We completed an inspection of Section 8 housing assistance payments (HAP) to owners of multifamily properties in Louisiana that were severely damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. The tenants vacated these properties shortly after Katrina struck. In the storm's aftermath, HUD and the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency (LHFA) continued to subsidize property owners, although many properties under HAP contract were vacant and not…

We performed a limited scope audit of the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity to determine whether the Office complied with the requirements of 42 U.S.C. (United States Code) Chapter 45, Subpart I, Section, 3616a(d), entitled Fair Housing Intiatives Program, Education and Outreach, when it published the 2007 Fair Housing Initiatives Program notice of funding availability. The audit disclosed that the Office generally complied with the…

We audited the District of Columbia Housing Authority's (Authority) controls over its leased housing under its Moving to Work Demonstration program based on our analysis of various risk factors relating to the housing authorities under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Baltimore field office. This is the third of three audit reports on the Authority's program. The audit objectives addressed in this…

The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited HUD's administration of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) set-aside for colonias (colonia set-aside). We performed the review because of concerns that surfaced during an audit survey of the state of Texas's colonia set-aside funds. That review showed that HUD had not issued regulations or handbooks that required compliance with Section…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Inspector General reviewed HUD's oversight of projects that opted out of the Section 8 program between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2007. We reviewed the opt-out process because it involved large amounts of funds potentially not accounted for or remitted to HUD. With a few minor exceptions, HUD complied with applicable requirements while administering the opt-out…

We concluded that Single Family could improve the reliability of its process for reporting performance measure results. Single Family has a performance measurement process in place; however, it could make the process more reliable if it routinely evaluated data used for performance measure results and formally documented its structure and process for developing, monitoring, and reporting on performance measures. We recommended that HUD…

We audited the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) management of its information technology resources and compliance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other federal information security requirements. Our overall objective was to determine whether FHA effectively managed security controls relating to its information technology resources. This audit supported our financial statement audits of FHA and HUD as well…

As part of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) annual goals for internal audits, we reviewed U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) policies prohibiting the use of funds from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to supplant general government funds. Congress stated in a 2006 House congressional report that CDBG funds were never meant "to be used to replace local general government funds on projects communities…

As part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of the Inspector General's (OIG) strategic plan, we audited HUD's controls over the physical condition of Section 8 housing stock for the Housing Choice Voucher program. Our objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate controls to ensure that its Section 8 housing stock was in material compliance with housing quality standards. We found that HUD did not have…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited HUD's Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system. HUD implemented the EIV system nationwide for public housing authorities to use to identify and reduce tenant income and subsidy errors within the Section 8 and public housing programs. Our objective was to determine whether HUD provided adequate guidance and training to its EIV coordinators and…

As part of our strategic plan, we audited the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) American Dream Downpayment Initiative (Initiative). Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate controls to ensure that its grantees did not exceed allowable downpayment assistance limits and that funds were used as required. HUD had controls in place to ensure that grantees did not exceed allowable downpayment…