We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) partial claim option because we noted issues in the postclaim review process during a previous partial claim audit.1 Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate controls over its postclaim reviews and adequate policies in place to ensure that servicers properly understood the…

We audited the New York State Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Assistance (CDBG-DR) funded New York Rising Housing Recovery Program to address the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act requirement that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, monitor the expenditure of CDBG-DR funds.  State officials allocated more than $1 billion in CDBG-DR funds to the Housing Recovery…

We audited the New York Rising Home Enhanced Buyout Program to address the requirement that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, monitor the expenditure of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds made available by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act.  Our audit objective was to determine whether New York State officials established adequate controls to ensure that…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that 33 borrowers had more than 1 loan under the program.  Having multiple loans violated program requirements because HUD requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence and borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at the same time.  We…

We audited First Source Bank, a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) supervised lender located in South Bend, IN.  We selected First Source based on our analysis of risk factors of single-family loan servicers in Region 5’s jurisdiction4.   Our audit objectives were to determine whether First Source (1) consistently and appropriately applied loss mitigation options for eligible borrowers, (2) accurately reported the default and…

We audited Member First Mortgage, Limited Liability Company, a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) nonsupervised servicer as part of the activities in our fiscal year 2015 annual audit plan.  We selected Member First based upon our analysis of risk factors for single-family servicing lenders in Region 5’s jurisdiction.   Our audit objectives were to determine whether (1) Member First complied with the U.S. Department of Housing…

HUD OIG assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois, in the investigation of Lakeview Sheridan, LLC, and Fremont Sheridan Properties.  Lakeview Sheridan is a multifamily property located in Chicago, IL, and Fremont Sheridan was the management company for Lakeview Sheridan.  Under section 223(f) of the National Housing Act, HUD insured the mortgage on Lakeview Sheridan in May 2006 through its Federal Housing…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG) assisted in an investigation into alleged violations of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) regulations by Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corporation and Home America Mortgage, Inc.  The investigation included a qui tam action filed under the False Claims Act in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.  The False…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that 33 borrowers had more than 1 loan under the program.  Having multiple loans violated program requirements because HUD requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence and borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at the same time.  We…

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an audit of Opportunity in Living (OIL), Centennial, CO’s participation in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Single Family Property Disposition program.  Our audit objective was to determine whether OIL’s purchase of HUD-owned homes during the exclusive listing period violated HUD regulations at 24 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Part 291.  We determined that…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Greensboro, NC, Office of Community Planning and Development’s approval of the City of High Point’s use of a 15 percent cost estimate margin.  The objective of this review was to determine whether HUD knowingly allowed the City to use the 15 percent margin.  HUD’s Greensboro, NC, Office of Community Planning and Development allowed the City to use the 15 percent…

We audited Broward County’s Continuum of Care Program, which was awarded more than $21 million in the 2011 through 2013 grant years. The objectives were to determine whether Broward County (1) spent grant funds for eligible program activities and ensured that expenditures were sufficiently supported and (2) maintained sufficient documentation to support that the funding sources used to match the grant funds were eligible. Broward County…

We audited the City of West Covina’s Community Development Block Grant program because of a news article 1  raising concerns about the City’s financial policies and past spending practices that included the mismanagement of funds.  The review was also the first time that the Office of Inspector General had conducted a review of the City.  Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its program in accordance with…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Multifamily Asset Management and Portfolio Oversight.  We initiated the audit under the HUD Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) annual audit plan.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD adequately monitored its management agents to ensure that front line costs and direct costs were not excessive across the portfolios as identified in audits…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program based on our strategic objective to protect the integrity of housing insurance and guarantee programs and because of residency issues identified in prior audits of the HECM program.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD’s Office of Single Family Housing had effective controls to ensure that HECM loan…

We audited Prudential Huntoon Paige Associates, LTD’s underwriting of a $22.8 million mortgage loan to refinance Lafayette Towers Apartments, a 584-unit highrise multifamily project in Detroit, MI.  We initiated the review based on the early default, assignment, and significant amount of the project.  Our objective was to determine whether Prudential underwrote and processed the loan for Lafayette Towers according to the U.S.…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) administration of the HOME Investment Partnerships Program’s matching requirements to determine whether CPD effectively reviewed participating jurisdictions’ match logs and the support for their match contributions and whether it applied the correct match reductions in fiscal year 2013.…

We completed a review of Hudson County, NJ’s administration of its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program based on a risk analysis performed by the Office of Inspector General (OIG).  The objective of the audit was to determine whether County officials had established and implemented controls to ensure that the County administered its CDBG program in accordance with program requirements. Our review determined that Hudson County’s…

We reviewed the City of Moore, OK, because it received $52.2 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding in response to the tornado that struck Moore on May 20, 2013.  Further, the City only recently became a CDBG entitlement grantee, and there was a substantial increase between its regular CDBG funding and its CDBG-DR funding.  Also, our annual audit plan placed a priority on reviewing entities…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General audited Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, LLC’s underwriting of the loan to fund the renovation of the Temtor project in St. Louis, MO.  We initiated this audit because the project failed quickly after completion, resulting in a large loss to the Federal Housing Administration insurance fund.  Our audit objective was to determine whether Berkadia properly…