The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) administers billions in presidentially declared disaster recovery grants through its Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program.  We audited five non-State grantees to assess whether they are on track to spend their remaining grant funds on eligible activities that benefit program participants within a reasonable amount of time.  We also wanted to determine what factors, if any, impacted the grantees’ ability to spend their funds in a timely manner.  These grantees, which include cities, counties and parishes, received grant funds for a variety of disasters occurring from 2011 through 2015, and are still in the process of executing their approved action plans.  HUD considered the five grantees to be “slow spenders” at the beginning of our audit. 

The five grantees are on track to complete eligible activities and spend their remaining funds by grant closeout.  As of May 2, 2024, four of the five grantees had obligated all of their grant funds, and the fifth grantee was approved by HUD in February 2024 to obligate its remaining funds.  Although, as of January 1, 2024, HUD had designated four of the five grantees as slow spenders, it appears all five grantees will complete their planned activities and ultimately assist program beneficiaries.  Grantees either had fully completed planned activities or were on track to complete them, this primarily due to HUD-approved extensions to expenditure or grant closeout deadlines, which allowed grantees to complete planned activities beyond the original estimated completion dates.  However, the grantees will have taken from 7 to 14 years from the date on which they signed their respective grant agreements with HUD to complete their action plans and expend all of their grant funds to address their disaster recovery needs, including restoration or replacement of damaged properties and infrastructure.  All grantees cited challenges in completing projects and spending their disaster recovery funds in a timely manner, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, staffing, and disaster recovery grant administration requirements.  

We did not make any recommendations in this report.