The Office of Inspector General (OIG) opened this review in March 2019 after receiving a congressional request to examine alleged delays in the disbursement of approximately $20 billion of disaster recovery and mitigation funds appropriated for Puerto Rico following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Our review examined the decisions and actions of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD or Department) officials that affected the timing of…

HUD does not have a departmentwide policy for dealing with radon contamination.  Instead, HUD relies on each program office to develop radon policies that align with HUD’s environmental regulations.  The three program offices reviewed do not have consistent radon policies.  Only Multifamily’s radon policy includes radon testing and mitigation requirements.  PIH’s policy strongly encourages but does not require public housing…

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) initiated this investigation upon receipt of information from several complainants alleging that a former Director at HUD failed to recuse themselves from any HUD matters while negotiating future employment with a private-sector firm that conducts business with HUD and that the former Director, after leaving HUD, represented back to HUD on matters they had worked…

This investigation was initiated upon the receipt of information from the Deputy Ethics Counselor for Region 5 of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Regional Counsel. It was alleged that an employee with Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO), who is also an attorney, had been involved in several violations of the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, 5 C.F.R Part 2635 (“Standards”)…

In June 2020, we received letters from members of Congress, including the chairpersons of the House Committee on Financial Services and Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee, expressing concern that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) imposed a new, nonpublic, and legally erroneous policy that prohibited issuing Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)…

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…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), has completed a survey of the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grantees.  Our objective was to determine the challenges that HUD and its CDBG-DR grantees are experiencing related to the COVID-19 pandemic and to help inform the Office of Community…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Public and Indian Housing’s (PIH) Office of Field Operations’ (OFO) oversight of public housing agencies’ (PHA) compliance with implementing HUD’s smoke-free policy. We initiated the audit in accordance with our strategic plan and our vision to support HUD’s efforts to achieve quality and safer housing. Our objective was to determine whether OFO ensured that the…

We prepared this memorandum to provide the Office of Housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with key considerations from prior audits of the HUD Single Family Default Monitoring System (SFDMS) and the partial claim loss mitigation option.  These audits identified HUD’s lack of effective controls to ensure that lenders reported default information accurately and in a timely manner, lenders promptly filed and…

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…

The West Calumet Housing Complex (WCHC), located in East Chicago, IN, was a public housing development that opened in 1972 on top of a former lead smelting plant.  HUD and other agencies missed multiple opportunities to identify site contamination at WCHC.  As a result, WCHC residents continued living in unsafe conditions for decades, and inadequate oversight led to the lead poisoning of children in WCHC.  Between 2005 and 2015, a…

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 Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County’s (NHSLA) Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2).  The audit was based on a complaint alleging questionable NSP2 financial activity, double payments to contractors, and payments to contractors for incomplete work.  Our Office of Audit received the referred complaint in late 2018.  However, because the complaint included concerns regarding activities and auditee…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, has completed its audit of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans originated in calendar year 2019.  Our audit objective was to determine whether FHA insured loans that were not eligible for insurance because they did not have the required flood insurance coverage. We found FHA insured at least 3,870 loans that closed in 2019, totaling $940…

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…

Each year, in compliance with Public Law 106-531, the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), issues a report summarizing what we consider the most serious management challenges facing the Department. In turn, HUD is required to include this report in its annual agency financial report. This report represents HUD OIG’s perspective on the top management…