HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs Can Improve Its Monitoring of Civil Rights Compliance
We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Multifamily Housing Programs’ monitoring of civil rights compliance. Robust monitoring for civil rights compliance is critical to HUD’s goals to support underserved communities. Our audit objective was to assess the extent to which HUD monitored civil rights compliance in its program activities.HUD and performance-based contract administrators (PBCA)…
March 11, 2025
Report
#2025-BO-0001
HUD Addressed Multifamily Mortgage Application Processing Delays, but Additional Action Is Needed To Manage Future Backlogs
We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Multifamily Housing Programs’ efforts to address multifamily mortgage application processing delays. When applications for these loans are delayed, it slows the production and availability of affordable multifamily housing units. During the COVID-19 pandemic, HUD took action to eliminate a backlog of over 500 applications waiting to be assigned to…
August 09, 2024
Report
#2024-NY-0002
HUD Can Improve Its Loan Purchaser Qualification Vetting To Better Achieve Its Mission Objectives
We audited the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Office of Asset Sales’ U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-Held Vacant Loan Sales (HVLS) program. The audit objective was to assess the extent to which HUD achieved its mission objectives for a 2022 vacant loan sale. We noted deficiencies in 52 of 53 HUD-approved applications within the reviewed vacant loan sale. These deficiencies occurred in transactions…
April 18, 2024
Report
#2024-KC-0001
Opportunities Exist To Improve HUD’s FHA Resource Center’s Routing of Housing Discrimination Inquiries
We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Single Family Housing’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Resource Center’s handling of housing discrimination inquiries. We initiated the audit to assist HUD with ensuring that the FHA Resource Center (1) provided accurate and complete information on potential housing discrimination to its customers and (2) ensured that instances of potential housing…
December 18, 2023
Report
#2024-BO-0001
Approximately 31,500 FHA-Insured Loans Did Not Maintain the Required Flood Insurance Coverage in 2020
Develop a control to detect loans that did not maintain the required flood insurance to put $1.5 billion to better use by avoiding potential future costs to the FHA insurance fund from inadequately insured properties.
Corrective Action Taken
In November 2022, FHA published the Acceptance of Private Flood Insurance for FHA-Insured Mortgages final rule (Docket No. FR-6084-F-02) in the Federal Register and issued Mortgagee Letter 2022-18,…
March 22, 2022
Report
#2022-KC-0002
Evaluation Closure – Federal Housing Administration Residency Requirements
In June 2020, we received letters from members of Congress, including the chairpersons of the House Committee on Financial Services and Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee, expressing concern that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) imposed a new, nonpublic, and legally erroneous policy that prohibited issuing Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)…
March 30, 2021
Memorandum
#2021-OE-0002
Contaminated Sites Pose Potential Health Risks to Residents at HUD-Funded Properties
The West Calumet Housing Complex (WCHC), located in East Chicago, IN, was a public housing development that opened in 1972 on top of a former lead smelting plant. HUD and other agencies missed multiple opportunities to identify site contamination at WCHC. As a result, WCHC residents continued living in unsafe conditions for decades, and inadequate oversight led to the lead poisoning of children in WCHC. Between 2005 and 2015, a…
February 14, 2021
Report
#2019-OE-0003
DHI Mortgage Company Ltd., Settled Allegations of Making False Certifications Regarding Federal Housing Administration Loans
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), referred alleged violations to HUD’s Office of Program Enforcement for action under the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act based on two audits of DHI Mortgage Company Ltd. (DHIM) that found it did not follow HUD requirements when it underwrote Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans with prohibited restrictive addenda to the purchase…
September 29, 2016
Memorandum
#2016-LA-1802
The Owner of Coconut Grove Apartments Did Not Always Operate Its HUD-Insured Project in Accordance With HUD Rules and Requirements
We audited Coconut Grove Apartments due to concerns expressed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Multifamily Housing Programs regarding the management of the project. The main concern was that the owner may have diverted project funds for nonproject expenses. Our audit objective was to determine whether Coconut Grove’s owner operated its Sections 223(f) and 241(a)-insured multifamily rental…
September 22, 2015
Report
#2015-LA-1008
NOVA Financial & Investment Corporation’s FHA-Insured Loans With Downpayment Assistance Gifts Did Not Always Meet HUD Requirements
