We audited Essex County, NJ’s Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) in support of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) goal to review the expenditure of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and contribute to improving HUD’s execution and accountability of fiscal responsibilities. The audit objective was to determine whether Essex County officials obligated and expended HPRP funds within prescribed timeframes and implemented adequate controls to ensure that grant awards complied with HPRP program requirements.

Essex County officials ensured that HPRP funds were obligated and expended within prescribed timeframes; however, they had not established adequate controls to ensure that the County’s HPRP was administered in accordance with program requirements. We attribute these conditions to Essex County and subrecipient officials’ unfamiliarity with program requirements. Consequently, its subrecipient expended at least $43,833 contrary to program requirements, disbursed $141,260 on behalf of recipients whose eligibility was not adequately supported, and awarded grants that did not always comply with administrative requirements. As a result, Essex County officials cannot adequately assure HUD that HPRP funds were expended in accordance with HPRP requirements.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New Jersey Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Essex County officials to (1) reimburse the HPRP line of credit $43,833 for funds expended on ineligible HPRP costs, (2) provide documentation to adequately support the $141,260 in unsupported disbursements, and (3) strengthen subrecipient monitoring procedures before administrating future similar HUD-funded programs.