HUD OIG is auditing the changing hazard insurance market on FHA borrowers and FHA. Our review will involve the review of hazard insurance cost data from January 1, 2018, through July 31, 2024, in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and California overlayed with FEMA high-risk disaster maps and risk exposure associated with FHA insured homes in those states. Our objective is to assess the impact of the changing hazard insurance market on FHA borrowers and the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. 

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Multifamily Housing Programs’ efforts to address multifamily mortgage application processing delays.  When applications for these loans are delayed, it slows the production and availability of affordable multifamily housing units.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, HUD took action to eliminate a backlog of over 500 applications waiting to be assigned to underwriters for review.

We audited HUD’s management of its FHA appraiser roster to determine whether the roster was accurate and reliable.  We selected this review because a prior audit identified weaknesses related to roster oversight and because this topic aligns with HUD’s strategic goals related to promoting home ownership and strengthening its internal capacity, as well as increased interest in the appraisal process.  HUD’s FHA appraiser roster was generally reliable.  HUD’s system controls prevented ineligible appraisers from being assigned appraisals on FHA-insured properties.  Though

HUD OIG is auditing HUD’s monitoring of its Field Service Management (FSM) property preservation and protection services. Our review will involve the assessment of 80 monitoring sample items and cover the period of November 1, 2022, through October 31, 2023. The objective of our audit is to determine if HUD adequately monitored its Field Service Management contractors’ property preservation and protection services. 

Servicers followed the COVID-19 pandemic foreclosure moratorium requirements.  However, they could have better communicated the moratorium requirements to delinquent borrowers who were subject to foreclosure proceedings.  This situation occurred because HUD did not require servicers to notify borrowers directly about the foreclosure moratorium and that occupancy would pause the foreclosure process.  Borrowers who were not informed about the moratorium or impacts of vacancy could have abandoned their homes, not realizing that remaining in the home would have afforded them additio

We are auditing HUD’s Moving to Work (MTW) Demonstration program. This review will focus on MTW public housing agencies’ (PHA) flexibilities (programmatic and funding) to meet the MTW’s statutory requirements and achieve statutory objectives for the period of January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2023.

We audited the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Office of Asset Sales’ U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-Held Vacant Loan Sales (HVLS) program.  The audit objective was to assess the extent to which HUD achieved its mission objectives for a 2022 vacant loan sale.  We noted deficiencies in 52 of 53 HUD-approved applications within the reviewed vacant loan sale.  These deficiencies occurred in transactions for all seven purchasers that purchased loans in the sales.

HUD OIG is auditing public housing authorities' controls over source of income discrimination. As of February 2023, 20 states have passed laws prohibiting discrimination against voucher holders by officially designing source of income as a protected class. The audit objective is to assess the extent to which public housing authorities have implemented controls to prevent and combat source of income discrimination. 

HUD OIG is reviewing a housing authority in Puerto Rico. The authority owns and manages public housing units to serve low-income families. Our audit objective is to determine whether the Authority adequately managed lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards in its public housing.

HUD OIG is auditing HUD’s Office of Housing Counseling. HUD’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan identified housing counseling as one of the strategies it would employ to achieve its strategic objective to advance sustainable homeownership. Our objective is to assess HUD’s processes for achieving its goal through pre- and post-purchase homeownership counseling, including the assessment of its use of performance metrics and the collection and use of counseling outcome data.