United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-03-25 monographic deposited born digital 28 p. GA 1.13:T-RCED-98-137 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-98-137 P0b002ee18037d4e4 f:rc98137t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-98-137 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-98-137 T-RCED-98-137 Future budget projections Housing programs Budget authority Financial management Internal controls Low income housing Federal aid for housing Community development programs Unexpended budget balances Budget cuts HUD Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation Program HUD Section 8 Housing Assistance Program HUD Regional Connections Initiative Community Development Block Grant HUD Hope IV Program HUD Continuum of Care Program HUD Section 8 Voucher Program Other Written Product RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed selected aspects of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) fiscal year (FY) 1999 budget request, focusing on: (1) actions HUD has taken or plans to take to improve its budget estimates; (2) the reasonableness of HUD's request for Section 8 tenant-based and moderate rehabilitation housing assistance; (3) HUD's justification for its Section 8 project-based amendment request; (4) HUD's request for funding to assist the homeless; (5) HUD's request for $100 million to fund its new Regional Connections Initiative (RCI); (6) HUD's capacity to manage its HOPE VI program; and (7) the budgetary implications for public and assisted housing of welfare reform.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) HUD has recognized the need to improve its budget-estimating process with better oversight and documentation, and has started to modify its organizational structure to increase its oversight of the staff responsible for formulating budget estimates; (2) however, many of HUD's planned improvements--such as the Office of Management and Budget's analysis of the program offices' submissions--were not implemented in time to help ensure the accuracy of HUD's FY 1999 budget estimate; (3) according to HUD officials, these improvements will be in place to enhance the FY 2000 process; (4) while HUD has significantly improved its budgeting for Section 8 tenant-based and moderate rehabilitation contract renewals, HUD's request for $4.8 billion to renew and amend Section 8 tenant-based and moderate housing contracts for FY 1999 could be overstated by as much as $691 million; (5) because this excess budget authority exists, HUD will not be likely to need the $70 million it has requested to amend Section 8 moderate rehabilitation contracts; (6) HUD's budget request for $1.3 billion to amend Section 8 project-based contracts--needed to cover shortfalls in these long-term contracts--substantially exceeds the amounts that HUD's analyses indicated are needed; (7) this figure exceeds the amount of $463 million that HUD used in its budget request to offset its FY 1999 needs for funding to amend project-based contracts; (8) to help address the needs of the nation's homeless, HUD has requested 34,000 new Section 8 vouchers; (9) if approved, the vouchers would help to address congressional concern that a high proportion of funding for homeless assistance has been spent in the past on supportive services instead of on direct housing assistance; (10) however, HUD has not developed the eligibility standards or other planning criteria that would facilitate the program's implementation; (11) HUD's budget request for $100 million for RCI does not provide enough detail to indicate whether this level of funding is reasonable for the program; (12) HUD may not have the capacity to properly manage +$550 million it is requesting for the HOPE VI program and it will have to rely more on outside contractors to oversee the program; (13) welfare reform may have a substantial future impact on HUD's spending for assisted housing for low-income households; and (14) estimating the impact may not be possible because the states' differing welfare reform provisions produce different effects from state to state and year to year. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-98-137/html/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-98-137.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-98-137/pdf/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-98-137.pdf GAO/T-RCED-98-137 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-98-137 Other Written Product GAO/T-RCED-98-137; Housing and Urban Development: Comments on HUD's Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Request; Future budget projections Housing programs Budget authority Financial management Internal controls Low income housing Federal aid for housing Community development programs Unexpended budget balances Budget cuts HUD Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation Program HUD Section 8 Housing Assistance Program HUD Regional Connections Initiative Community Development Block Grant HUD Hope IV Program HUD Continuum of Care Program HUD Section 8 Voucher Program Public Law 93-383 Public Law 105-18