Support that one household residing in an assisted unit was income eligible or reimburse its Program $19,500 from non-Federal funds for the lead-based paint hazard control activities completed in the assisted unit.

Implement adequate procedures and controls to ensure that (1) documentation is maintained to support that contracted services are cost reasonable, (2) landlords give preference in renting assisted vacant units to families with children under 6 years of age, (3) lead inspection documentation properly supports lead-based paint hazard control activities, (4) HUD approval is obtained when more than $5,000 per unit in healthy homes supplemental funds is budgeted to assist units, and (5) its staff is fully knowledgeable of the Program requirements.

Acknowledge that the attached settlement agreement of $325,000 represents an amount due HUD from Pacific Horizon.

Acknowledge that the attached settlement agreement for $15,000 represents an amount due HUD from the two loan officers.

Acknowledge that $3,375,163 in the attached settlement agreement represents an amount due HUD, less DOJ’s civil debt collection fees

Acknowledge that the $6,749,673 in the attached indemnification agreement represents an amount due HUD.

Acknowledge that $32,500,000 in the attached settlement agreement represents an amount due HUD, less DOJ’s civil debt collection fees.

We recommend that the Director of the Office of Block Grant Assistance require the Texas General Land Office to implement appropriate cost controls, including limits for reconstruction and rehabilitation costs, to ensure that it uses limited government resources in a more economical and efficient manner. Those costs should not exceed the costs that would be incurred by a prudent person under similar circumstances.

We recommend that the Director of the Office of Block Grant Assistance require the Texas General Land Office to evaluate whether its programs would benefit from a longer affordability period and take appropriate actions to ensure that low- and moderate-income communities have access to affordable homes for an adequate period.

We recommend that the Director of the Office of Block Grant Assistance require the Texas General Land Office to ensure that the tax burden implications are a part of the determination of whether to spend significantly more than the damaged home’s appraised value to replace the home. This measure would include ensuring that participants are fully informed of the substantial and material property tax consequences that they could incur based on the increased values of their reconstructed homes (appendix B).

Require lenders to obtain the borrowers’ consent to verify the existence of delinquent Federal taxes with the IRS during loan origination and deny any applicant with delinquent Federal tax debt and no payment plan or a noncompliant payment plan or an applicant refusing to provide consent from receiving FHA insurance to put at least $6.1 billion to better use by avoiding potential future costs to the FHA insurance fund.

Status

HUD's Office of Single Family Housing will need additional tax information to complete the planned action. As of July 2025, HUD was seeking closure of the recommendation, stating that the delinquent Federal tax debt information is not systematically available since the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cannot disclose it for this non-tax administration need and use under current regulations. HUD also maintains that without an automated solution from the IRS, it is not practical for individual borrowers and/or lenders to manually check tax status with the IRS. OIG disagreed with HUD's request for closure and its position is that action is required since delinquent tax debtors are ineligible for FHA loans under existing FHA and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines. HUD has other opportunities to address the recommendation, which would help put at least $6.1 billion to better use by ensuring that Federal tax delinquencies are appropriately reviewed during loan origination.

Analysis

To fully address this recommendation, HUD will need to provide evidence that it established a method of borrower consent to verify the existence of delinquent federal taxes including, but not limited to one of the options OIG provided, which were (1) lenders obtaining the borrowers' consent to obtain their tax records directly from the IRS or (2) borrowers accessing their own tax information and submitting it to the lenders.

Implementation of this rule should result in HUD putting $6.1 billion to better use.

Revise HUD handbooks for forward and reverse mortgages to reflect that tax liens and judgments are no longer reported on credit reports.

Revise HUD handbooks for forward and reverse mortgages for uniformity in the treatment of delinquent tax debt and the existence of payment plans as only the forward mortgage handbook requires 3 months of payments.

Reimburse its program from non-Federal funds for the $62,377 used to pay for the excess executive compensation.

Develop and implement written policies, procedures, and other financial controls to ensure that Sections 8 and 9 funds are not used to pay for compensation over the salary limit.

Reimburse the U.S. Treasury from non-Federal funds for the $5,000 in ineligible costs paid to its contractor.

Develop and implement written policies and procedures for the payment review process to comply with applicable regulations in 2 CFR Part 200.

Train its staff on its newly developed policies and procedures noted in recommendations 1B and 1D.

Reimburse its program $32,687 from non-Federal funds ($17,045 in overpayments of housing assistance and utility allowances4 $15,642 in administrative fees) due to inappropriate calculations.

Reimburse the appropriate households $1,276 ($1,211 in housing assistance underpayments $65 in utility allowances) from program funds for the underpayment of housing assistance due to calculation errors and discrepancies in the housing assistance payments register.