We audited the State of Texas’ Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program based on a hotline complaint, which alleged mismanagement of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council’s Disaster Recovery housing program.  The complainant also made allegations concerning excessive home costs and ineligible homeowners.  Our audit objectives were to determine whether the State (1) ensured that the contractor limited the...

We reviewed the developer fees the County of San Bernardino paid to its Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) developers.  Our objective was to determine whether the County adequately ensured that NSP developer fees paid to its developers met HUD requirements.  We performed our review to address questionable costs identified during a prior Office of Inspector General (OIG) review (audit report 2014-LA-0002).  During that...

In accordance with our regional plan to review public housing programs and because of a complaint received by our office, we reviewed the Housing Authority of the City of Nixon, Nixon, TX.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority operated its public housing and related grant programs in accordance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) requirements.  Specifically, we wanted to determine whether...

In accordance with our regional plan to review public housing programs and because of weaknesses identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Public Housing, we reviewed the Malakoff Housing Authority, Malakoff, TX.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority’s controls were sufficient to ensure that it administered its HUD Public Housing programs in accordance with regulations and guidance...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), conducted a limited review of HUD’s oversight of loans underwritten by HUD-approved Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lenders.  We conducted the internal review as part of OIG’s annual audit plan, prompted by four recent OIG external lender audits reporting that the lenders allowed prohibited restrictive covenant agreements.  The...

We initiated a review of the City of Hawthorne’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and CDBG-Recovery Act (CDBG-R) program, based on a request by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development.  Our objective was to determine whether the City adequately supported its salary and program administrative cost allocations to the CDBG and CDBG-R programs in accordance...

In accordance with our regional plan to review public housing programs and because of weaknesses identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Public Housing, we reviewed the City of Brackettville Housing Authority, Brackettville, TX.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority operated its public housing and related grant programs in accordance with HUD requirements.  The Authority’s...

We audited the City of Hawthorne because of a corrective action verification audit done by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) that identified $840,741 in HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds that were transferred to the Section 8 program between 2005 and 2006 (2013-LA-0802).  The objectives of the audit were to determine (1) the eligibility of $840,741 in 2005 and 2006 HOME program transfers to the Section 8 program, (2) whether...

We completed an audit of the City of Eagle Pass Housing Authority’s (Authority) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) grant activities. The Authority was selected based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD), Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG)  annual plan to conduct oversight of the Recovery Act funds provided to public housing agencies and our regional risk evaluation.  Our audit...

We investigated an alleged preforeclosure scheme involving 31 properties financed with Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans.  As a result, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California brought a civil case against Mr. Mario Menendez under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA). In August 2011, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a complaint in U.S. district court...

We reviewed the County of Santa Barbara’s HOME Investment Partnerships program due to concerns expressed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development regarding the County’s administration of its HOME program.  Our objective was to determine whether the County performed its monitoring responsibilities and ensured that incurred HOME program expenditures were eligible...

We audited the Harris County Housing Authority, Houston, TX, at the request of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Fort Worth Office Director of Public and Indian Housing.  The request followed a series of news articles alleging mismanagement and extravagant spending at the Authority, the removal or replacement of various former managers and board of commissioners members, and concerns expressed by the new managers...

We audited the City of Santa Ana’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2).  We initiated the audit as part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) fiscal year 2012-2013 annual audit plan.  Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its program funds in accordance with applicable HUD rules and requirements.  Specifically, our focus was to determine...

We reviewed the City of San Bernardino’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and CDBG-Recovery Act (CDBG-R) programs because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development expressed concerns about the City’s administration of its CDBG program. Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its CDBG and CDBG-R program funds in accordance with applicable HUD...

We conducted a limited review of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans underwritten by CTX Mortgage Company LLC. We selected the lender based on the results of an auditability survey, which determined that CTX Mortgage allowed prohibited restrictive covenants to be filed against Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured properties. The objective of our review was to determine the extent to which CTX Mortgage failed to prevent the...

We audited the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso because it met our oversight objectives for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and because our risk assessment found the Authority had more than $1.7 million to be spent within 3 months of the expenditure deadline.  Our audit objectives were to determine whether the Authority properly (1) obligated and spent its formula Recovery Act grant funds, (2) obtained its...

We audited the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso because it met our oversight objectives for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and because our risk assessment found the Authority had more than $1.7 million to be spent within 3 months of the expenditure deadline. Our audit objectives were to determine whether the Authority properly (1) obligated and spent its formula Recovery Act grant funds, (2) obtained its formula...

We audited Bay Vista Methodist Heights, San Diego, CA, to determine the full extent of the misuse of its trust funds. We selected Bay Vista for review based on a referral from the Office of Multifamily Housing, stating that Bay Vista violated its trust fund agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) because the former chief financial officer transferred more than $3 million in restricted funds into Bay Vista’s...

We completed a corrective action verification of a recommendation made to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) pertaining to our review of the City of Hawthorne, CA’s Section 8 program, Audit Report 2011-LA-1008, which was issued March 28, 2011. The purpose of the corrective action verification was to determine whether HUD officials appropriately closed audit recommendation 1A....

We conducted a limited review of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans underwritten by Standard Pacific Mortgage, Inc. We selected the lender based on the results of an auditability survey, which determined that Standard Pacific Mortgage allowed prohibited restrictive covenants to be filed against FHA-insured properties. The objective of our review was to determine the extent to which Standard Pacific Mortgage failed to prevent the...