We recommend that the General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing require the Real Estate Assessment Center in coordination with the Office of Field Operations to develop and implement a plan to manage lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards in public housing.

We recommend that the General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing require the Real Estate Assessment Center in coordination with the Office of Field Operations to implement adequate procedures and controls to ensure that public housing agencies appropriately identify and control lead-based paint and eliminate lead-based paint hazards in public housing.

We recommend that the General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing require the Real Estate Assessment Center in coordination with the Office of Field Operations to determine whether the public housing agencies identified as having lead-based paint hazards in their housing developments maintain and implement a plan for managing lead-based paint. For any public housing agency that does not have a plan for the management of lead-based paint in its public housing developments, as appropriate, HUD should inform the public housing agency that it should develop and implement its own plan.

Improve controls over the proper execution and recording of all declaration of trust documents.

Implement controls to ensure that it does not enter into future third-party agreements unless the Authority follows applicable requirements in Notice PIH 2017-24 (HA), the annual contributions contract, 24 CFR Part 970, and the United States Housing Act of 1937.

Implement controls to ensure that future disposition proceeds are properly accounted for and used only for planned, approved purposes.

Place the Authority onto a zero threshold review process, requiring that all draws for funds go through field office review until the Authority completes all actions needed to close recommendations 1A through 1H.

Provide technical assistance to the Authority regarding the deficiencies identified with the rooftop lease and related proceeds, and Federal requirements for property disposition.

Review any ongoing time-and-materials contracts and if requirements were not followed, remedy the noncompliance or reprocure the contracts to ensure compliance with HUD requirements.

Ensure that all Authority staff members working with procurements and contract administration receive procurement training on applicable requirements, including the requirements related to cost reasonableness, contract types, the number of bids or quotations, contract provisions, and maintaining documentation to show the history of procurements.

Establish and implement adequate record-keeping procedures to comply with applicable procurement requirements, including a register of all contracts with key information and a checklist for each procurement action, to ensure that it completes required steps and receives all required documentation.

We recommend that HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Housing and Voucher Programs update its compliance monitoring guidance to include a requirement for personnel to review PHAs reasonable accommodations policies and procedures.

We recommend that HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Housing and Voucher Programs update and consolidate requests for reasonable accommodation policies and procedures to ensure that there is centralized guidance available for the field offices and PHAs.

We recommend that HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Housing and Voucher Programs require that PHAs track requests for reasonable accommodation, including the date of the request, the type of request, and the disposition and date of any action taken that should be made available to HUD at its request.

We recommend that HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Housing and Voucher Programs review the joint agreement between HUD PIH and FHEO, including the Section 504 checklist, and modify, update, or recommit to it to ensure that the role of PIH and the responsibility for conducting civil rights front-end reviews is clearly defined.

We recommend that HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Housing and Voucher Programs ensure that personnel receive training on how to conduct the civil rights front-end reviews, including a review of PHAs reasonable accommodation policies and procedures.

Work with the Authority to determine whether the buildings represent an imminent threat to public safety from physical deterioration and whether activities to control the situation would be exempt under the Part 58 environmental review process or excluded under the Part 50 environmental review process. If it qualifies, require the Authority to immediately take actions necessary to control the imminent threat to public safety before the full environmental review is done.

Determine whether it would be beneficial for HUD to conduct a Part 50 environmental review of the development or if the Authority should conduct a Part 58 environmental review, and implement the decision to ensure that the environmental review is conducted as soon as possible as required under the action plan.

Continue to provide training and technical assistance to ensure that the Authority understands relevant requirements for the various asset repositioning options, including milestone and disposition requirements.

Provide certifications and supporting documentation to show that it has identified and addressed urgent health and safety issues at the development, such as flooded stairwells, accessible crawlspaces, and unsecured windows and doors.