Live Q&As

In our first round of stories on the HOME program in May, we found that nearly 700 construction and renovation projects funded by the HOME program showed signs of being delayed, either because they were launched more than five years ago or had left federal money untouched for months or even years.

In today's story, we found that the delays are larger than previously reported. Through site visits and calls to local housing agencies, we identified about 75 additional construction projects that drew and spent $40 million in HOME funds with little or nothing to show for the money.

On top of that, we found that newly built homes were actually sitting empty as local housing agencies searched for buyers. We found evidence of this across the country, in cities ranging from Galveston to Denver to New Haven.

Local housing officials blame the economy, saying it's often hard for low-income families to get a mortgage. Some are trying to turn houses built for homeownership into rentals.

HUD absolutely pushed back, reporting that the HOME program was strong and solid and that most projects are successfully completed. The agency made this case during two Congressional hearings, including one last week.

Our job, of course, is to follow the money and make sure that there's no waste or misspending in government programs, even those that are clearly important to many, many people.

Great to hear from you. I wrote about affordable housing at The Miami Herald, and still keep a photo at home of a woman who was able to buy her first house after the county government started cleaning up the housing program there. I was there when she got the keys to the house -- it was an incredible moment. It showed me how about important this issue is, and it's why I wanted to look at it on a national scale.

I hadn't heard that. Very interesting.

That's an excellent question -- thanks for writing in. HUD has noted several times that it would cost a lot of money to monitor and oversee hundreds of local housing agencies.

It's a fair point. HOME is also a block grant program, and local housing agencies are supposed to monitor their own projects.

The problem is that monitoring often falls short, both at the national and local level, even as millions of dollars go out the door. This has been pointed out by HUD's Inspector General time and again.

HUD's database only tracks how much HUD money is spent -- not what is actually being built. HUD in the past also didn't have specific underwriting standards or many construction deadlines.

So, members of Congress are calling for basic things: third-party monitoring, more site inspections, tighter rules to ensure competitive bidding and stronger tracking of projects.

Last Friday, HUD proposed a major overhaul to the HOME program for the first time in years that incorporates many of these suggestions.

I haven't heard much talk yet about how much this will cost. We'll see what happens next.

Interesting. Thanks for writing in.