2 activities in response to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) San Francisco Office of  Community Planning and Development’s and HUD’s Office of Program Enforcement’s concerns over the City’s administration of its HOME Investment Partnerships Program, Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), and CDBG Recovery (CDBG-R) funding of…

Due to concerns identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD), we completed a limited scope, spinoff audit of Veterans First and reviewed additional grants not covered in our original audit (2015-LA-1002, issued April16, 2015).  CPD was concerned that HUD funds for two additional grants not reviewed in the first audit were used to cover shortfalls in…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Greensboro, NC, Office of Community Planning and Development’s approval of the City of High Point’s use of a 15 percent cost estimate margin.  The objective of this review was to determine whether HUD knowingly allowed the City to use the 15 percent margin.  HUD’s Greensboro, NC, Office of Community Planning and Development allowed the City to use the…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Affordable Housing Programs’ oversight of leases in HOME Investment Partnerships Program-funded rental housing projects.  The review was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2015 annual audit plan.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD’s Office had adequate oversight of participating jurisdictions to ensure that leases between…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General audited the City of Colorado Springs (City) in response to a citizen’s complaint received by our office.  The complainant alleged the City committed HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funds without written agreements, delayed the reporting of Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) program income in a timely manner, and improperly…

We reviewed HUD’s San Juan, PR, Office of Community Planning and Development’s monitoring of the Vieques, PR, Sports City Complex project.  The review was performed based on indicators identified in the audit of the Vieques Sports City Complex, Office of the Commissioner for Municipal Affairs’ (OCMA) Puerto Rico State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Section 108 Loan Guarantee program.  More than 11 years had elapsed…

We audited the Office of the Commissioner for Municipal Affairs’ (OCMA) Puerto Rico State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Section 108 Loan Guarantee program as part of our strategic plan, based on concerns regarding the slow progress of the Vieques sports complex project.  The objective of this audit was to determine whether OCMA used Section 108 loan proceeds on a project that met a national objective of the CDBG…

We completed a follow-up review regarding our recommendations made to the U.S. Department of Housing Urban and Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) pertaining to our inspection of the State of Louisiana’s Road Home Elevation Incentive program, IED-09-002, issued in March 2010. The objective of the review was to determine whether the State of Louisiana had implemented the four recommendations in our…

We completed a review of the Village of Spring Valley, NY, a subrecipient of Rockland County, NY. We selected this auditee based on a hotline complaint that was referred from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) OIG, Complaint Number Z-12-0445-1, received on February 14, 2012. The complaint alleged that the Village (1) used eminent domain and Federal funds to seize property, (2) transferred ownership of properties to a…