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 Planning and Development and Congress on the issues faced in responding to the pandemic.HUD’s CDBG-DR grantees across the country reported facing similar challenges and experiences related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The most significant challenges faced during the pandemic and reported by grantees were systems-technology and communications. The grantees also reported substantial challenges with project construction delays and incurring additional costs during the pandemic. HUD assistance at this stage of the pandemic emerged as a challenge; however, grantees described DRSI actions as supportive and helpful because of the revisions made to the CDBG-DR requirements, adding flexibilities and extensions to existing expenditure deadlines. Grantees also expressed major concerns about the possibility their staff could be infected with the COVID-19 virus and their desire to keep their staff safe during the pandemic. Other challenges reported by the grantees included monitoring, construction resources-lack of capacity, travel restrictions and telework, and work-home balance. We determined that there were eight recurring themes faced by CDBG-DR grantees and HUD officials during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the exception of HUD assistance, the grantees and HUD officials cited seven specific challenges affecting their programs in 195 instances during our interviews.This memorandum does not contain recommendations.
Report File
Date Issued
Submitting OIG
Department of Housing and Urban Development OIG
Other Participating OIGs
Department of Housing and Urban Development OIG
Agencies Reviewed/Investigated
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Components
Community Planning and Development
Report Number
2021-GA-0801
Report Description
Report Type
Audit
Special Projects
Pandemic
Agency Wide
Yes
Number of Recommendations
0
Questioned Costs
$0
Funds for Better Use
$0