GAO: HFAs, PFAs Performed Well with Recovery Act Funds

ThernAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) allotted $4rnbillion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) PublicrnHousing Capital Fund while Congress also created two programs to assist HousingrnFinance and Public Housing Agencies (HFAs and PHAs) to assist them to restartrnprojects that had stalled due to lack of funds. rnAt the request of HUD the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently undertookrna study to determine if those funds were spent on time and for the intendedrnpurposes.  The study also assessed thernquality of the job estimates reported by the program recipients. </p

GAO visited PHA and HFA sponsoredrnprojects in seven states and the District of Columbia, interviewed federal andrnlocal agency officials, evaluated HUD’s monitoring strategies as well as thosernof the Department of the Treasury which was responsible for all Recovery Actrnmoney, surveyed 56 HFAs, and analyzed recipient-reported data.</p

GAO reported that all PHAs meet their spendingrndeadlines under the programs and all but one PHA spent 100 percent of theirrngrants by the March 17, 2012 deadline. rnAbout 3,100 PHAs had submitted plans to undertake improvements with therngrants that affected about 495,000 housing units and many of the improvementsrnenhanced energy efficiency. GAO also found that HUD had incorporated keyrninternal controls that allowed them to compare actual with planned results.</p

All HFAs were also found to have met their severalrndeadlines.  Most reported that the fundsrnhelped restart stalled affordable housing projects that otherwise could notrnhave moved forward and most of those involved construction of new housingrnunits.</p

GAO recommended in their report that Treasury assessrnthe extent to which HFAs are utilizing information from project owners underrntheir purview to ensure the long term viability of buildings during the 15-yearrncompliance period while taking into account the owners equity in the projects.

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