We reviewed the City of Oakland’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program to determine whether it administered its program in accordance with federal requirements and its own policies and procedures. We selected the City for review due to its large annual HUD funding and because it had not been the subject of an OIG audit for several years. The City did not always administer its HOME program in accordance with federal requirements and its own…

We audited the City of Baldwin Park Housing Authority’s (Authority) Housing Choice Voucher program. We conducted the audit because the Authority received a “near troubled” status and scores of zero on five Section Eight Management Assessment Program indicators for fiscal year 2007. The objective was to determine whether the Authority determined housing assistance payments correctly and completed annual reexaminations in a timely manner. The…

We audited Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corporation (Financial Freedom) as part of our annual audit plan objective of improving the integrity of single-family insurance programs. Our objective was to determine whether Financial Freedom complied with U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) origination requirements for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, commonly known as a reverse mortgage. Financial Freedom…

We audited the Culver City Housing Agency’s (Agency) administration of its Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program waiting list and housing assistance payment calculations. We initiated this review based upon information we received regarding waiting list administration and potential tenant eligibility issues. The Agency’s ongoing lease-up deficiency and lack of monitoring visits by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD…

We audited the City of Los Angeles Housing Department (City) as the result of problems noted during a prior audit involving HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME)-funded activities administered by the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (subrecipient), which was not adequately monitored by the City, compounded by concerns stemming from various newspaper articles related to the Marlton Square project, which included…

We audited the City of Reading's (City) asset control area program as part of a nationwide audit of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) monitoring of program participants. Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its asset control area program in compliance with HUD requirements. We focused our review on whether the City complied with specific requirements in its asset control area agreement (…

We reviewed lenders in the State of Connecticut that had Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans with secondary financing from the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority as part of our annual audit plan. The objective was to determine whether the lenders inappropriately gave borrowers using secondary financing from the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority cash back at closing in excess of their total cash deposit and other closing costs paid…

We completed a financial review of the Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles' (Authority) Section 8 program. We initiated the review in response to several citizen complaints alleging mismanagement, waste, and abuse of U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Section 8 funding, including the use of Section 8 funds to pay the costs of non-Section 8 programs. Our objective was to determine the validity of the above…

We audited the City of Los Angeles Housing Department (Department) as a result of an earlier audit of the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) affordability monitoring requirements and inspections of HOME-assisted rental units, which detected four projects that may not have been rehabilitated as intended. Our audit objective was to determine whether HOME funds were used as intended to rehabilitate the four projects and in accordance…

We audited the use of Supportive Housing Program funds by St. Vincent de Paul Village, Inc. (St. Vincent de Paul Village), because it is a large organization receiving more than $4 million in grants annually. Our objective was to determine whether St. Vincent de Paul Village used supportive housing grants in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements and the grant agreements. St. Vincent de Paul Village…

We audited the City of Bethlehem's (City) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program as a result of a citizen complaint. Our audit objective was to determine whether the City administered its CDBG program in compliance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements. We focused our review on whether the City (1) had adequate internal controls over its management process, accounting, and data processing; (2) used…

We audited the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh's (Authority) administration of its leased housing under its Moving to Work Demonstration (Moving to Work) program as part of our fiscal year 2008 audit plan. This is our second audit report issued on the Authority's program. The audit objective addressed in this report was to determine whether the Authority ensured that its leased housing units met the U.S. Department of Housing and…

We audited the City of San Diego's (City) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program in response to a hotline complaint alleging that the City and its Redevelopment Agency (Agency) were violating U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rules and regulations. Our main objective was to address the citizen complaint and determine whether the City administered CDBG loans issued to the Agency in accordance with HUD rules and…

We audited the Delaware County Housing Authority's (Authority) administration of its housing quality standards inspection program for its Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program as part of our fiscal year 2008 audit plan. Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority ensured its program units met housing quality standards in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements. The Authority did not…

We reviewed the Alameda County HOME Investment Partnership Consortium's use of HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funds to determine whether it used its allocation of HOME funds in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rules and regulations. We performed the review because there was a high risk for noncompliance due to a lack of HUD monitoring since 2003. We found that the consortium used $5.6 million…

We audited the Area Housing Authority of the County of Ventura based on concerns over the Authority's compliance with its annual contributions contract. Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority fulfilled its Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes obligations for its Low Rent Public Housing program and if not, whether applicable funds were used in accordance with HUD requirements. We found that the Authority disregarded its Low Rent Public…

We audited the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles' (Authority) Section 8 housing quality standards inspections for its Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program. The objective of the audit was to determine whether the Authority adequately enforced HUD's housing quality standards. Using a statistical sample of 68 units, we determined 19 units (28 percent) were in material noncompliance with HUD's housing quality standards, and we found…

We audited the Housing Authority of the County of Marin's (Authority) Section 8 funds transfer and public housing program (program) tenant rent calculations. Our objectives were to determine (1) whether the transfer of Section 8 operating reserve funds to the public housing program in fiscal year 2006 was made in compliance with HUD regulations and (2) whether the Authority calculated public housing tenant rents in accordance with HUD…

We audited the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh's (Authority) administration of its housing assistance payments for leased housing under its Moving to Work Demonstration program agreement based on our analysis of various risk factors relating to housing authorities administering a leased housing program within our region. This is the first of two audit reports we plan to issue on the Authority's program. The audit objective addressed…

We audited the City of Los Angeles Housing Department (Department) as a result of an earlier audit of its HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) rehabilitation program, which detected problems with the Department's monitoring of HOME-assisted rental units. Our audit objective was to determine whether the Department complied with HOME affordability monitoring and inspection requirements regarding HOME-assisted rental units. We found the…