Federal fine print on the crises of our age
Extra tragedy and absurdity in recent housing-related federal announcements:
- HUD's Office of Inspector General (OIG) says federal housing officials have wasted almost $10 million by overrating the security importance of their own projects. Other recent HUD OIG audits include a favorable review of HUD's Mark-to-Market oversight at an Illinois project called Evergreen Terrace. And three more are new out today: lukewarm praise for Albuquerque Sec. 8, unhappiness with the Mt. Vernon Urban Renewal Agency's voucher program, and thorough disgust with single-family loan origination at American Mortgage, Inc. This last being yet another OIG report finding carelessness or worse among lenders trusted by HUD to judge individual homebuyers' worthiness for FHA mortgage insurance. These reports cumulatively induce trembling for the future of the insurance fund. Seriously, look up "insurance" on the OIG search page and look at the newer results, you'll see what I mean.
- Although the Katrina Disaster Housing Assistance Program (KDHAP) has been replaced by the new Disaster Voucher Program, HUD just today published an announcement of some $8.3 million in KDHAP grants to local housing authorities helping hurricane survivors.
- The IRS has written up the rules for energy efficiency credits to homebuilders under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. See Notices 2006-27 and, for manufactured housing, 2006-28. There's a three-story limit on the height of the building but it looks like there's no limit on the number of units. [MORE: Treasury Secretary press conference on same today.]
- There's a reminder of current horrors in today's reissue of Form HUD-40076-LGA, "Loan Guarantee Assistance for Places of Worship and Other Nonprofit Institutions Damaged by Acts of Arson or Terrorism."
- HUD's Office of Inspector General (OIG) says federal housing officials have wasted almost $10 million by overrating the security importance of their own projects. Other recent HUD OIG audits include a favorable review of HUD's Mark-to-Market oversight at an Illinois project called Evergreen Terrace. And three more are new out today: lukewarm praise for Albuquerque Sec. 8, unhappiness with the Mt. Vernon Urban Renewal Agency's voucher program, and thorough disgust with single-family loan origination at American Mortgage, Inc. This last being yet another OIG report finding carelessness or worse among lenders trusted by HUD to judge individual homebuyers' worthiness for FHA mortgage insurance. These reports cumulatively induce trembling for the future of the insurance fund. Seriously, look up "insurance" on the OIG search page and look at the newer results, you'll see what I mean.
- Although the Katrina Disaster Housing Assistance Program (KDHAP) has been replaced by the new Disaster Voucher Program, HUD just today published an announcement of some $8.3 million in KDHAP grants to local housing authorities helping hurricane survivors.
- The IRS has written up the rules for energy efficiency credits to homebuilders under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. See Notices 2006-27 and, for manufactured housing, 2006-28. There's a three-story limit on the height of the building but it looks like there's no limit on the number of units. [MORE: Treasury Secretary press conference on same today.]
- There's a reminder of current horrors in today's reissue of Form HUD-40076-LGA, "Loan Guarantee Assistance for Places of Worship and Other Nonprofit Institutions Damaged by Acts of Arson or Terrorism."
posted by Martha Bridegam at 10:58 AM
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