We audited the State of Florida’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program because the State was awarded more than $107 million to recover from the 2008 natural disasters and to undertake activities and long-term strategies that focus on reducing future natural disasters.  Further, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, had not audited the State since 2006.…

HUD OIG assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida, in the civil investigation of Group One Mortgage, Inc.  Group One’s principal place of business is located in Jupiter, FL.  Group One has participated in the FHA insurance program since 2004 and became a direct endorsement lender in 2005.  The direct endorsement program authorizes private-sector mortgage lenders to approve mortgage loans for FHA insurance…

We audited EverBank’s Preforeclosure Sale Program because it had the highest Florida preforeclosure sale claims of all servicing lenders located in Florida and more than 50 percent of its Florida Federal Housing Administration (FHA) claims were from preforeclosure sales with more than $12.9 million paid from 2011 through 2013.  Our objective was to determine whether EverBank properly determined that mortgagors were eligible to participate…

We audited Miami-Dade County’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program.  The County was selected for review because (1) our audit plan included audits of HOME grantees; (2) the Miami U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Community Planning and Development, ranked the County as high risk in its 2012 and 2013 risk assessments; and (3) HUD’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) had not performed an audit of the County’s…

We performed an audit of the Boca Raton Housing Authority mainly to assess the validity of nine allegations made against the Authority.  The primary audit objective was to determine whether the Authority administered its Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program tenant files in accordance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s regulations, specifically to verify the validity of the complaint. Four of the nine…

We audited the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program administered by Hillsborough County, FL, as part of the activities in our 2013 fiscal year annual audit plan.  We selected the County for review based on a complaint referral from the Office of Inspector General’s Office of Investigation on a public complaint alleging the County’s misuse of CDBG funds for the County’s cleanup events.  Our audit objective was to determine…

We conducted a review of Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program payments made to Deandra Caison, a landlord, for a tenant residing in a property that Ms. Caison no longer owned.  Ms. Caison had sold the property to her brother but continued to receive housing assistance payments.  Between November 2007 and March 2010, Caison received $29,055 in housing assistance payments from the Orlando Housing Authority.  To resolve the…

We audited the City of West Palm Beach’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program.  The City was selected for review because (1) our audit plan included audits of HOME grantees, (2) the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Miami Office of Community Planning and Development ranked the City as high risk in its 2012 risk assessment, and (3) the most recent HUD monitoring review in 2012 identified concerns with the City’s…

We audited Lighthouse Inn, an assisted living facility located in Pompano Beach, FL.  In April 2008, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) insured the $5.1 million mortgage on the property under Section 232 of the National Housing Act.  In September 2010, the facility defaulted on the mortgage loan.  Our overall audit objective was to determine whether the owner of Lighthouse Inn complied with the executed…

We audited the State of Iowa’s monitoring of the City of Cedar Rapids’ voluntary property acquisition program.   We selected the State for review based on a prior audit of the City’s voluntary property acquisition program.  During fiscal years 2009 through 2012, the State awarded the City more than $166 million in disaster funding.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the State monitored the City’s voluntary…

We reviewed the City of Apalachicola’s Small Cities Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funded by the State of Florida for a marina improvements project in response to a hotline complaint.  The complaint was submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General in a letter, dated June 29, 2012.  The objectives of the review were to determine whether the City’s CDBG grant application…