Natural disasters affect millions of Americans each year. Homeowners who experience a temporary or permanent loss of income due to a natural disaster or an increase in expenses post-disaster may be financially vulnerable, making it difficult for them to make mortgage payments. View the video.  

Be on the lookout for fraudsters impersonating HUD employees using social media schemes to offer you grants or housing assistance from HUD and asking for payment or personal information to receive grant funds. Fraudsters may use social media or other tactics to steal money from you by offering fake HUD benefits or fake HUD grants.  

HUD OIG is aware of schemes whereby fraudsters falsely announce on social media that waitlists for housing vouchers, including “Section 8” or other government-assisted housing are opening soon

Housing should coordinate with HUD’s SOC to a. Ensure that FHA Catalyst user behavior monitoring logs are regularly captured and adequately reviewed for discrepancies in user activities. b. Establish program office responsibility for the log review process.  

Housing should refine access controls within the FHA Catalyst modules that are dynamic, are tailored to user actions, and require continuous reauthentication to ensure that users have access only to information needed.

Implement a process to identify teleworkers most at risk of receiving incorrect locality payments, verify that their official duty stations are correct and they are reporting to their official duty stations as required, and if necessary, correct their locality payments.

Develop guidance for program offices to develop program office-specific action plans to address any causes found for high attrition rates in governmentwide high-risk MCOs and field offices in large cities.

Housing should include zero trust requirements as part of the Housing Strategic Roadmap for Housing Modernization.

Develop guidance for the program offices to identify the causes behind high attrition rates in governmentwide high-risk MCOs and field offices in large cities.

Create a single, unified agency-specific MCO list updated to reflect current progress toward closing skills gaps.

HUD should remove the provision that allows public housing authorities to charge asset management fees, which would ensure that at least $81.6 million in operating funds could be put to better use in meeting HUD program objectives.

Establish and implement procedures to reassess the management and bookkeeping fees periodically to ensure that they are reasonable. HUD should retain the documentation justifying the calculation of the rates.

Develop, document, and implement written procedures to ensure that fees charged to the asset management projects and Capital Fund program and expenses from the central office cost center are used to support HUD’s mission.

Based on the outcome of the State’s investigation and criminal trial, make a referral to HUD recommending administrative sanctions, as appropriate, up to and including debarment of the Authority’s former rehabilitation specialist, the Planning District Commission’s former deputy director, and the involved contractors.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to provide documentation to justify that the $1,615,057 in unsupported costs is associated with eligible program activities. Any unsupported costs determined to be ineligible should be reimbursed from non-Federal funds.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to strengthen oversight controls over disbursements to ensure that adequate supporting documentation is maintained and complies with applicable regulations.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to follow its policies and procedures for record-keeping to maintain records that adequately identify the source and application of funds provided for financially assisted activities.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to provide records detailing the funding sources of the non-Federal cash match for the six grant activities reviewed.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to provide source documentation to substantiate that the $584,579 in required non-Federal cash matching funds for five of the six program projects reviewed were met.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to reconcile its accounting records to ensure that total revenues and expenditures in its general ledgers reconcile to the revenues and expenditures reported in its annual performance reports and LOCCS.