We prepared this memorandum to provide the Office of Housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with key considerations from prior audits of the HUD Single Family Default Monitoring System (SFDMS) and the partial claim loss mitigation option.  These audits identified HUD’s lack of effective controls to ensure that lenders reported default information accurately and in a timely manner, lenders promptly...

We conducted this limited review to determine the use of landlord incentives to increase landlord participation and retention and expand housing options for program participants outside areas of low-income or minority concentration. The majority (28 of 34) of responsive MTW PHAs used the program and funding flexibilities of the MTW program to offer landlord incentives.  These PHAs offered many types of landlord incentives as a...

We initiated an audit of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) refunds to determine whether HUD appropriately, effectively, and efficiently tracked, monitored, and issued FHA refunds owed to homeowners with terminated loans. During the audit field work, the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began and as a result, we developed a second, more urgent audit...

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...

As part of the Office of Inspector General’s effort to provide oversight of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) relief efforts provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), we reviewed HUD’s communication to renters regarding the eviction moratorium found in Section 4024.  The objective of our review was to highlight the progress HUD has made and identify areas for...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), audited the Nampa Housing Authority’s public housing program in response to a local OIG, Office of Investigation, referral.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority followed U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) public housing requirements pertaining to (1) calculating contract rents, (2) maintaining its...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this study to follow up on information we shared previously regarding what information servicers of mortgage loans insured by Federal Housing Administration (FHA) are providing to borrowers regarding forbearance options available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). We reported on April 27, 2020...

As part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) effort to provide oversight of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) relief efforts provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), we reviewed HUD’s responses to inquiries regarding forbearance and foreclosure relief.  The objective of our review was to evaluate the accuracy of HUD’s responses to inquiries from borrowers,...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), has completed its risk assessment of HUD’s travel cards as required by the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 (Public Law 112-194).  Our objective was to assess the risks of illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases and payments within HUD’s travel card program.  We found that a medium risk was associated with HUD’s...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General assessed what information servicers of mortgage loans that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insures were providing on their public facing websites to borrowers regarding forbearance.  On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) to provide economic relief to individuals...

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) funding allotment for tenant protection assistance at the Vineville Christian Towers (project) related to a housing conversion action and its approval of the project’s Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD) conversion.  The review was initiated as a result of internal issues identified during an external audit of the project’s RAD conversion. The...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration, Home Affordable Modification Program’s (FHA-HAMP) policies for reporting nonincentivized loan modifications and filing partial claims.  The audit was a result of a prior Office of Inspector General (OIG) external review in which we identified delays in reporting FHA-HAMP nonincentivized loan modifications and filing partial...

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...

This topic brief summarized the current status of all information technology (IT) and privacy program recommendations issued to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by the Office of Inspector General’s Office of Evaluation, Information Technology Evaluations Division (iTED) from Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 through 2019.  The report breaks down numbers of recommendations by functional areas and analyzes the...

This management alert identified that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is failing to meet basic records management and privacy requirements for over 1 billion records containing PII.  Specifically, HUD is unable to identify, categorize, and adequately secure all of its electronic and paper records that contain personally identifiable information (PII).  These issues were identified during the fiscal...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Washington, DC, in the civil investigation of Quicken Loans, Inc.  The investigation was of Quicken’s origination, underwriting, endorsement, and related certifications of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured mortgage loans between September 1, 2007, and December 31, 2011. ...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted HUD’s Office of Program Enforcement in a civil investigation of Pacific Horizon Bancorp, Inc., and two former loan officers at Pacific Horizon.  Pacific Horizon has its principal place of business in La Crescenta, CA. Based on OIG’s civil investigation, on April 2, 2019, HUD notified Pacific Horizon and the two loan officers...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Washington, DC, and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the District of Kansas and the Northern District of Texas in the civil investigation of PrimeLending, a PlainsCapital company.  The investigation was of PrimeLending’s origination, underwriting, and quality control of Federal Housing...

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...