The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the State of Iowa’s (State) Community Development Block Grant Disaster Assistance Funds. Our audit objective was to determine whether the State ensured that the City of Cedar Rapids provided disaster assistance funds to only eligible businesses and that these businesses did not receive duplicate Federal benefits. The State misspent more…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited the Fort Belknap Indian Community (Fort Belknap) because HUD’s Northern Plains Office of Native American Programs received information indicating financial irregularities in the administration of Indian Housing Block Grant (block grant) funds. The objective of the audit was to determine whether Fort Belknap administered its Federal funds in…

We evaluated HUD’s September 2009 response to questions posed by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board’s survey of staff resources dedicated to American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA).  We wanted to know if the reported number of HUD contract and grant personnel responsible for ARRA funding and oversight could be validated and relied on for public disclosure. The full-time equivalent (FTE) staffing levels…

We evaluated the efforts of HUD’s Financial Operations Center (FOC) in managing Federal Housing Administration (FHA) debts due HUD as a result of single-family indemnification agreements and civil money penalties (CMP).  We wanted to know whether FOC debt servicing and collections complied with applicable Federal laws and regulations.  We also wanted to determine the status and assess the collectability of the September 30,…

We completed an inspection of the State of Louisiana’s (State) Road Home Elevation Incentive (elevation grant) program funded by HUD Community Development Block Grant disaster recovery funds.  We wanted to know whether homeowners used the funds to elevate their homes as set forth in their grant agreements.  Our inspection covered 199 (about 10 percent) of the 1,906 property owners who received more than $44.4 million in…

In accordance with our annual audit plan and due to concerns regarding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) capacity to handle the increasing demand for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), we initiated an audit of HUD’s Philadelphia, PA, Homeownership Center (Center). This is the first of two audit reports that we plan to issue on the Center’s capacity to process current demand for FHA…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General reviewed the State of Indiana’s (State) Neighborhood Stabilization Program (Program). The review was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2010 annual audit plan. We selected the State based upon a citizen’s complaint to our office. Our objective was to determine whether the State awarded Program funds to eligible projects. Authorized under…

We completed a review of the District of Columbia’s (grantee) administration of HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funds that it provided to CEMI-Parkside Associates, LLP (Parkside Associates), a limited partnership managed by developer H.R. Crawford. The funds were provided for the rehabilitation/construction of a high rise property known as Parkside Terrace Apartments (Parkside Terrace). We initiated the review in response…

We initiated the audit of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) efforts to recover the City of New London, CT, Housing Authority (Authority) due to its longstanding troubled status. The Authority has had significant management deficiencies for more than 10 years, and HUD identified the Authority as “overall troubled” in May of 2004. Our objective for this audit was to evaluate HUD’s effectiveness in identifying…

We completed a capacity review of the County of San Bernardino’s (County) Neighborhood Stabilization Program (Program). We performed the audit because Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 reviews are part of the Office of the Inspector General’s annual audit plan and the Program was identified as high risk. In addition, the County was awarded significant Program funds of $22.7 million. Our objective was to determine whether the…

We completed a capacity review of the City of Fresno’s (City) Neighborhood Stabilization Program (Program). We performed the audit because Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 reviews are part of the Office of the Inspector General’s annual audit plan and the program was identified as high risk. In addition, the City was awarded a $10.9 grant. Our objective was to determine whether the City had sufficient capacity and the…

We completed an audit of the City of Jersey City's (City) capacity to administer Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). Our objectives were to evaluate the City’s capacity in the areas of internal controls, eligibility, financial controls, procurement, and output/outcomes in administering CDBG funds. The City generally had adequate…

We conducted this audit because the County was one of several participating jurisdictions visited during a 2009 internal audit of HOME commitments (audit report number 2009-AT-0001, issued September 28, 2009). During the internal audit, we determined that the County entered incorrect commitments into HUD’s information system. Our objective for this audit was to determine the extent of the incorrect HOME commitments that the County…

The Chattanooga Housing Authority (Authority) was awarded a $6.35 million capital fund formula grant and a $4.8 million capital fund competitive grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). In accordance with our goal to review funds provided under the Recovery Act, we conducted a capacity review of the Authority’s operations. The objective was to determine whether the Authority had the capacity to…

In response to an April 3, 2009, hotline request from the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Pipe Spring, AZ (Kaibab), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General reviewed HUD’s evaluation of Kaibab’s application for an Indian Community Development Block Grant (Indian Block Grant) under HUD’s 2008 notice of funding availability. The review objective was to evaluate the merits of the complainant…

We audited Residential Home Funding Corporation, a nonsupervised lender approved to originate Federal Housing Administration (FHA) single-family mortgage loans. Residential Home Funding Corporation has one office located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. We selected Residential Home Funding Corporation because its default rate was significantly higher than the average default rate for the State of Maryland. Our objective was to determine…

We audited the Housing Authority of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma (Authority) due to a U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) request. Our objective was to determine whether the Authority expended its Indian Housing Block Grant (grant) program funds in accordance with HUD rules and regulations. While the Authority has improved since HUD’s fiscal year 2006 monitoring review, it still needs additional improvement…

In accordance with our goal to review and ensure the proper administration of Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds provided under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), we conducted a capacity review of the City of Waterbury’s (subgrantee), Waterbury Development Corporation’s, operations (subrecipient), who has responsibility for…

In accordance with our goal to review and ensure the proper administration of Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds provided under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA), we conducted a capacity review of the City of Meriden’s (City) operations. The City has responsibility for administering the State’s NSP. Our objective was to determine whether the City had the necessary capacity to effectively administer the…

As part of the Office of Inspector General’s annual audit plan, we completed a capacity review of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands’ (Department) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) funding. Our objective was to determine whether the Department had sufficient capacity to manage and administer its Recovery Act funding. Specifically, we reviewed and assessed the Department’s capacity in the following areas…