We conducted a civil fraud review of an alleged loan origination fraud scheme involving a loan officer that assisted a borrower to purchase a home under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program.  The alleged scheme involved submitting a false loan application and other documentation to obtain an FHA-insured loan on a home in Brentwood, CA.  Based in part on OIG’s review,…

At the request of the Director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Houston, TX, Office of Multifamily Housing Programs, we conducted a review of Yale Court Apartments (project).  Our objective was to determine whether the project owner used the project funds in accordance with its regulatory agreement and HUD regulations. The former owner used more than $3.5 million of the project funds for ineligible and…

In accordance with our regional plan to review public housing programs, we reviewed the Beaumont Housing Authority, Beaumont, TX.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority’s controls over tenant and unit eligibility were sufficient to ensure that it administered its low-rent public housing and Housing Choice Voucher programs in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulations and guidance.…

We audited the City of Richmond’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program 1 (NSP1) in response to HUD Office of Community Planning and Development’s concerns over the City’s management of its NSP1.  Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its NSP1 in accordance with requirements related to procurement and cost eligibility. The City did not administer its NSP1 in accordance with requirements related to procurement and cost…

We reviewed an alleged loan origination fraud scheme involving a borrower purchasing a home in which the loan was insured under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program.  The alleged scheme involved submitting a false loan application to obtain an FHA-insured loan on a home in Brentwood, CA.  Based in part on our review, HUD filed a complaint against the borrower under…

In accordance with our regional plan to review public housing programs and as part of our overall risk strategy to review smaller housing authorities, we reviewed the Housing Authority of the City of Beeville, TX.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority operated its public housing and related grant programs in accordance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) requirements.  However, we limited…

We audited the State of Texas’ Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program based on a hotline complaint, which alleged mismanagement of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council’s Disaster Recovery housing program.  The complainant also made allegations concerning excessive home costs and ineligible homeowners.  Our audit objectives were to determine whether the State (1) ensured that the contractor limited the…

We reviewed the developer fees the County of San Bernardino paid to its Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) developers.  Our objective was to determine whether the County adequately ensured that NSP developer fees paid to its developers met HUD requirements.  We performed our review to address questionable costs identified during a prior Office of Inspector General (OIG) review (audit report 2014-LA-0002).  During that…

In accordance with our regional plan to review public housing programs and because of a complaint received by our office, we reviewed the Housing Authority of the City of Nixon, Nixon, TX.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority operated its public housing and related grant programs in accordance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) requirements.  Specifically, we wanted to determine whether…

In accordance with our regional plan to review public housing programs and because of weaknesses identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Public Housing, we reviewed the Malakoff Housing Authority, Malakoff, TX.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority’s controls were sufficient to ensure that it administered its HUD Public Housing programs in accordance with regulations and guidance…

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…

In accordance with our regional plan to review public housing programs and because of weaknesses identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Public Housing, we reviewed the City of Brackettville Housing Authority, Brackettville, TX.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority operated its public housing and related grant programs in accordance with HUD requirements.  The Authority’s…

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…

We completed an audit of the City of Eagle Pass Housing Authority’s (Authority) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) grant activities. The Authority was selected based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD), Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG)  annual plan to conduct oversight of the Recovery Act funds provided to public housing agencies and our regional risk evaluation.  Our audit…

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…

We audited the Harris County Housing Authority, Houston, TX, at the request of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Fort Worth Office Director of Public and Indian Housing.  The request followed a series of news articles alleging mismanagement and extravagant spending at the Authority, the removal or replacement of various former managers and board of commissioners members, and concerns expressed by the new managers…

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 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 applicable HUD…