FINDING # 2022-001 SPECIAL TESTS AND PROVISIONS- ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINANTS TESTING AND REMEDIATION ? MATERIAL WEAKNESS PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING (ALN # 14.850) CONTRACT #: NOT AVAILABLE FEDERAL AGENCY: PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 1. CRITERIA Special Tests and Provisions - Environmental Contaminants Testing and Remediation As stated in the April 2022 Compliance Supplement, Public Housing must be decent, safe, sanitary, and in good repair. Public Housing Authority?s (PHA) must maintain such housing in a manner that meets the physical condition standards set forth in 24 CFR section 5.703 in order to be considered decent, safe, sanitary, and in good repair. Those standards address the major areas of the public housing: the site; the building exterior; the building systems; the dwelling units; the common areas; and health and safety considerations. Health and safety considerations require that all areas and components of the housing must be free of health and safety hazards. These areas include, but are not limited to, air quality, electrical hazards, elevators, emergency/fire exits, flammable materials, garbage and debris, handrail hazards, infestation, and lead-based paint. The housing must have no evidence of infestation by rats, mice, or other vermin, or of garbage and debris. The housing must have no evidence of electrical hazards, natural hazards, or fire hazards. The dwelling units and common areas must have proper ventilation and be free of mold, odor (e.g., propane, natural gas, methane gas), or other indoor air hazards such as radon. The housing must comply with all requirements related to the evaluation and reduction of lead-based paint hazards and have available proper certifications of such (see 24 CFR Part 35). For the period under audit, the PHA is required to test for and remediate environmental contaminates including but not limited to lead-based paint, radon gas, and mold to ensure that public housing met the physical condition standards for health and safety considerations set forth in 24 CFR section 5.703. 2. CONDITION/PERSPECTIVE The New York City Housing Authority (the ?Authority?) performs environmental contaminates testing and remediation including but not limited to Lead-based paint, Mold, Pest Control, Elevators, Heating and Annual Apartment Inspections. To track compliance with the Agreement executed on January 31, 2019 by and among the Authority, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (?HUD?) and the U.S. Attorney?s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and The City Of New York (the ?HUD Agreement?), the Authority maintains monthly inspection reports for the various inspections performed and provides that information to HUD, the SDNY and the Federal Monitor appointed under the HUD Agreement. Deloitte obtained the bi-annual lead-based paint compliance reports from the Authority and for the Period from February 2022 through July 2022 and August 2022 through December, 2022, we read extermination, heat outage, mold inspections, annual apartment inspections, and elevator outage reports for the months of February 2022; April 2022; July 2022; September 2022 and November 2022.. During our audit, we noted that the Authority did not complete all corrective actions in the 2022 audit period and is in the process of addressing these issues. 3. CAUSE Some environmental contaminates were not remediated in the 2022 audit period. 4. EFFECT The Public and Indian Housing, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) may consider the Authority non-compliant with the HUD Grant Agreement and withhold or reduce future Federal funding. Notably, HUD has signed a settlement agreement due to environmental health and safety issues on NYCHA properties and NYCHA is in the process of implementing the terms of the settlement agreement. 5. REPEAT FINDING YES During our 2022 audit, we made additional selections and noted that the Authority did not complete all corrective actions in the 2022 audit period. 6. RECOMMENDATION We recommend that the Authority continue to ensure that all environmental contaminates are properly remediated during the audit period through the HUD Agreement. 7. QUESTIONED COST None. 8. VIEWS OF RESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL In January 2019, the Authority entered into the HUD Agreement to address building conditions, including conditions related to lead-based paint, mold, pests, elevators, and heating. Among other things, the HUD Agreement appointed a federal Monitor and established three new Departments ? Compliance, Environmental Health & Safety, and Quality Assurance. It also required the promulgation of action plans around these health and safety issues and other items. These action plans are publicly available at https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nycha/about/reports.page, along with other reports on health and safety issues, which detail the Authority?s efforts to inspect for and correct deficiencies associated with environmental contaminants like lead-based paint and mold. The Authority plans to continue to work to address these health and safety issues, and to work towards meeting the multi-year obligations laid out in the HUD agreement in addition to the action plans. NYCHA has recorded $3,808,843,000 of pollution remediation obligations as of December 31, 2022, which relates to costs to inspect for and correct deficiencies associated with environmental contaminants.
