Develop and implement internal policies and procedures to ensure that approved underwriters are accurately maintained and kept current in the origination systems for the Section 184 program.

Develop a comprehensive plan to continue to seek indemnification statutory authority, including consideration to include indemnification authority language in draft regulations currently being considered. Until statutory authority is obtained, develop and implement internal policies and procedures for the voluntary indemnification process, to include a voluntary indemnification agreement, followup procedures, and resolution procedures. Procedures should be revised once statutory authority is obtained.

Support line item expenditures for the administrative contract expense fund for fiscal years 2015 to 2018. OLG should repay the U.S. Department of the Treasury for any expenditures that cannot be supported.

Provide documentation to support the $811,325 in code enforcement costs (activities 591, 619, and 645), including meeting code enforcement and salary and benefit requirements,4 or repay the program from non-Federal funds.

Develop and implement a targeted code enforcement strategy that specifies deteriorating or deteriorated areas where code enforcement would be expected to arrest decline. The strategy should include a description of public or private improvements, rehabilitation, or services that would help facilitate code enforcement and also include performance metrics to track progress.

Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that code enforcement salaries and benefits are charged and documented in accordance with program requirements.

Provide documentation to support $285,496 in graffiti abatement expenditures or repay the program from non-Federal funds (appendix D).

Develop and implement procedures and controls to ensure that graffiti abatement expenditures, including salaries and benefits, are accurately charged to CDBG grants and properly supported.

Develop a method for using the Do Not Pay portal during the underwriting process to identify delinquent child support and delinquent Federal debt to prevent future FHA loans to ineligible borrowers to put $1.9 billion to better use.

Status

The Office of Housing has approved prioritization of funding for Integration between the Treasury’s Do Not Pay portal and HUD’s Computerized Homes Underwriting Reporting System (CHUMS). Funding was allocated to the CHUMS IT contractor on January 26, 2024, to integrate Treasury’s Do Not Pay system with CHUMS, and the IT development project was kicked off the week of February 5, 2024. As of February 2025, the Office of Single Family Housing reported that it is in the process of completing the necessary documentation and systems connection with the Do Not Pay portal. Single Family plans to submit an update on the system interface project or request another extension in March 2025.

Analysis

To fully address this recommendation, HUD must provide evidence that it has implemented applicant screening against the Do Not Pay portal to identify delinquent child support and delinquent federal debt to prevent future FHA loans from going to ineligible borrowers.

Implementation of this rule should result in HUD putting $1.9 billion to better use.

Revise the single-family handbook to comply with regulations that prevent loans to borrowers with delinquent child support subject to Federal offset.

Implement written procedures to include the confirmation of match funds as part of its annual monitoring reviews of each subgrantee.

Develop and implement a written plan for its subgrantees to provide and submit supporting documentation for match funds at the end of each grant term.

Identify retroactive payroll for remaining grants (CA1162L9D011504, CA1024L9D011501, CA0694L9D011508, and CA0693L9D011508) and provide adequate documentation to support the cost or repay HUD from non-Federal funds.

Develop and implement additional procedures and controls to ensure that payroll costs charged to the grant reconcile to actual hours worked on the grants.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s Newark Office of Public Housing require the Authority to provide documentation to show that the $1,294,062 paid to the Long Branch Housing Authority was for eligible, reasonable, necessary, and allocable costs or reimburse its Operating and Capital Fund programs from non-Federal funds for any amount that it cannot support or that is not considered reasonable.

We recommend that the Southwest Region Director of Multifamily Housing require Villa Main Apartments owner to repay HUD $534,741 for 39 subsidized units with ineligible “ghost” tenants.

We recommend that the Southwest Region Director of Multifamily Housing require Villa Main Apartments owner to provide support that the subsidized 43 units without annual physical inspections, without required EIV reports, or with missing files were eligible or repay HUD $1,095,364 for those subsidies.

We recommend that the Southwest Region Director of Multifamily Housing require Villa Main Apartments owner to implement appropriate controls to ensure tenants are eligible, housing assistance subsidies are accurate, and that units are inspected as required.

We further recommend that the Southwest Region Director of Multifamily Housing verify that the owner is providing oversight to its onsite staff and its recently implemented quality control program is working as designed and in accordance with HUD requirements.

We further recommend that the Southwest Region Director of Multifamily Housing ensure that the project-based contract administrator’s review process includes steps to obtain reasonable assurance that tenants being reported as subsidized at Villa Main qualify for the program and live in the subsidized units.