The Department of Housing and Urban Development let nearly $2 billion in federally insured loans go to nearly 10,000 borrowers who were barred from such funds, a government watchdog reported Monday.
The loans were distributed in 2016 to 9,507 borrowers who were either delinquent on federal debt or hadn’t paid their child support, according to HUD’s inspector general.
The IG reviewed 60 of the nearly 14,000 loans Federal Housing Administration closed in 2016 and found more than three-quarters were given to barred borrowers.
“FHA faced a higher risk due to an increased likelihood of default on the ineligible loans” the report said. The borrowers had a delinquency rate “twice as high as those of the general population.”