FINDING # 2022-002 SPECIAL TESTS AND PROVISIONS- INSURANCE PROCEEDS ? COMPLIANCE- INTERNAL CONTROL DEFICIENCY PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING (ALN # 14.850) CONTRACT #: NOT AVAILABLE FEDERAL AGENCY: PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 1. CRITERIA Special Tests and Provisions ? Insurance Proceeds As stated in the April 2022 Compliance Supplement, a Public Housing Agency (PHA) is required to use insurance proceeds to promptly restore, reconstruct, and/or repair any damaged or destroyed property of a project, except when a PHA has written approval from HUD to do otherwise. Unspent insurance proceeds normally are recorded as restricted cash or restricted investments on the Financial Data Schedules (FDS) up to the amount of the repair. In cases of unforeseeable and unpreventable emergencies that include damages to the physical structure of the housing stock, PHAs are allowed to use their Operating Funds to cover the expenses associated with the damages. A PHA?s insurance may cover the damages fully or partially, however, it usually takes time for the PHA to receive the insurance proceeds. Once received, the PHA must reimburse its operating account for any expenses that were initially covered with Operating Funds up to the amount received. If the amount of the insurance proceeds is less than the cost of the repair and the PHA elected to use Operating Funds to cover the difference, the PHA is not allowed to draw down capital funds to reimburse the Low Rent program. 2. CONDITION/PERSPECTIVE The Authority received insurance proceeds to cover catastrophic loss affecting a myriad of locations. The insurance recovery was promulgated on emergency repairs and post-events, many of which were not initiated or needed due to internal fixes. During our review of the insurance proceeds compliance, we noted that the Authority did not document repair expenditures for loss affecting myriad locations and could not correlate one-to-one expenditures to the insurance proceeds in a timely manner from when the insurance proceeds were received. 3. CAUSE The Authority did not correlate one-to-one expenditures to the insurance proceeds received on a timely basis. 4. EFFECT There is the potential that some allowable expenditures under commercial insurance related to a disaster may not be recovered from insurers, including but not limited to ordinary payroll costs utilized to make in house repairs and replacement cost adjustments. 5. REPEAT FINDING No 6. RECOMMENDATION We recommend that the Authority correlate one-to-one expenditures to the insurance proceeds received on a timely basis. 7. QUESTIONED COST Cannot be determined. 8. VIEWS OF RESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL All good faith efforts to correlate emergency expenditures from insurance proceeds will be made in order to capture vendor work on a timelier basis. Catastrophic events (resulting in insurable claims such as the Hurricane Ida related claim selected in Deloitte?s testing) are complicated as the focus is primarily on restoring critical services in many developments, usually located in all five boroughs. The proceeds thus far received were estimated via inspection and the insurance claim remains open for more permanent pricing and repair. Such a claim often takes years to finalize as work scope is prepared and agreed to by insurers? representatives and the Authority. The emergency proceeds received have been used as needed for more repairs requiring them. As identified in the audit, much of the emergency work to date on Hurricane Ida was performed internally by staff at the sites, which did not generate transparent repair expenses. Management will take action, within limitations described above, to improve the correlation of expenditures to the insurance proceeds received on a timelier basis. In order to accomplish, will rely on the Authority?s Asset & Capital Management Department to provide timely work scope to assist in the correlation of more permanent expenditures.
