New York State Affordable Housing Corporation

Homebuyer Selection and Approval

In the Affordable Home Ownership Development Program, persons of low or moderate income can receive a grant to help with the purchase of a home. The grants are awarded by municipalities and not-for-profit entities under formal agreements with the New York State Affordable Housing Corporation, a State-funded public benefit corporation. The Corporation provides the funding for the grants and oversees the grant award process.

We audited a sample of 70 grants and found that three were awarded to applicants with incomes or assets above the maximum allowable amounts and as many as 12 others may have been awarded to such applicants, as these applicants’ reported incomes and assets were not fully documented and there were indications that at least 2 of the 12 had underreported their assets. We also identified other opportunities for improvement in the grant award process. For example, a random selection method was to be used to determine the order in which applicants were considered for the grants in our sample. However, when applicants with low selection numbers were passed over and not awarded grants, there was no documentation explaining why. We recommended certain actions be taken by the Corporation to improve its oversight of the grant award process.

For a complete copy of Report 2008-S-100 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.
For a copy of the associated follow-up report click here.