We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program based on our strategic goal to improve the integrity of HUD’s single-family insurance programs and because of residency issues identified in prior audits of the HECM program.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD’s Office of Single Family Housing had effective controls to ensure that HECM loan…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), in conjunction with the Department, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of Michigan and Northern District of Ohio, conducted a joint investigation of U.S. Bank National Association’s (U.S. Bank) loan originations, underwriting practices, and quality control program for Federal Housing…

We initiated a review of the City of Los Angeles’ Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program due to concerns that CDBG-funded assets may be at risk.  We performed our review to address questionable costs identified during a prior Office of Inspector General review (audit report 2014-LA-0001).  Our objective was to determine whether the City maintained the required documentation for its CDBG-funded projects to support its vested…

We assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of California in the civil investigation of Reunion Mortgage, Inc. (Reunion).  Reunion is a former Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved mortgage lender, with its principal place of business located in Milpitas, CA.  Based in large part on our review of loans underwritten by Reunion between December 2007 through October 2009, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a…

We conducted a civil fraud review of an alleged loan origination fraud scheme involving a loan officer that assisted a borrower to purchase a home under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program.  The alleged scheme involved submitting a false loan application and other documentation to obtain an FHA-insured loan on a home in Brentwood, CA.  Based in part on OIG’s review,…

We audited the City of Pomona’s Neighborhood Stabilization Programs (NSP1 and NSP3).  We initiated the audit because of a hotline complaint with concerns regarding the administration of program funds.  Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its NSP funds in accordance with applicable U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rules and requirements.  Specifically, we wanted to determine whether…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD), Office of Inspector General reviewed HUD’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loss mitigation program.  We initiated this audit due to our concern that FHA might have incurred costs while allowing lenders to make large amounts of money by modifying defaulted FHA-insured loans.  Our audit objective was to determine the extent to which loans modified under the FHA program…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs, based on an internal audit suggestion expressing concern that multifamily property owners took unauthorized distributions or owner advances with no consequence. Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD enforced the requirements of the regulatory agreements and HUD handbooks that pertain to owner…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) process for awarding asset repositioning fees (ARF) to public housing agencies (PHA) with approved demolition and dispostion projects.  We initiated this review based upon issues disclosed during our review of Public Housing Capital Fund program grants to PHAs with approved demolition and dispostion projects.  The audit objective was to determine whether HUD had…

We audited the City of Richmond’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program 1 (NSP1) in response to HUD Office of Community Planning and Development’s concerns over the City’s management of its NSP1.  Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its NSP1 in accordance with requirements related to procurement and cost eligibility. The City did not administer its NSP1 in accordance with requirements related to procurement and cost…

We audited HUD’s Office of Native American Programs’ (ONAP) Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG) program grant closeout process based on data received from Southwest ONAP and additional analysis that raised concerns regarding ONAP’s oversight of the grant closeout process.  Our objective was to determine whether ONAP had adequate controls to ensure the timely closeout of program grants. HUD’s ONAP did not have adequate controls…

We reviewed an alleged loan origination fraud scheme involving a borrower purchasing a home in which the loan was insured under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program.  The alleged scheme involved submitting a false loan application to obtain an FHA-insured loan on a home in Brentwood, CA.  Based in part on our review, HUD filed a complaint against the borrower under…

We audited HUD’s controls over its Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan indemnification recovery process based on the OIG’s analysis of HUD data that indicated indemnification losses were not always recovered for FHA single-family loans.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate controls in place to monitor indemnification agreements and recover losses on FHA single-family loans. HUD did not always bill lenders for FHA…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that 33 borrowers had more than 1 loan under the program.  Having multiple loans violated program requirements because HUD requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence and borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at the same time.  We…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that 33 borrowers had more than 1 loan under the program.  Having multiple loans violated program requirements because HUD requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence and borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at the same time.  We…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) methodology and monitoring regarding the Office of Public Housing’s asset management fees and central office cost centers due to our concerns over potential misspending by public housing authorities and the lack of restrictions in the use of such funds.  Our objective was to determine how HUD arrived at the asset management fee limits in its Public Housing Operating…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, (HUD), Office of Public and Indian Housing’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program regarding HUD’s implementation and monitoring.  We initiated our review because there had been no prior Office of Inspector General reviews of the HUD-VASH program.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD’s implementation and monitoring of the program was adequate. …

The Inspector General Act of 1978 requires the Inspector General to prepare semiannual reports summarizing the activities of the Office of Inspector General for the preceding six-month periods. The semiannual reports are intended to keep the Secretary and the Congress fully informed of significant findings, progress the Agency has made and recommendations for improvement.

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Inventory Management System-Public and Indian Housing Information Center (IMS/PIC) inventory data related to public housing demolition and disposition projects.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether HUD adequately monitored the demolition and disposition projects to ensure the reliability of IMS/PIC inventory data and awarded appropriate Capital Fund…

We reviewed the developer fees the County of San Bernardino paid to its Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) developers.  Our objective was to determine whether the County adequately ensured that NSP developer fees paid to its developers met HUD requirements.  We performed our review to address questionable costs identified during a prior Office of Inspector General (OIG) review (audit report 2014-LA-0002).  During that…