FINDING # 2022-003 ELIGIBILITY ? DEFICIENCY - COMPLIANCE PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING (ALN # 14.850) CONTRACT #: NOT AVAILABLE FEDERAL AGENCY: PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 1. CRITERIA Eligibility for Individuals - Most PHAs devise their own application forms that are filled out by the PHA staff during an interview with the tenant. The head of household signs (a) a certification that the information provided to the PHA is correct; (b) one or more release forms to allow the PHA to get information from third parties; (c) a federally prescribed general release form for employment information; and (d) a privacy notice. Under some circumstances, other members of the family may be required to sign these forms (24 CFR sections 5.212, 5.230, and 5.601 through 5.615). 2. CONDITION/PERSPECTIVE The Authority received funding from the Public and Indian Housing Operating Fund. The Public and Indian Housing program is to provide and operate cost effective, decent, safe, and affordable dwellings for lower income families through an authorized local PHA. Of the sixty (60) case files selected for testing in which 540 pieces of audit evidence (eligibility forms as noted in the Criteria section above) were requested to be provided: ? Five eligibility forms were not provided (3 missing application forms and 2 missing release forms). These forms are required documentation to be maintained in the case files to support eligibility for Public and Indian Housing. Therefore, we were not able to determine if the eligible participants met all the eligibility criteria. 3. CAUSE The Authority did not ensure that all required eligibility forms were obtained from the tenants and included in the case files timely. 4. EFFECT The Public and Indian Housing, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development may consider the Authority non-compliant with the eligibility requirements. 5. REPEAT FINDING No 6. RECOMMENDATION We recommend the Authority strengthen its controls over the Public and Indian Housing ? Operating Fund case files to ensure that all eligibility forms are received, reviewed, and maintained in the case files to support the determination of eligibility. 7. QUESTIONED COST Cannot be determined. 8. VIEWS OF RESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL In January 2011, NYCHA implemented the Siebel Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, which included digital file storage and an online application process, which replaced our previous paper application process. Any applications in process from that date onward were subject to document scanning and documentation was stored digitally. Any applications processed prior to this date were kept in a paper format and stored at the development, where the applicant was certified or where the tenant resides. If a tenant family transferred to another development, the physical tenant folder and documents were sent to their new location. In June 2020, NYCHA sought to digitize all tenant folders; however, the cost of the project was determined to be prohibitive so the goal of digitizing the tenant folders was not realized. Any documents damaged or lost prior to 2011 cannot be recovered, including those impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
FINDING # 2022-001 SPECIAL TESTS AND PROVISIONS- ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINANTS TESTING AND REMEDIATION ? MATERIAL WEAKNESS PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING (ALN # 14.850) CONTRACT #: NOT AVAILABLE FEDERAL AGENCY: PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 1. CRITERIA Special Tests and Provisions - Environmental Contaminants Testing and Remediation As stated in the April 2022 Compliance Supplement, Public Housing must be decent, safe, sanitary, and in good repair. Public Housing Authority?s (PHA) must maintain such housing in a manner that meets the physical condition standards set forth in 24 CFR section 5.703 in order to be considered decent, safe, sanitary, and in good repair. Those standards address the major areas of the public housing: the site; the building exterior; the building systems; the dwelling units; the common areas; and health and safety considerations. Health and safety considerations require that all areas and components of the housing must be free of health and safety hazards. These areas include, but are not limited to, air quality, electrical hazards, elevators, emergency/fire exits, flammable materials, garbage and debris, handrail hazards, infestation, and lead-based paint. The housing must have no evidence of infestation by rats, mice, or other vermin, or of garbage and debris. The housing must have no evidence of electrical hazards, natural hazards, or fire hazards. The dwelling units and common areas must have proper ventilation and be free of mold, odor (e.g., propane, natural gas, methane gas), or other indoor air hazards such as radon. The housing must comply with all requirements related to the evaluation and reduction of lead-based paint hazards and have available proper certifications of such (see 24 CFR Part 35). For the period under audit, the PHA is required to test for and remediate environmental contaminates including but not limited to lead-based paint, radon gas, and mold to ensure that public housing met the physical condition standards for health and safety considerations set forth in 24 CFR section 5.703. 