Homeownership is often referred to as the American dream—but the 2007-2009 financial crisis put it out of reach for many. Even in housing markets that have since recovered, many Americans still find themselves locked out of homeownership. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we examined homeownership trends from 2010-2018 in 9 U.S. cities and found: The homeownership rate declined or was flat in all...

The 2007-09 financial crisis resulted in millions of foreclosures and demographic changes—making renter households more common. We looked at declining rent affordability since then, but before COVID-19. Rent burden was most common and most severe among lower-income households, with most of the poorest households paying over half of their income to rent. Affordability has declined because the su...

By the end of 2018, over 4 million low-income households were being served by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s three largest rental assistance programs. HUD must ensure that housing units provided under these programs are safe and sanitary. However, in this statement for the congressional record we reported that HUD needs to improve its efforts to address lead paint hazards in...

HUD provides financial assistance to ensure that affordable rental housing is available for more than 2 million low- and moderate-income households. HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center contracts with inspectors to ensure that the properties are clean, safe, and in good repair. However, there are concerns that the physical inspection process is not identifying troubled properties effectively. Fo...

Developers can apply for federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to help them build affordable housing projects. The amount of credit depends largely on project costs. Project costs we looked at varied widely (shown below), and federal oversight of costs is limited. Federal and state agencies could use data on variables that affect cost—such as square footage and building type—to better monito...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) lead grant and rental assistance programs have taken steps to address lead paint hazards, but opportunities exist for improvement. For example, in 2016, HUD began using new tools to monitor how public housing agencies comply with lead paint regulations. However, HUD could further improve efforts in the following areas:Lead grant programs. W...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service (RHS) implemented an automated tool to estimate when properties could exit the rural rental housing program, but RHS lacked sufficient controls to ensure the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of those estimates. In 2016, RHS developed its Multi-Family Housing Property Preservation Tool to replace a manual process of estimating exit da...

The Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Health and Human Services (HHS) have collaborated on older adult housing and health issues, but these efforts did not fully demonstrate leading practices GAO identified for effective collaboration.The HUD-HHS efforts demonstrated some leading practices. For example, the agencies have written agreements for data-sharing projects and have le...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development‘s (HUD) oversight of the Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration has been limited. Improving oversight—particularly for information collection and analysis—would help HUD assess what MTW agencies have done, including funding use. HUD took steps to improve oversight and reporting, but GAO found limitations in the following areas:Workforce planning. ...

Public Housing Agencies (PHA) have reported various types of fraud schemes against Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) participants, including older adults, but were aware of limited instances of such schemes. Similarly, GAO identified few potential indicators of these schemes in online covert testing of rental ads and websites. According to GAO's analysis of fraud alerts and complaint data, the type of...

The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) increased its annual inspections of the meat and poultry industry from 177 in 2005 to 244 in 2016. OSHA officials told GAO that this increase was related to several new enforcement programs focusing on the poultry industry, as well as new reporting requirements that prompt additional inspections. However, OSHA faces cha...

While limitations in the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) data make an accurate assessment difficult, GAO estimates that roughly half of the 7,229 Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly (Section 202) properties have HUD-funded service coordinators—staff who link residents to supportive services such as transportation assistance or meals. HUD's data indicate that 38 per...

HUD seeks to help millions of Americans find quality, affordable housing through its rental assistance and other programs. Recipients of HUD funding, such as private owners of HUD-assisted housing, must meet regulations and may face inspections. If housing does not pass inspection, HUD employees may refer the case to its Departmental Enforcement Center for enforcement. Our review found ways the...

Allocating agencies that administer the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program have certain flexibilities for implementing program requirements and the agencies have done so in various ways. Although GAO found that allocating agencies generally have processes to meet requirements for allocating credits, reviewing costs, and monitoring projects, some of these practices raised concerns:More t...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) faces financial and risk-management challenges. For the fourth straight year, capital reserves for FHA's Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund are below the statutory minimum. Also, declining balances in the fund's capital reserve account have heightened the possibility that FHA will require additional funds to h...

 What GAO FoundFederal and state agencies implemented changes made in 2008 to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program by revising program guidance and modifying plans for allocating tax credits. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) implemented the changes made by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) by, among other things, issuing notices and revenue procedures. Program st...

While CRA should increase investor demand for LIHTCs, quantifying the extent of any effect of CRA on LIHTC equity contributions is difficult given data and methodological challenges. In part because of the qualitative nature of the CRA investment test, regulatory ratings cannot be systematically linked to banks' LIHTC investments. Although a bank's overall rating and the associated narrative of it...

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rely on VA medical centers (VAMC) and public housing agencies (PHA) that serve veterans directly to determine participant eligibility for the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program. VAMC staff GAO contacted said that they interview veterans interested in the HUD-VASH program to assess whether the ve...

Almost all public housing authorities (PHA) met their spending deadlines for the Public Housing Capital Fund formula and competitive grant programs. As mandated, all but one PHA spent 100 percent of their formula grants by March 17, 2012. According to Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) officials, PHAs with competitive grants were on track to meet their September 2012 spending deadli...

The Rural Housing Service (RHS) has identified improper rental assistance payments caused by certain sources of errors, but its reported error rate (total amount improperly paid divided by program outlays) may understate the magnitude of the problem. RHS has identified improper payments resulting from inaccurate calculations of tenant subsidies and incomplete supporting documents. From fiscal year...

Public housing agencies (PHA) that participate in the Moving to Work (MTW) program report annually on the performance of their activities, which include efforts to reduce administrative costs and encourage residents to work. But this performance information varies, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) guidance does not specify that it be quantifiable and outcome oriente...

Several factors—including rising rents, declining household incomes, and decisions to expand the number of assisted households—were key drivers of the approximately 29 percent increase (before inflation) in housing agencies’ expenditures for the voucher program between 2003 and 2010. Congress and HUD have taken steps to limit cost increases while maintaining assistance for existing...