HUD OIG performed an audit of the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program at the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. The audit was part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) national mandate to oversee and audit grant activities funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). We selected the Georgia Department of Community Affairs because it received $19.1 million, which was the largest single Program grant awarded within Georgia under the Recovery Act. In addition, the HUD Atlanta Office of Community Planning and Development had not conducted a monitoring review of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. The objective of the audit was to determine whether the Georgia Department of Community Affairs established policies and procedures to ensure that (1) Program participants were eligible, (2) Program expenditures were supported with adequate documentation, (3) Program reporting requirements were met, and (4) subgrantees were monitored and trained.

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs paid for Program services for participants whose eligibility was not supported with the required income verification documentation. As a result, 11 of 32 Program participants’ files reviewed did not include adequate income verification documentation. Consequently, the Program participants’ eligibility was not supported for $66,879 in Program services.

OIG recommended that the Director of HUD’s Atlanta Office of Community Planning and Development require the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to properly support or repay $66,879 or the current amount owed in questioned costs; ensure that the subgrantees follow Program requirements for verifying and documenting participant eligibility; and review a sample of the subgrantees files, not included in our review, to verify the participants’ eligibility.