Finding more flaws in HUD’s accounting of HOME program

The calls started in mid-May, two weeks before a looming congressional hearing.

Staff members across the vast U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development were racing to check in with hundreds of local agencies to determine the status of housing construction projects for the poor.

Within days, the massive scramble came to a conclusion: HUD told Congress that its $32 billion HOME Investment Partnerships Program was doing just fine.

Those findings followed reports by The Washington Post that HUD had routinely failed to track the progress of its affordable housing projects and that hundreds of deals involving hundreds of millions of dollars showed signs of delay or appeared to be in limbo. HUD officials defended the program, saying most projects are successfully completed.

But HUD’s attempt to demonstrate that success to Congress resulted in reports to lawmakers that, to judge by federal records and interviews with dozens of local housing agencies in charge of the projects, contain discrepancies and contradictions that suggest continuing problems with the program.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/finding-more-flaws-in-huds-accounting-of-home-program/2011/10/13/gIQAkTlctM_singlePage.html