We audited NOVA Financial & Investment Corporation based on a referral from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Quality Assurance Division detailing a separate lender that originated Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans that contained ineligible downpayment assistance gifts. The HUD Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) analysis identified NOVA as a lender with the highest origination volume in the…
July 09, 2015
Report
#2015-LA-1005
Final Civil Action – Borrower Settled Allegations of Not Complying With the Primary Residence Requirement of the Federal Housing Administration Program
HUD OIG conducted a civil investigation of an alleged loan origination fraud scheme involving a cash-out refinance loan that was insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). FHA provides mortgage insurance on loans made by FHA-approved lenders to creditworthy borrowers. Borrowers must occupy the properties as their primary residence for at least 1 year. Borrowers certify to their intent to occupy the property when…
March 27, 2015
Memorandum
#2015-CF-1804
Allen Mortgage, LLC, Centennial Park, AZ, Did Not Comply With HUD Requirements for Underwriting FHA Loans and Fully Implement Its Quality Control Program in Accordance With HUD’s Requirements
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General audited Allen Mortgage, Limited Liability Company, a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) nonsupervised lender. We selected Allen Mortgage for audit based on its high default and claim rate for the FHA-insured loans sponsored in Region 5. Our objectives were to determine whether (1) Allen Mortgage complied with HUD’s regulations, procedures, and instructions in…
September 30, 2012
Report
#2012-CH-1015
Metlife Bank's Scottsdale, AZ, Branch Office Did Not Follow FHA-Insured Loan Underwriting and Quality Control Requirements
We audited the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loan process at MetLife Bank’s (lender) branch in Scottsdale, AZ, to determine whether the lender underwrote FHA-insured loans and implemented a quality control plan in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements. We selected the lender because it had an FHA default rate of 7.41 percent for loans underwritten in Arizona between April 1, 2009, and…
January 25, 2012
Report
#2012-LA-1004
Review of Compliance With the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act by DHI Mortgage, LTD, and Its Closing Agents
We reviewed Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loan settlement documents from two branches of DHI Mortgage Company, LTD (DHI Mortgage), in Arizona. During a previous audit of loan origination by the same branches (audit report number 2009-LA-1018), there was information indicating that the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (Act) might have been violated; however, we were unable to report on the issue at the time. Our review…
February 08, 2011
Memorandum
#2011-LA-1801
The Retreat at Santa Rita Springs, Green Valley, AZ, Did Not Comply With HUD Rules and Regulations and Other Federal Requirements
We completed a review of the Retreat at Santa Rita Springs (community), a Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured multifamily project under Section 231 of the National Housing Act. Our audit was in response to a request for audit from Representative Gabrielle Giffords of the 8th District of Arizona. The owner defaulted on the $29.9 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-insured mortgage in November 2009, the month…
August 02, 2010
Report
#2010-LA-1014
DHI Mortgage Company, LTD's Scottsdale, AZ, Branches Did Not Follow FHA-Insured Loan Underwriting Requirements
We audited Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loan processes at two DHI Mortgage Company, LTD (DHI Mortgage), branches in Scottsdale, AZ, to determine whether DHI Mortgage originated, approved, and closed FHA-insured single-family loans in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements. We recently conducted an audit of DHI Mortgage’s Tucson and Scottsdale branches and identified significant…
March 19, 2010
Report
#2010-LA-1009
DHI Mortgage Company, LTD’s Scottsdale and Tucson, Arizona, Branches Did Not Always Follow FHA-Insured Loan Underwriting and Quality Control Requirements
We audited FHA-insured loan processes at two DHI Mortgage Company, LTD (DHI Mortgage) branches in Tucson and Scottsdale, Arizona, to determine whether DHI Mortgage originated, approved, and closed FHA-insured single-family loans in accordance with HUD requirements. We chose DHI Mortgage because the Scottsdale, Arizona, branch had a default rate that was double the default rate for FHA-insured loans for the state of Arizona, and then expanded…
September 10, 2009
Report
#2009-LA-1018
Campaige Place at Jackson, Phoenix, Arizona, Did Not Use Its Project Funds in Compliance with HUD’s Regulatory Agreement and Other Federal Requirements
We audited Campaige Place at Jackson (Campaige Place) to determine whether it used its project funds in compliance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) regulatory agreement and other federal requirements.
Campaige Place did not use its project funds in compliance with HUD’s and other federal requirements. Specifically, we determined that:
•Owner advances of $73,750 were repaid when the project had no surplus cash…
March 18, 2009
Report
#2009-LA-1008