The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) directs Inspectors General to conduct an annual evaluation of the agency information security program. FISMA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) establish information technology (IT) security guidance and standards for Federal agencies. We conducted this evaluation to assess the…

We audited HUD and its grantees’ monitoring of subrecipients and contractors in HUD’s Emergency Solutions Grants Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (ESG-CV) program to assess subrecipient monitoring in the program.  ESG and ESG-CV grantees often rely on subrecipients and contractors to carry out ESG-CV-funded activities on behalf of the grantees, and are required to monitor subrecipients to ensure that the purpose of…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Native American Programs’ (ONAP) coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) recovery programs.  We performed this audit to provide HUD with insight and a nationwide perspective on the challenges that grantees experienced with those programs.  Our audit objectives were to identify 1) the information, guidance, and training HUD provided to the grantees for the…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Native American Programs’ (ONAP) Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act to identify drawdown levels for its block grant programs and assessed information ONAP made publicly available. As of October 4, 2022, grantees had drawn $231.6 million of the $300 million in CARES Act block grant funds and $135.8 million…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) fraud risk management program at the enterprise and program-office levels and assessed its overall maturity.  Our objective was to determine HUD’s progress in implementing a fraud risk management framework at the enterprise and program-office levels that encompasses control activities to prevent, detect, and respond to fraud. The Antifraud Playbook established by the…

We performed a review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) monitoring and tracking of Continuum of Care (CoC) grantees that have been slow to spend their grant funds.  Our objectives were to determine whether HUD was effectively tracking and monitoring CoC grant spending and to determine the impact of COVID-19 on CoC grantee spending. HUD generally tracked and monitored its grantees; however, it did not…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Native American Programs’ sale of defaulted loan notes and real estate-owned (REO) properties on tribal trust and other restricted lands. We performed this audit as a result of congressional interest in the Section 184 program and work performed during prior HUD, Office of Inspector General, audits. The objective of our audit was to determine whether HUD…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) efforts to meet the Geospatial Data Act of 2018 (the Act). Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD met the 13 responsibilities stated in the Act with regard to its collection, production, acquisition, maintenance, distribution, use, and preservation of geospatial data.  The Act also generally requires covered agencies provide access to geospatial data and…

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) directs Inspectors General to conduct an annual evaluation of the agency information security program.  FISMA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) establish information technology (IT) security guidance and standards for Federal agencies. We conducted this evaluation to assess…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act program. Our audit objective was to determine what challenges grantees faced in using program funds for activities that prepare for, prevent, or respond to the coronavirus and its impact.  We used a survey questionnaire to gather feedback and insight directly from 1,047 program…

The 2022-2026 HUD OIG Strategic Plan is our governing document for how we will build on our progress and continue evolving over the next 4 years. It is designed to paint a clear and compelling picture of where we are headed. We commit to the following 3 goals, knowing that they will require continued investment in our workforce and staying true to our core values.   Strategic Goal 1 - Influence positive outcomes for HUD programs…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its public housing agencies’ (PHA) reasonable accommodation policies and procedures.  We initiated this audit because we identified an increase in housing discrimination complaints based on a failure to provide a reasonable accommodation, even as the total number of all housing discrimination complaints was decreasing.  Our audit objective was to…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) refunds based on a hotline complaint alleging that HUD was trying to make it difficult for claimants to obtain refunds or discourage them from pursuing the refunds, which are due to eligible homeowners from the unearned portion of the upfront mortgage insurance premium paid.  Our audit found the allegations from the…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), completed a corrective action verification (CAV) of recommendations from four prior home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) audit reports.  The CAV was initiated because protecting the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mutual mortgage insurance fund is one of HUD’s top management challenges.  The prior audits determined that HUD lacked…

We conducted this evaluation due to the growing homeless crisis and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) establishing a goal of ending homelessness.  Our objective was to evaluate the challenges that participating public housing agencies (PHA) face in meeting the goals and objectives of the HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program. The results from our limited review may help HUD in addressing PHAs’…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) information technology (IT) modernization roadmap.  A significant number of HUD’s mission-essential applications have not been modernized, which presents multiple sources of risk.  These applications are hosted on legacy information systems and mainframe platforms, which are operationally inefficient, increasingly difficult to secure, and costly to maintain.…

We audited rent credits that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) received from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) during fiscal years 2015 through 2018 in exchange for financial contributions for building improvements.  We initiated this audit due to concerns we identified while completing a review of HUD’s use of funds approved by Congress for building improvements.[1]  Our objective was to determine…

We audited selected general and application controls over the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Home Equity Reverse Mortgage Information Technology (HERMIT) system as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2019 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to review the selected controls over HERMIT for compliance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban…

We conducted this limited review to determine the use of landlord incentives to increase landlord participation and retention and expand housing options for program participants outside areas of low-income or minority concentration. The majority (28 of 34) of responsive MTW PHAs used the program and funding flexibilities of the MTW program to offer landlord incentives.  These PHAs offered many types of landlord incentives as a tool to…

We audited information systems controls over the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) computing environment as part of the internal control assessments for the fiscal year 2019 financial statements audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990. Our objective was to assess general controls over HUD’s computing environment for compliance with HUD information technology policies and Federal information system security…