We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) preforeclosure sale claim process based on an internal Office of Inspector General audit suggestion noting that existing regulations may allow excessive preforeclosure claim interest costs.  Our audit objective was to determine the amount of unnecessary preforeclosure claim interest and other costs that resulted from...

We audited Hamilton County’s subrecipient agreement with People Working Cooperatively, Inc. (corporation), for a Community Development Block Grant-funded housing repair services program based on a request from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Columbus Office of Community Planning and Development concerning information the Office received regarding the program, which it did not have the resources to review....

We audited the Red Bank Housing Authority based on the results of our audit of Asbury Park Housing Authority because both public housing agencies had agreements with the Long Branch Housing Authority to provide services.  The objective of this audit was to determine whether the Authority administered its Public Housing Operating and Capital Fund programs in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),...

We audited the City of Erie, PA’s Community Development Block Grant program because we received a complaint regarding its code enforcement program and we had not audited the City’s program since 1997.  The complaint alleged that the City targeted low- to middle-income residents in certain neighborhoods requiring expensive repairs to their homes and properties, which could result in legal actions and liens if the homeowners did...

We audited the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority based on our risk analysis of public housing agencies that fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Buffalo, NY, field office.  The objective of our audit was to determine whether the Authority administered its operating funds in accordance with applicable HUD, Federal, and Authority requirements. We found that the Authority did...

We audited HUD’s oversight of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds used for Section 108 repayments.  This audit was part of our annual audit plan.  The objective of this audit was to determine whether HUD effectively monitored the use of CDBG funds in repaying Section 108 loans and whether it was feasible to enact a threshold or maximum amount of CDBG funds that grantees may use to repay loans. HUD’s oversight of...

We audited the Housing Authority of the County of Lake, IL’s Housing Choice Voucher Program based on the activities included in our 2018 annual audit plan and our analysis of risk factors related to the public housing agencies in Region 5’s jurisdiction.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority appropriately managed its program in accordance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) and...

We audited the Crisfield Housing Authority’s use of public housing program operating and capital funds because we received a hotline complaint alleging misuse of public housing assets and we had never audited the Authority.  The audit objective was to determine whether the Authority administered its public housing program in accordance with applicable U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements and its...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant code enforcement program due to results from our external audits, which showed that grantees did not adequately understand and failed to ensure compliance with program requirements.  Our audit objective was to determine (1) whether HUD’s code enforcement guidance under its Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD)...

We performed a review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing Counseling Program, located within the Office of Housing Counseling.  We selected this program based on an audit suggestion that was included in our annual audit plan to help address HUD’s strategic goal to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD...

We reviewed the State of Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program.  We selected the State of Florida in accordance with our goal to review disaster funding and based on a congressional request for us to conduct disaster capacity reviews for recent disasters, including Hurricanes Hermine, Matthew, and Irma.  Our audit objective was to determine...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) tracking of partial claim notes.  The audit was initiated in response to an Office of Inspector General preaudit analysis of HUD’s Single Family Data Warehouse (SFDW) data, which determined that partial claim notes may not have been properly tracked in HUD’s Single Family Mortgage Asset Recovery Technology (SMART) system (see Scope & Methodology section...

The U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD to determine whether it identified and collected outstanding partial claims out of surplus proceeds from nonconveyance foreclosures.  We initiated this audit because we learned while doing unrelated audit work that a trustee attorney held surplus proceeds from two nonconveyance foreclosures and HUD had not claimed these funds to offset...

We audited the State of Connecticut’s Small Cities Community Development Block Grant program based on an Office of Inspector General risk assessment, which ranked the State as the highest risk grantee in Connecticut.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the State ensured that its grantees properly administered their housing rehabilitation programs.  We also assessed various complaints made against the program to...

We audited the Adams County Housing Authority because (1) a news article reported that the executive director received an excessive salary and practiced nepotism, (2) we received a complaint alleging nepotism and potential misuse of Federal funds, and (3) we had never audited the Authority.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority administered its program according to applicable U.S. Department of Housing and...

We audited Towne Mortgage Company, a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) nonsupervised lender, as part of the activities in our fiscal year 2018 annual audit plan.  We selected Towne Mortgage based on our analysis of risk factors for single-family servicing lenders in Region 5’s jurisdiction.[1]  Our audit objective was to determine whether Towne Mortgage properly implemented its Loss Mitigation program for FHA-insured...

We audited the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority’s Public Housing Operating and Capital Fund programs based on an anonymous complaint to our hotline.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority administered its programs in accordance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) requirements. The Authority invested Federal funds in non-HUD-approved investment accounts and did not properly...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) monitoring of the financial performance of Section 232 nursing homes based on the size of their program, the inherent risks in the program, the length of time since our last audit, and the inclusion of this review in the annual audit plan.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had sufficient financial information and used this information to...

We conducted this evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) privacy program   We assessed the adequacy of agency strategies, plans, controls and practices at the enterprise and program levels.  We also examined the level of progress achieved since we last evaluated the program in 2014. We found that HUD had updated its privacy impact assessment processes,...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program.  We conducted the audit as part of our annual audit plan.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD provided adequate oversight of its program. HUD did not provide adequate oversight of its FSS program.  Specifically, HUD did not ensure that grantees (1) always had action plans that complied...