We audited the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program.  The audit was initiated because of the homelessness crisis in the City of Los Angeles, which has the highest number of unsheltered people in the United States.  In addition, the Los Angeles city controller issued a report in 2019, criticizing the Authority for falling short of City of Los Angeles homeless outreach goals.  (See Background and…

Based on a complaint and a request from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (HUD PIH), we audited the Bay City Housing Authority, Bay City, TX.  The complainant’s allegations included improper procurement of an attorney and board meetings held without proper notice.  HUD PIH expressed concerns regarding the Authority’s financial records and policy adherence.  Our audit…

We prepared this memorandum to provide the Office of Housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) information regarding the opportunity to promote a homeless waitlist preference at Multifamily Housing rental assistance properties.  HUD has an opportunity to revisit the promotion and marketing of its homeless waitlist preference and the importance of partnering with a homeless service provider.  Additionally,…

HUD does not have a departmentwide policy for dealing with radon contamination.  Instead, HUD relies on each program office to develop radon policies that align with HUD’s environmental regulations.  The three program offices reviewed do not have consistent radon policies.  Only Multifamily’s radon policy includes radon testing and mitigation requirements.  PIH’s policy strongly encourages but does not require public housing…

We audited Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County’s (NHSLA) Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2).  The audit was based on a complaint alleging questionable NSP2 financial activity, double payments to contractors, and payments to contractors for incomplete work.  Our Office of Audit received the referred complaint in late 2018.  However, because the complaint included concerns regarding activities and auditee…

We conducted this limited review to identify the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) drawdown levels for the initial round of Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) funding.  In addition, we researched information published by grantees on how they have used and will use their funds.  Our objective was to highlight the grantees’ (1) drawdown levels for…

We audited the City of Compton’s Neighborhood Stabilization Programs (NSP) 1 and 3 due to a referral made by our Office of Investigation because of concerns related to ongoing issues at the City and complaints received about the City’s administration of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds.  In addition, HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development rated the City as high risk for administering program funds in…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) implementation of the prevailing wage provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act for its Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured multifamily construction projects.  We conducted the audit because we received an anonymous complaint alleging that HUD did not implement correct wage determinations for a $33 million multifamily construction project located in Oxnard, CA. …

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Policy Development and Research’s implementation of the responsibilities stated in the Geospatial Data Act of 2018 (The Act).  We performed this review in response to a congressional mandate that HUD’s geospatial data be audited at least once every 2 years.  The Act requires that we audit HUD’s collection, production, acquisition, maintenance,…

We audited the effectiveness of selected business process application-level general controls and data management controls over the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) Financial Accounting System (GFAS) and its subledger database (SLDB) component as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2019 financial statements audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990. We also assessed selected…

We audited the City of Mesa’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program based on (1) a hotline complaint alleging CDBG noncompliance; (2) a prior U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, audit (2011-LA-1006), which determined that the City needed to improve how it administered its Neighborhood Stabilization Program 1 funds; and (3) our objective to promote fiscal responsibility and financial…

We initiated this evaluation at the request of Senator Mike Enzi.  During this evaluation, we reviewed HUD’s housing assistance programs based on their purpose, types of assistance, and eligible participants.  This report also includes the 5-year funding history for each HUD program office that administers housing assistance programs. Part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) mission is to create quality,…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Continuum of Care Program (CoC) award review process based on an anonymous hotline complaint alleging problems with the CoC competitive award process.  The objective of our review was to determine whether HUD performed its CoC competitive review and award process in accordance with NOFA program requirements, focusing on ranking and scoring CoC projects.…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration, Home Affordable Modification Program’s (FHA-HAMP) policies for reporting nonincentivized loan modifications and filing partial claims.  The audit was a result of a prior Office of Inspector General (OIG) external review in which we identified delays in reporting FHA-HAMP nonincentivized loan modifications and filing partial claims.…

The Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) has not referred troubled public housing agencies (PHAs) to the Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing to take them over as the law and regulations require.  Without this referral mechanism, a PHA could remain troubled for an indefinite period while conditions stagnate or deteriorate.  We identified 18 PHAs that remained troubled for more than 2 years without being referred PIH…

We audited Community Action North Bay’s Continuum of Care Program based on hotline complaints (HC-2016-2275 and HT-2019-1142) and concerns expressed by the San Francisco Office of Community Planning and Development that included matching noncompliance issues.  The complaints alleged improper accounting, timekeeping irregularities, unreported program income, and conflicts of interest.  Our objective was to determine whether the…

We conducted an attestation review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Special Needs, Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Grants Program, regarding drug control accounting and associated management assertions for fiscal year 2019.  As required by Federal statute 21 U.S.C. 1704(d)(1), we reviewed HUD’s drug control accounting, including its written assertions.  Our responsibility is to express a…

We audited Del Norte Neighborhood Development Corporation based on information we received indicating that Del Norte may have violated the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) HOME Investment Partnerships program rules during the demolition of one of its low- to moderate-income rental developments. Our objective was to determine whether Del Norte properly transferred, stopped, modified, or extended the availability of…

We audited the Palm Beach County Housing Authority in West Palm Beach, FL, based on concerns raised by news articles stating that the Authority dismissed its former executive director because of financial misconduct and ethical violations.  The concerns included bonuses paid and payments for contracted services.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority spent U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)…

We audited the Municipality of Yauco’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program as part of our strategic plan.  We selected this auditee because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) classified the Municipality as a high-risk grantee in its 2017 risk assessment review.  Our objective was to determine whether the Municipality complied with HUD regulations, procedures, and instructions related to the…