The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), conducted a limited review of HUD’s oversight of loans underwritten by HUD-approved Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lenders.  We conducted the internal review as part of OIG’s annual audit plan, prompted by four recent OIG external lender audits reporting that the lenders allowed prohibited restrictive covenant agreements.  The…

We initiated a review of the City of Hawthorne’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and CDBG-Recovery Act (CDBG-R) program, based on a request by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development.  Our objective was to determine whether the City adequately supported its salary and program administrative cost allocations to the CDBG and CDBG-R programs in accordance…

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…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s Office of Single Family Housing to determine whether lenders contacted all borrowers on each Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan before proceeding to claim.  We initiated this nationwide audit because we noted instances in which the lender collected financial information from only one of the borrowers and showed no efforts to contact…

We audited the City of Hawthorne because of a corrective action verification audit done by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) that identified $840,741 in HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds that were transferred to the Section 8 program between 2005 and 2006 (2013-LA-0802).  The objectives of the audit were to determine (1) the eligibility of $840,741 in 2005 and 2006 HOME program transfers to the Section 8 program, (2) whether…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s Office of Single Family Housing to determine whether it had effective controls in place to ensure that lenders reported default information on Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans accurately and in a timely manner.  We initiated this audit after observing delayed reporting of default information on loan histories. We found…

We audited the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Preforeclosure Sales Program claim process in accordance with our goal to contribute to improving the integrity of FHA single-family insurance programs.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) paid ineligible preforeclosure sale claims that did not meet the net sales proceeds requirements. FHA paid preforeclosure sale claims…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) controls over the Brownfield and Round II Empowerment Zone programs as part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) annual plan.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate procedures to measure Brownfield and Round II Empowerment Zone effectiveness. HUD did not have adequate procedures to ensure the effectiveness of its Brownfield Economic Development…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) risk assessment procedures as they relate to subrecipient involvement in CPD programs.  We initiated the audit due to observations by HUD Office of Inspector General (OIG) auditors of frequent subrecipient-related findings in CPD external audits.  Our objective was to determine whether CPD’s risk assessments…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) monitoring of grantee compliance with the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) timeliness spending requirement.  The objectives of the audit were to determine whether HUD’s guidance for ensuring compliance with the CDBG entitlement spending requirement had been implemented effectively by the field offices; specifically, whether HUD needs to implement additional…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing Choice Voucher program as part of an Office of Inspector General plan to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of HUD programs.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether HUD’s guidance for optimizing and stabilizing housing choice voucher utilization had been implemented effectively by the field offices and public housing agencies. HUD officials…

We investigated an alleged preforeclosure scheme involving 31 properties financed with Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans.  As a result, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California brought a civil case against Mr. Mario Menendez under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA). In August 2011, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a complaint in U.S. district court…

We reviewed the County of Santa Barbara’s HOME Investment Partnerships program due to concerns expressed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development regarding the County’s administration of its HOME program.  Our objective was to determine whether the County performed its monitoring responsibilities and ensured that incurred HOME program expenditures were eligible…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD), Office of Inspector General reviewed HUD’s oversight of Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 due to concerns over its ensuring economic opportunities for low- and very low-income persons.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD enforced the requirements of the Section 3 program for Recovery Act Public Housing Capital Fund recipients. We found that…

We audited the City of Santa Ana’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2).  We initiated the audit as part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) fiscal year 2012-2013 annual audit plan.  Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its program funds in accordance with applicable HUD rules and requirements.  Specifically, our focus was to determine…

 We audited the selection and award of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) fiscal year 2010  HOPE VI revitalization grants, based on a hotline complaint alleging that HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) (1) selected and awarded fiscal year 2011 HOPE VI funds to grantees that applied for fiscal year 2010 grants but did not publish a notice of funding availability (NOFA) for its fiscal year 2011…

We audited certain portions of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) multifamily housing and healthcare insured mortgage programs as part of our fiscal year 2012 annual audit plan.  The objective of the review was to determine the adequacy of the Office of Housing’s procedures and controls for selecting, conducting, and following up on postendorsement underwriting reviews of insured multifamily and healthcare loans…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General selected HUD’s Federal Housing Administration, Single Family Claims Branch, for audit based on an internal audit suggestion expressing concern that HUD may not have policies, procedures, or systems to identify and address funds held by lenders and submitted as part of a claim.  Our audit objective was to determine whether FHA had adequately reduced mortgage…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) servicing of multifamily projects with HUD-held mortgages because it was part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) annual audit plan. We reviewed 33 multifamily projects with HUD-held mortgages that totaled $307.9 million. Our objective was to determine whether HUD (1) obtained, documented, and reviewed the monthly accounting reports and (2) collected monthly net…

We reviewed the City of San Bernardino’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and CDBG-Recovery Act (CDBG-R) programs because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development expressed concerns about the City’s administration of its CDBG program. Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its CDBG and CDBG-R program funds in accordance with…