Open Recommendations

Develop and implement procedures and controls to ensure that graffiti abatement expenditures, including salaries and benefits, are accurately charged to CDBG grants and properly supported.

Develop a method for using the Do Not Pay portal during the underwriting process to identify delinquent child support and delinquent Federal debt to prevent future FHA loans to ineligible borrowers to put $1.9 billion to better use.

Status

Revise the single-family handbook to comply with regulations that prevent loans to borrowers with delinquent child support subject to Federal offset.

Implement written procedures to include the confirmation of match funds as part of its annual monitoring reviews of each subgrantee.

Develop and implement a written plan for its subgrantees to provide and submit supporting documentation for match funds at the end of each grant term.

Identify retroactive payroll for remaining grants (CA1162L9D011504, CA1024L9D011501, CA0694L9D011508, and CA0693L9D011508) and provide adequate documentation to support the cost or repay HUD from non-Federal funds.

Develop and implement additional procedures and controls to ensure that payroll costs charged to the grant reconcile to actual hours worked on the grants.

We recommend that the Director of HUD's Newark Office of Public Housing require the Authority to provide documentation to show that the $1,294,062 paid to the Long Branch Housing Authority was for eligible, reasonable, necessary, and allocable costs or reimburse its Operating and Capital Fund programs from non-Federal funds for any amount that it cannot support or that is not considered reasonable.

We recommend that the Southwest Region Director of Multifamily Housing require Villa Main Apartments owner to repay HUD $534,741 for 39 subsidized units with ineligible "ghost" tenants.

We recommend that the Southwest Region Director of Multifamily Housing require Villa Main Apartments owner to provide support that the subsidized 43 units without annual physical inspections, without required EIV reports, or with missing files were eligible or repay HUD $1,095,364 for those subsidies.

We recommend that the Southwest Region Director of Multifamily Housing require Villa Main Apartments owner to implement appropriate controls to ensure tenants are eligible, housing assistance subsidies are accurate, and that units are inspected as required.

We further recommend that the Southwest Region Director of Multifamily Housing verify that the owner is providing oversight to its onsite staff and its recently implemented quality control program is working as designed and in accordance with HUD requirements.

We further recommend that the Southwest Region Director of Multifamily Housing ensure that the project-based contract administrator's review process includes steps to obtain reasonable assurance that tenants being reported as subsidized at Villa Main qualify for the program and live in the subsidized units.

Track and ensure that Volunteers returns to the Treasury any funds recovered through the ongoing litigation pertaining to the Yabucoa housing project.

Return to the Puerto Rico Department of Housing $1,057,467, plus any interest earned, for the duplicate special escrow fund payments it received.

We recommend that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs develop a process to ensure that grantees properly report the addresses of assisted properties in IDIS and properly calculate and report program income from the disposition of these properties regularly.

We recommend that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs instruct the Newark, NJ, field office to require Jersey City to provide documentation to support the fair market value of the property at the time of disposition. If documentation cannot be provided, the grantee should be required to reimburse $503,550 to its CDBG line of credit from non-Federal funds.

We recommend that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs instruct the Philadelphia, PA, field office to require Luzerne County to provide documentation to support the fair value of the property at the time of disposition. If documentation cannot be provided, the grantee should be required to reimburse $575,263 to its CDBG line of credit from non-Federal funds.

We recommend that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs instruct the Philadelphia, PA, field office to require Luzerne County to reclassify program income already reported to the activity ID in IDIS that generated the income, ensuring that the $798,273 in program income is properly accounted for.

We recommend that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs issue guidance to HUD staff and grantees to clarify the applicability of change of use requirements in cases where there is both a repayment from non-Federal funds and a voluntary grant reduction.

Provide documentation to show that payroll costs totaling $2,019,496 and any payroll costs incurred outside our audit period, including fiscal year 2017, were reasonable and necessary expenses for the operation of the project or repay the project from nonproject funds for any amount that it cannot support.

Provide documentation to show that other direct costs totaling $56,021 and any direct costs incurred outside our audit period, including fiscal year 2017, were reasonable and necessary expenses for the operation of the project or repay the project from nonproject funds for any amount that it cannot support.

Require indemnification for the 26 loans that had significant servicing deficiencies. In these cases, the loss to HUD was $1,673,117 (appendixes A and D).

Direct responsible field offices to require the grantees identified by the audit to either provide documentation to support $227,260 in unsupported payments or reimburse their programs from non-Federal funds for costs they cannot support.

Provide guidance to field office staff to clarify the statutory requirements in 42 U.S.C. 5305(a)(24) regarding a principal reduction and a downpayment for direct home-ownership assistance activities.