We audited the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) with the objective of evaluating HCD’s fraud risk management practices for its Emergency Solutions Grants Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (ESG CARES Act) program and assessing the maturity of its efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to fraud.  Fraudulent activity in the ESG CARES Act program can lead to significant financial losses,…

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 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…

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 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 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 audited the Housing Authority of the County of Stanislaus’ Shelter Plus Care program based on a hotline complaint and concerns expressed by the San Francisco Office of Community Planning and Development regarding the Authority’s lack of documentation to support participant eligibility.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority documented participant eligibility related to homelessness and disability in accordance with Shelter…

We audited the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino’s Continuum of Care grant funds received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  We audited the Authority because it is among the top 15 percent of competitive grantees in HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development’s risk analysis.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority administered its Continuum of Care grants in…

We audited the City of San Bernardino, CA’s HOME Investment Partnerships program.  We audited the City based on the Region 9 Office of Inspector General’s 2016 risk analysis of Los Angeles area community planning and development grantees.  In addition, although the County of San Bernardino had been administering the City’s recent HOME grants, the City still had several of its own HOME activities underway and others that had closed…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant code enforcement program due to results from our external audits, which showed that grantees did not adequately understand and failed to ensure compliance with program requirements.  Our audit objective was to determine (1) whether HUD’s code enforcement guidance under its Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) Notice CPD-…

We audited the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, based on an Office of Inspector General risk assessment and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) concerns.  The objective of our audit was to determine whether the Agency used the City of Sacramento’s CDBG funds in accordance with HUD requirements and adequately monitored its subrecipients.  The Agency…

We audited the City of Modesto’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.  We selected the City based on a hotline complaint (HC-2017-2082) regarding the City’s rehabilitation program and the U.S. Department of Housing Development’s (HUD) and the HUD Office of Inspector General’s risk assessments.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether the City used CDBG funds in accordance with HUD requirements, focusing on its…

We audited the City of Moreno Valley’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, based on a referral from the Office of the Inspector General’s Los Angeles Office of Investigation, identifying the concerns of the Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development that the City did not properly charge salaries to the CDBG code enforcement program.  The objective of our audit was to determine whether the City correctly…

We audited the City of South Gate’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.  We selected the City based on our risk analysis of Los Angeles area grantees and prior monitoring concerns identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with the City’s code enforcement activities.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether the City administered its CDBG funds in accordance with HUD requirements…

We audited the County of San Diego’s Continuum of Care program funds received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  We audited the County because HUD had not reviewed its Continuum of Care grant program in more than 10 years and as a spinoff of an audit of a County subgrantee, Mental Health Systems, Inc. (2017-LA-1003, issued June 2, 2017).  Our audit objective was to determine whether the County…

We audited the Town of Apple Valley’s Community Development Block Grant program due to a hotline complaint (HC-2016-2372) alleging that the Town did not use its program funds in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program regulations and requirements.  Specifically, the complainant wrote a letter to the previous HUD Secretary alleging that the Town misused program funds.  Our audit objective was to…

We audited the City of Fresno’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.  We selected the City based on prior findings identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and continuing issues with the program.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether the City administered its CDBG funds in accordance with HUD requirements, focusing on code enforcement, antigraffiti, and after school program…

We audited the City of Huntington Park’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.  We selected the City based on the high risk assessment score and prior findings identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  The objective of the audit was to determine whether the City administered its CDBG funds in accordance with HUD requirements, focusing on grant expenditures and procurement.  The City…

We audited Mental Health Systems, Inc.’s (MHS) Supportive Housing Program and Continuum of Care direct grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  We audited MHS as the result of requests from HUD, prompted by a media report and the County of San Diego’s review of MHS in response to whistleblower accusations of improprieties.  The accusations centered on MHS drawing government funds in advance and…

We audited the State of Oklahoma because it received $93.7 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) allocations for presidentially declared disasters that occurred in 2011, 2012, and 2013.  The substantial amount of CDBG-DR funding required a review of the State’s program.  Our objective was to determine whether the State obligated and spent its grant in accordance with requirements.  The State…