We selected the State of California’s 2018 disaster owner-occupied rehabilitation and reconstruction program to audit after an internal risk assessment of disaster grantees showed the grant was newer and had not yet disbursed the majority of its funding.  The State received more than $1 billion for the 2018 disasters.  Our audit objective was to determine what the State is considering and to what extent resilience-based mitigation efforts help…

We audited the Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority’s public housing program based on significant deficiencies noted during our prior audit of the Authority.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority complied with Federal and its own requirements for procuring goods and services. The Authority did not always comply with Federal and its own procurement requirements.  Specifically, for the contracts reviewed, it did not always (…

We audited the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program.  The audit was initiated because of the homelessness crisis in the City of Los Angeles, which has the highest number of unsheltered people in the United States.  In addition, the Los Angeles city controller issued a report in 2019, criticizing the Authority for falling short of City of Los Angeles homeless outreach goals.  (See Background and Objectives.) …

We audited Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County’s (NHSLA) Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2).  The audit was based on a complaint alleging questionable NSP2 financial activity, double payments to contractors, and payments to contractors for incomplete work.  Our Office of Audit received the referred complaint in late 2018.  However, because the complaint included concerns regarding activities and auditee actions from at…

We audited the City of Compton’s Neighborhood Stabilization Programs (NSP) 1 and 3 due to a referral made by our Office of Investigation because of concerns related to ongoing issues at the City and complaints received about the City’s administration of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds.  In addition, HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development rated the City as high risk for administering program funds in…

We audited the Los Angeles County Development Authority’s Family Self-Sufficiency Program due to a hotline complaint (HC-2019-4215) alleging that the Authority did not use its program funds in compliance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements.  Our audit objectives were to determine whether the Authority met its program goals and objectives to assist eligible families in becoming self-sufficient and administered…

We audited the Housing Authority of the City Long Beach’s Housing Choice Voucher Program based on a referral from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Public Housing due to concerns regarding its financial activity control weaknesses.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether the Authority administered its Housing Choice Voucher Program in accordance with Program requirements, with an…

We audited Community Action North Bay’s Continuum of Care Program based on hotline complaints (HC-2016-2275 and HT-2019-1142) and concerns expressed by the San Francisco Office of Community Planning and Development that included matching noncompliance issues.  The complaints alleged improper accounting, timekeeping irregularities, unreported program income, and conflicts of interest.  Our objective was to determine whether the Community…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted HUD’s Office of Program Enforcement in a civil investigation of Pacific Horizon Bancorp, Inc., and two former loan officers at Pacific Horizon.  Pacific Horizon has its principal place of business in La Crescenta, CA. Based on OIG’s civil investigation, on April 2, 2019, HUD notified Pacific Horizon and the two loan officers that it believed…

We audited PK Management, LLC, based on (1) media coverage of problems associated with Essex Village, an apartment complex in Virginia that it managed, and (2) issues identified in our prior audit of PK Management in Birmingham, AL.  Our audit objective was to determine whether PK Management assisted eligible tenants and maintained documentation to support the housing assistance payments it received for residents of the properties it managed in…

We audited the Housing Authority of the County of San Diego’s intergovernmental agreement due to the results of our completed internal auditability survey of public housing agencies with intergovernmental agreements.  The auditability survey identified public housing authorities with intergovernmental agreements for potential external reviews due to a recent external audit the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (audit report 2018-LA-…

We audited the Compton Housing Authority’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, based on a referral from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Public Housing, due to concerns regarding its financial activity control weaknesses.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether the Authority administered its Housing Choice Voucher Program in accordance with program requirements, with an emphasis on its…

We audited the Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles’ intergovernmental agreements due to our Public and Indian Housing Intergovernmental Agreements Auditability Survey.  The objective of that review was to identify public housing agencies with intergovernmental agreements for potential external reviews due to a previous audit (audit report 2018-LA-1008), which identified the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles as not always…

We audited the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino’s Continuum of Care grant funds received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  We audited the Authority because it is among the top 15 percent of competitive grantees in HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development’s risk analysis.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority administered its Continuum of Care grants in accordance…

We audited the Housing Authority of the County of Stanislaus’ Shelter Plus Care program based on a hotline complaint and concerns expressed by the San Francisco Office of Community Planning and Development regarding the Authority’s lack of documentation to support participant eligibility.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority documented participant eligibility related to homelessness and disability in accordance with Shelter Plus…

We audited the City of San Bernardino, CA’s HOME Investment Partnerships program.  We audited the City based on the Region 9 Office of Inspector General’s 2016 risk analysis of Los Angeles area community planning and development grantees.  In addition, although the County of San Bernardino had been administering the City’s recent HOME grants, the City still had several of its own HOME activities underway and others that had closed within the…

We audited Rainbow Terrace Apartments based on our analysis of risk factors related to multifamily projects in Region 5’s jurisdiction and the activities included in our fiscal year 2018 annual audit plan.  Our objective was to determine whether the project’s owner and management agent operated the project in accordance with the regulatory agreement and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) requirements. The project’s…

We audited the Housing Authority of City of Los Angeles’ legal services due to a hotline complaint alleging that the Authority did not properly procure its legal services and alleging questionable legal expenses that violated U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority procured, contracted, and managed its legal services in compliance with HUD requirements. The…

We audited Hamilton County’s subrecipient agreement with People Working Cooperatively, Inc. (corporation), for a Community Development Block Grant-funded housing repair services program based on a request from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Columbus Office of Community Planning and Development concerning information the Office received regarding the program, which it did not have the resources to review.  The audit…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant code enforcement program due to results from our external audits, which showed that grantees did not adequately understand and failed to ensure compliance with program requirements.  Our audit objective was to determine (1) whether HUD’s code enforcement guidance under its Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) Notice CPD-14-016…