We audited the Puerto Rico Housing Finance Authority’s (PRHFA) Homebuyer Assistance Program (HBA), which provides eligible applicants with closing costs and downpayment assistance for the purchase of a primary residence.  The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provided its grantee, the Puerto Rico Department of Housing (PRDOH), $495 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds for HBA Our…

In January 2017, HUD awarded the City $141.2 million in Community Development Block Grant National Disaster Resilience grant funding for disaster resilience. HUD designed the grant to give states flexibility in planning program activities and help state and local communities recover from past disasters, while also improving their infrastructure to withstand future extreme events through strategic community investments.  The City initially…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of multifamily housing properties with failing Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) scores or life-threatening exigent health and safety (EHS) deficiencies.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD had effective oversight of multifamily housing properties to ensure that the properties were maintained in decent, safe, and sanitary condition.The…

From 2001 to 2022, the Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery program provided almost $98 billion to states, cities, counties, and territories to help them recover from disasters.  Administering disaster recovery has been a recurring U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) top management challenge since 2018.  Therefore, we audited the disaster recovery program to determine whether the Office of Community…

We audited the Puerto Rico Department of Housing’s (PRDOH) fraud risk management practices to assess the maturity of its antifraud efforts.  HUD heavily relies on its grantees to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse and PRDOH is HUD’s second largest Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery and Mitigation (CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT) grantee with over $20 billion in block grant funding.  Our objective was to assess PRDOH’s…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program offices issued departmental notices to inform public housing agencies (PHA) and owners of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021’s (the Act) requirements.  In addition, HUD program offices planned to use HUD’s revised physical inspection processes to ensure that PHAs and owners complied with the Act, namely under its new National Standards for the Physical Inspection…

We performed an audit examining HUD’s efforts to prevent duplication of benefits when using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery and Mitigation funds.  Our objective was to determine how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) assesses the adequacy of grantee procedures to prevent a duplication of benefits, both before and after grant execution. HUD certified grantees’ high-level processes for…

We performed an audit related to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Disaster Recovery Data Portal.  The Disaster Recovery Data Portal is a technological solution planned by HUD to facilitate the rapid and secure transmission of data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery grantees.  We performed the work because HUD needs a solution to…

We selected the State of California’s 2018 disaster owner-occupied rehabilitation and reconstruction program to audit after an internal risk assessment of disaster grantees showed the grant was newer and had not yet disbursed the majority of its funding.  The State received more than $1 billion for the 2018 disasters.  Our audit objective was to determine what the State is considering and to what extent resilience-based mitigation…

We audited the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority’s Non-Federal Match Program for Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds.  This Match Program was developed to assist non-Federal entities in paying for their share of projects that addressed unmet needs because of the 2017 Hurricanes Irma and Maria.  We initiated this audit due to the $415 million of CDBG-DR funds allocated by the Authority and to…

We audited the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority’s monitoring of its Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR)-funded activities.  We initiated the audit because of the large amount of CDBG-DR funds awarded to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the 2017 disasters and to aid in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) strategic objective to support effectiveness and accountability in long-term…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD), oversight of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grantees’ use of program income.  We initiated this audit in accordance with our goal of ensuring and promoting accountability and effectiveness in disaster response and recovery.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD ensured that program income generated from disaster funds…

We audited the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s (Authority) management of lead‐based paint in its public housing program based on our assessment of the risks of lead‐based paint in public housing agencies’ (PHA) housing developments. The risk factors included the age of buildings, the number of units, household demographics, reported cases of childhood lead poisoning, and reports of missing lead‐based paint inspections in HUD’s data. The audit…

We audited the Office of Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) monitoring and oversight of the Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether CPD had effectively and efficiently designed its CDBG-DR program requirements and monitoring to ensure that the grantees meet statutory and other Federal low- and moderate-income (LMI) requirements.  Generally,…

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lead-based paint and lead-contaminated dust are some of the most widespread and hazardous sources of lead exposure for young children in the United States.  There is no safe blood lead level in children, and there is no cure for lead poisoning.  Therefore, it is important to prevent exposure to lead, especially among children. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban…

As part of a Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) Disaster Assistance Working Group cross-cutting initiative, we summarized the conclusions, findings, and recommendations of 28 reports related to the Federal Government’s natural disaster preparedness and response issued by 7 Offices of Inspector General (OIGs).  The seven participating OIGs included U.S. Departments of Defense, Health and Human…

HUD established procedures in the Lead Safe Housing Rule in 1999 to eliminate lead-based paint hazards, as far as practicable, in public housing.  However, it did not have a plan to manage lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards in public housing.  Additionally, HUD generally did not monitor whether public housing agencies had implemented lead-based paint hazard reduction and documented the activities at their public housing…

While conducting an ongoing audit of the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s (Authority) management of lead-based paint hazards in its public housing units, we identified a significant gap in HUD’s program requirements related to safe work practices, which we believe requires immediate action by HUD.  We identified that the Authority determined a substantial percentage of maintenance and hazard reduction work performed on surfaces with lead-…

While conducting an ongoing audit of the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s (Authority) management of lead-based paint hazards in its public housing units, we identified a significant gap in HUD’s program requirements related to safe work practices, which we believe requires immediate action by HUD.  We identified that the Authority determined a substantial percentage of maintenance and hazard reduction work performed on surfaces with lead-…

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lead-based paint and lead-contaminated dust are some of the most widespread and hazardous sources of lead exposure for young children in the United States.  When lead-based paint peels and cracks, it results in lead-contaminated paint chips and dust.  Children can be poisoned if they chew on surfaces coated with lead-based paint, eat flaking paint chips, or eat or…