We audited the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority’s Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program.  The audit was initiated based on our assessment of risks associated with public housing agencies’ HCV Program units and recent media attention and public concern about the conditions of subsidized housing properties.  Our objective was to determine whether the physical condition of the Authority’s HCV Program units complied with…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity’s, implementation of Executive Order 13988, which President Biden issued to prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.  We performed this audit to assess HUD’s progress in developing an action plan to implement the executive order.  Our audit objective was to…

Servicers followed the COVID-19 pandemic foreclosure moratorium requirements.  However, they could have better communicated the moratorium requirements to delinquent borrowers who were subject to foreclosure proceedings.  This situation occurred because HUD did not require servicers to notify borrowers directly about the foreclosure moratorium and that occupancy would pause the foreclosure process.  Borrowers who were…

HUD did not comply with PIIA because it did not report improper and unknown payment estimates for the Office of Public and Indian Housing’s Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (PIH-TBRA) program and the Office of Multifamily Housing Programs’ Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) program, HUD’s largest rental assistance programs.  This noncompliance is significant because this is the seventh consecutive year in which HUD has been…

We audited the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Office of Asset Sales’ U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-Held Vacant Loan Sales (HVLS) program.  The audit objective was to assess the extent to which HUD achieved its mission objectives for a 2022 vacant loan sale.  We noted deficiencies in 52 of 53 HUD-approved applications within the reviewed vacant loan sale.  These deficiencies occurred in…

As required by the Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012, Public Law 112-194, we performed risk assessments of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) purchase and travel card programs.  In our risk assessments, we analyzed and identified the risks of illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases.  Using information provided by HUD, we assessed risk for eight different risk factors and ranked each risk…

In response to the wide-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government provided more than $5 trillion in emergency relief across more than 500 government programs to help individuals, businesses, and state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments respond to the pandemic. To learn how communities across the nation responded to the pandemic, we initiated a multi-part review of six communities. 

We audited the Puerto Rico Housing Finance Authority’s (PRHFA) Homebuyer Assistance Program (HBA), which provides eligible applicants with closing costs and downpayment assistance for the purchase of a primary residence.  The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provided its grantee, the Puerto Rico Department of Housing (PRDOH), $495 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds for HBA…

In January 2017, HUD awarded the City $141.2 million in Community Development Block Grant National Disaster Resilience grant funding for disaster resilience. HUD designed the grant to give states flexibility in planning program activities and help state and local communities recover from past disasters, while also improving their infrastructure to withstand future extreme events through strategic community investments.  The City…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP), Education and Outreach Initiative (EOI).  We conducted this audit to help HUD determine whether the education and outreach provided was going to the people who have been systematically denied full housing opportunity.  Our audit objective was to assess how FHIP…

We audited the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights’ fair housing complaint intake process.  We initiated this audit based on an internal risk assessment of Fair Housing Assistance Program agencies’ challenges.  Our audit objectives were to (1) determine the extent to which the Commission processed fair housing inquiries within 30 days and (2) evaluate its reasons for closing fair housing inquiries.We were unable to determine…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) and the Office of Departmental Equal Employment Opportunity (ODEEO) both have responsibilities related to increasing the percentage of employees who identify as Hispanic or Latino.  HUD provides an Annual Equal Employment Opportunity Program Status Report, also known as the Annual Management Directive 715 Report (MD-715…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of multifamily housing properties with failing Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) scores or life-threatening exigent health and safety (EHS) deficiencies.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD had effective oversight of multifamily housing properties to ensure that the properties were maintained in decent, safe, and sanitary condition.The…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) process for collecting financial information from grantees participating in the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Entitlement program. Prior year HUD financial statement audits found weaknesses in CPD’s processes to estimate accrued grant liabilities and instances where it appeared CDBG grantees were…

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) directs Inspectors General to conduct an annual evaluation of the agency information security program. FISMA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) establish information technology (IT) security guidance and standards for Federal agencies. We conducted this evaluation to…

Retention is a shared responsibility between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) and HUD’s other program offices.  OCHCO sets the departmentwide retention strategy, while the program offices have responsibility for managing retention within their offices.  Our evaluation determined that HUD’s departmentwide retention strategy in fiscal years (FY) 2019-…

We have completed our fiscal year (FY) 2023 Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) penetration test and vulnerability assessment.  The objective of this evaluation was to test and verify the technical implementation of a limited set of security controls on judgmentally selected U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) information systems and applications.HUD demonstrated successes in securely…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Single Family Housing’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Resource Center’s handling of housing discrimination inquiries.  We initiated the audit to assist HUD with ensuring that the FHA Resource Center (1) provided accurate and complete information on potential housing discrimination to its customers and (2) ensured that instances of potential…

From 2001 to 2022, the Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery program provided almost $98 billion to states, cities, counties, and territories to help them recover from disasters.  Administering disaster recovery has been a recurring U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) top management challenge since 2018.  Therefore, we audited the disaster recovery program to determine whether the Office of…

We contracted with the independent public accounting firm of CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (CLA) to audit the financial statements of HUD as of and for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, and to provide reports on HUD’s (1) internal control over financial reporting and (2) compliance with laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements and other matters, including whether financial management systems complied substantially…