Determine whether the $714,512 paid for 233 signing bonuses under the ESG CARES Act program were reasonable under the program participant’s particular circumstances, and not more than necessary to house the program participants or repay HUD from non-Federal funds.

Develop and implement written policies and procedures that include internal controls for the ESG program to ensure that it, and its subrecipients, prorate the rent amount for the first month for tenant-based rental assistance. Since the City did not prorate rent, there was an estimated overpayment to landlords of $248,572 that could have been put to better use.

Repay HUD from non-Federal funds $51,235 in overpaid rent to landlords because the first month of rent was not prorated.

Develop and implement written policies and procedures that include internal controls to prevent any duplication of benefits for the ESG program participants with other programs, specifically for rapid rehousing and homeless prevention.

Review the rental assistance payments made for the ESG CARES Act program to identify other possible duplication of benefits with other rental assistance programs that the City operates. The $10,100 in duplication of benefits identified during the audit could have been put to better use.

Develop and implement written policies to ensure that any changes to the expenditure and draw deadlines for the ESG program are provided in a formal document, such as a CPD notice. In this case, implementing these controls would provide clear guidelines to the grantee and help prevent the disbursement of $1,933,693 that was drawn after the draw deadline.

Issue clarifying guidance to ensure that ESG grantees that operate tenant-based rental assistance programs, prorate the rent amount for the first month based on the lease agreement start date.

Issue guidance requiring ESG grantees develop and implement internal controls to prevent any duplication of benefits with other Federal rental assistance programs for the ESG program participants, specifically for rapid rehousing and homeless prevention.

Develop and implement a review and verification process to ensure that data provided by MTW PHAs as support for compliance with the statutory requirements, that is not reported in HUD systems is accurate, complete, and supported.

Develop and implement a process to ensure that corrections or updates to PHA information are reflected in either restated or subsequent MTW annual reports.

Require PHAs to retain supporting documentation for all data elements reported in their annual reports and program data not captured in HUD systems.

Develop and implement a process to ensure that appropriate outcomes are assessed for each PHA’s local MTW program.

Conduct an analysis to determine whether the changes to form HUD-50900 allow PHAs and HUD to appropriately measure the benefits and impacts of PHAs’ MTW program to include whether additional changes to the form are warranted to appropriately evaluate results of the MTW program.

Leverage HUD OIG’s fraud risk inventory and continue using the Office of the Chief Risk Officer’s risk catalog to enhance CPD’s fraud risk management process.

Include grantees in the fraud risk identification process and communicate the risks and schemes identified for the disaster recovery program to relevant stakeholders, including, but not limited to, all HUD staff in the CPD Office of  Disaster Recovery, grantees and sub-recipients.

Use CPD’s fraud risk inventory to identify data needs, potential system enhancements, and implement data analysis techniques to improve CPD’s ability to monitor and respond to fraud risks in the Disaster Recovery program.

Conduct risk assessments in public housing without adequate lead-based paint inspection documentation to ascertain the existence of lead-based paint hazards.

Conduct lead-based paint inspections at public housing abated through removal methods where an abatement report is unavailable to ensure that units are “lead-free.”

Abate or implement interim control measures to reduce the risk of exposure to lead-based paint hazards identified through risk assessments.

Implement an ongoing maintenance program for lead-based paint to ensure unabated and “lead-safe” units remain hazard free.