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Department of Housing and Urban Development

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Open Recommendations (78 total)

Affordable Housing: Improvements Needed in HUD's Oversight of the Housing Trust Fund Program

GAO-23-105370
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development The Secretary of HUD should ensure that the Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development schedules and conducts a comprehensive assessment of HTF fraud risks in accordance with GAO's Fraud Risk Framework and HUD's fraud risk management policy. (Recommendation 4)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Mortgage Reforms: Actions Needed to Help Assess Effects of New Regulations

GAO-15-185
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development To enhance the effectiveness of its preparations for conducting a retrospective review of its QM regulations, HUD should develop a plan that identifies the metrics, baselines, and analytical methods to be used. Furthermore, to account for and help mitigate the limitations of existing data and the uncertain availability of enhanced datasets, HUD should include in its plan alternate metrics, baselines, and analytical methods that could be used data were to remain unavailable.
Open
In February 2017, HUD noted that it does not currently collect data on the annual percentage rate (APR) for each loan that would allow for a perfect comparison to the average prime offer rate. According to HUD, its Office of Housing has on its long-term list of systems priorities to collect specific information from the Uniform Closing Data that could be used to conduct such a comparison. However, HUD stated that it has not received adequate funding to meet these systems enhancements. According to HUD, it is considering the feasibility and potential utility of alternative data sources or the use of a proxy in an appropriate methodology. For instance, whether it may be possible to approximate the APR based upon the note rate and information on closing costs that is collected in the current data system, or alternatively, whether the APR could be obtained or approximated through matching Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data for FHA loans. In a September 2020 email, HUD officials stated that HUD has certain unique considerations for review of its own QM rule as compared to the other federal agencies covered in the GAO report. HUD officials explained that HUD's QM rule implemented certain changes intended to conform with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) rule and constituted only a small subset of FHA's overall requirements related to underwriting and loan characteristics. According to HUD officials, HUD's QM rule was intended to make conforming changes to FHA's requirements, as statutorily required, in order to bring them into greater alignment with the new CFPB-promulgated QM rule requirements. They stated that HUD assesses FHA loan performance on an ongoing basis through a variety of mechanisms including the annual audit requirement and monitoring of the overall market and mortgage portfolio. According to the HUD officials, these mechanisms are used to assess the need for adjustments in underwriting criteria and mortgage insurance premiums as well as to assess the health and risks to safety and soundness of the MMIF Fund. HUD officials said that given these considerations, there is no specific stand-alone full evaluation of the HUD QM rule planned at this time. There is no new action as of February 2024.

IT Modernization: HUD Needs to Improve Its Estimation and Oversight Practices for Single-Family Housing

GAO-21-459
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) should direct the Federal Housing Administration and the Office of the Chief Information Officer to revise the FHA Catalyst schedule estimate according to the newly developed guidance. (Recommendation 6)
Open
HUD agreed with the recommendation and in a November 2021 update stated that there were efforts underway to address the recommendation. Specifically, HUD intended to improve its schedule estimation and ensuring leading practices are followed for any new FHA Catalyst contract. In October 2022, HUD reported that it has taken steps to address this recommendation. Specifically, an IV&V contract was awarded to assist with schedule estimation and ensuring leading practices are followed. Additional efforts are underway and expected to be completed by 5/31/2023. We will continue to monitor the implementation of this recommendation.

Cybersecurity: Federal Agencies Made Progress, but Need to Fully Implement Incident Response Requirements

GAO-24-105658
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development should ensure that the agency fully implements all event logging requirements as directed by OMB guidance. (Recommendation 7)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Disaster Recovery: Better Information Is Needed on the Progress of Block Grant Funds

GAO-23-105295
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development The Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development should revise HUD's standard Quarterly Performance Report format and related guidance to ensure the reports provide clearer and more transparent information on the status of grantees' CDBG-DR activities. For example, the revised report format could include a summary of aggregated performance measures at the activity level. (Recommendation 1)
Open
On February 21, 2024, HUD said the development of a revised Quarterly Performance Report (QPR) format had been delayed because the contractor managing the system used for CDBG-DR had changed and the new contractor needed time to become familiar with the system and user needs. HUD expects a new QPR format to be implemented in 2025.

Real Estate Assessment Center: HUD Should Improve Physical Inspection Process and Oversight of Inspectors

GAO-19-254
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development The Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Real Estate Assessment Center should ensure that Quality Control's policies and procedures for overseeing quality assurance inspectors are implemented. (Recommendation 12)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Affordable Housing: Improvements Needed in HUD's Oversight of the Housing Trust Fund Program

GAO-23-105370
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development The Secretary of HUD should ensure that the Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development revises HUD's public reports on HTF to disclose that the amount of non-HTF funds may be underreported and that HTF units are only a portion of the total units in HTF-assisted projects. (Recommendation 5)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Lead Paint in Housing: HUD Should Strengthen Grant Processes, Compliance Monitoring, and Performance Assessment

GAO-18-394
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development The Director of the Lead Office should develop performance goals and measures to cover the full range of HUD's lead efforts, including its efforts to ensure that housing units in its rental assistance programs are lead-safe. (Recommendation 7)
Open
As of October 2023, HUD officials had not provided additional information to show the agency has taken actions in response to this recommendation. In March 2021, HUD officials told us they still were coordinating internally to develop performance goals and measures that cover HUD's lead efforts. HUD officials noted efforts had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to monitor HUD's effort to implement this recommendation.

IT Modernization: HUD Needs to Improve Its Estimation and Oversight Practices for Single-Family Housing

GAO-21-459
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) should direct the Federal Housing Administration and the Office of the Chief Information Officer to improve oversight practices for FHA Catalyst to ensure that they fully address leading practices for planning for program oversight and assessing program performance, including, but not limited to those for establishing processes, outlining responsibilities, requiring metrics for Agile performance, and balancing periodic program-wide assessments with monitoring progress. (Recommendation 7)
Open
HUD agreed with the recommendation and in a November 2021 update stated that there were efforts underway to address the recommendation. Specifically, HUD intended to implement improvements for each of the four program oversight areas. For example, the agency planned to ensure that documented policies are followed and updated to incorporate improvements. In addition, HUD planned to ensure that all projects are appropriately staffed and supported. In October 2022, HUD reported that it has taken steps to address this recommendation. Specifically, an IV&V contract was awarded to assist with ensuring leading practices are followed. Additional efforts are underway and expected to be completed by 5/31/2023. We will continue to monitor the implementation of this recommendation.

Federal Software Licenses: Agencies Need to Take Action to Achieve Additional Savings

GAO-24-105717
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development The Secretary of HUD should ensure that the agency tracks software licenses that are currently in use for its widely used licenses by, at a minimum, developing and implementing procedures for tracking license usage. (Recommendation 5)
Open
The Department of Housing and Urban Development neither agreed nor disagreed with this recommendation. In comments to the draft report, an Audit Liaison Officer from the Office of the Chief Information Officer stated that it is in process of remediating the issue to develop and implement procedures for comparing the inventories of licenses in use to purchase records. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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