2. CONDITION/PERSPECTIVE The New York City Housing Authority (the ?Authority?) performs environmental contaminates testing and remediation including but not limited to Lead-based paint, Mold, Pest Control, Elevators, Heating and Annual Apartment Inspections. To track compliance with the Agreement executed on January 31, 2019 by and among the Authority, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (?HUD?) and the U.S. Attorney?s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and The City Of New York (the ?HUD Agreement?), the Authority maintains monthly inspection reports for the various inspections performed and provides that information to HUD, the SDNY and the Federal Monitor appointed under the HUD Agreement. Deloitte obtained the bi-annual lead-based paint compliance reports from the Authority and for the Period from February 2022 through July 2022 and August 2022 through December, 2022, we read extermination, heat outage, mold inspections, annual apartment inspections, and elevator outage reports for the months of February 2022; April 2022; July 2022; September 2022 and November 2022.. During our audit, we noted that the Authority did not complete all corrective actions in the 2022 audit period and is in the process of addressing these issues. 3. CAUSE Some environmental contaminates were not remediated in the 2022 audit period. 4. EFFECT The Public and Indian Housing, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) may consider the Authority non-compliant with the HUD Grant Agreement and withhold or reduce future Federal funding. Notably, HUD has signed a settlement agreement due to environmental health and safety issues on NYCHA properties and NYCHA is in the process of implementing the terms of the settlement agreement. 5. REPEAT FINDING YES During our 2022 audit, we made additional selections and noted that the Authority did not complete all corrective actions in the 2022 audit period. 6. RECOMMENDATION We recommend that the Authority continue to ensure that all environmental contaminates are properly remediated during the audit period through the HUD Agreement. 7. QUESTIONED COST None. 8. VIEWS OF RESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL In January 2019, the Authority entered into the HUD Agreement to address building conditions, including conditions related to lead-based paint, mold, pests, elevators, and heating. Among other things, the HUD Agreement appointed a federal Monitor and established three new Departments ? Compliance, Environmental Health & Safety, and Quality Assurance. It also required the promulgation of action plans around these health and safety issues and other items. These action plans are publicly available at https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nycha/about/reports.page, along with other reports on health and safety issues, which detail the Authority?s efforts to inspect for and correct deficiencies associated with environmental contaminants like lead-based paint and mold. The Authority plans to continue to work to address these health and safety issues, and to work towards meeting the multi-year obligations laid out in the HUD agreement in addition to the action plans. NYCHA has recorded $3,808,843,000 of pollution remediation obligations as of December 31, 2022, which relates to costs to inspect for and correct deficiencies associated with environmental contaminants.
FINDING # 2022-002 SPECIAL TESTS AND PROVISIONS- INSURANCE PROCEEDS ? COMPLIANCE- INTERNAL CONTROL DEFICIENCY PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING (ALN # 14.850) CONTRACT #: NOT AVAILABLE FEDERAL AGENCY: PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 1. CRITERIA Special Tests and Provisions ? Insurance Proceeds As stated in the April 2022 Compliance Supplement, a Public Housing Agency (PHA) is required to use insurance proceeds to promptly restore, reconstruct, and/or repair any damaged or destroyed property of a project, except when a PHA has written approval from HUD to do otherwise. Unspent insurance proceeds normally are recorded as restricted cash or restricted investments on the Financial Data Schedules (FDS) up to the amount of the repair. In cases of unforeseeable and unpreventable emergencies that include damages to the physical structure of the housing stock, PHAs are allowed to use their Operating Funds to cover the expenses associated with the damages. A PHA?s insurance may cover the damages fully or partially, however, it usually takes time for the PHA to receive the insurance proceeds. Once received, the PHA must reimburse its operating account for any expenses that were initially covered with Operating Funds up to the amount received. If the amount of the insurance proceeds is less than the cost of the repair and the PHA elected to use Operating Funds to cover the difference, the PHA is not allowed to draw down capital funds to reimburse the Low Rent program. 2. CONDITION/PERSPECTIVE The Authority received insurance proceeds to cover catastrophic loss affecting a myriad of locations. The insurance recovery was promulgated on emergency repairs and post-events, many of which were not initiated or needed due to internal fixes. During our review of the insurance proceeds compliance, we noted that the Authority did not document repair expenditures for loss affecting myriad locations and could not correlate one-to-one expenditures to the insurance proceeds in a timely manner from when the insurance proceeds were received. 3. CAUSE The Authority did not correlate one-to-one expenditures to the insurance proceeds received on a timely basis. 4. EFFECT There is the potential that some allowable expenditures under commercial insurance related to a disaster may not be recovered from insurers, including but not limited to ordinary payroll costs utilized to make in house repairs and replacement cost adjustments. 5. REPEAT FINDING No 6. RECOMMENDATION We recommend that the Authority correlate one-to-one expenditures to the insurance proceeds received on a timely basis. 7. QUESTIONED COST Cannot be determined. 8. VIEWS OF RESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL All good faith efforts to correlate emergency expenditures from insurance proceeds will be made in order to capture vendor work on a timelier basis. Catastrophic events (resulting in insurable claims such as the Hurricane Ida related claim selected in Deloitte?s testing) are complicated as the focus is primarily on restoring critical services in many developments, usually located in all five boroughs. The proceeds thus far received were estimated via inspection and the insurance claim remains open for more permanent pricing and repair. Such a claim often takes years to finalize as work scope is prepared and agreed to by insurers? representatives and the Authority. The emergency proceeds received have been used as needed for more repairs requiring them. As identified in the audit, much of the emergency work to date on Hurricane Ida was performed internally by staff at the sites, which did not generate transparent repair expenses. Management will take action, within limitations described above, to improve the correlation of expenditures to the insurance proceeds received on a timelier basis. In order to accomplish, will rely on the Authority?s Asset & Capital Management Department to provide timely work scope to assist in the correlation of more permanent expenditures.
FINDING # 2022-003 ELIGIBILITY ? DEFICIENCY - COMPLIANCE PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING (ALN # 14.850) CONTRACT #: NOT AVAILABLE FEDERAL AGENCY: PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 1. CRITERIA Eligibility for Individuals - Most PHAs devise their own application forms that are filled out by the PHA staff during an interview with the tenant. The head of household signs (a) a certification that the information provided to the PHA is correct; (b) one or more release forms to allow the PHA to get information from third parties; (c) a federally prescribed general release form for employment information; and (d) a privacy notice. Under some circumstances, other members of the family may be required to sign these forms (24 CFR sections 5.212, 5.230, and 5.601 through 5.615). 2. CONDITION/PERSPECTIVE The Authority received funding from the Public and Indian Housing Operating Fund. The Public and Indian Housing program is to provide and operate cost effective, decent, safe, and affordable dwellings for lower income families through an authorized local PHA. Of the sixty (60) case files selected for testing in which 540 pieces of audit evidence (eligibility forms as noted in the Criteria section above) were requested to be provided: ? Five eligibility forms were not provided (3 missing application forms and 2 missing release forms). These forms are required documentation to be maintained in the case files to support eligibility for Public and Indian Housing. Therefore, we were not able to determine if the eligible participants met all the eligibility criteria. 3. CAUSE The Authority did not ensure that all required eligibility forms were obtained from the tenants and included in the case files timely. 4. EFFECT The Public and Indian Housing, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development may consider the Authority non-compliant with the eligibility requirements. 5. REPEAT FINDING No 6. RECOMMENDATION We recommend the Authority strengthen its controls over the Public and Indian Housing ? Operating Fund case files to ensure that all eligibility forms are received, reviewed, and maintained in the case files to support the determination of eligibility. 7. QUESTIONED COST Cannot be determined. 8. VIEWS OF RESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL In January 2011, NYCHA implemented the Siebel Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, which included digital file storage and an online application process, which replaced our previous paper application process. Any applications in process from that date onward were subject to document scanning and documentation was stored digitally. Any applications processed prior to this date were kept in a paper format and stored at the development, where the applicant was certified or where the tenant resides. If a tenant family transferred to another development, the physical tenant folder and documents were sent to their new location. In June 2020, NYCHA sought to digitize all tenant folders; however, the cost of the project was determined to be prohibitive so the goal of digitizing the tenant folders was not realized. Any documents damaged or lost prior to 2011 cannot be recovered, including those impacted by Hurricane Sandy.