Opinion ID: 2789471
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: HUD’s Correspondence with Crow Housing

Text: The record contains no evidence that HUD performed onsite monitoring of Crow Housing in 2001, or at any point before 2004. But by some means, in 2001 HUD discovered that from 1998 through 2001, it had overpaid Crow Housing for lease-to-own units that were no longer eligible for FCAS CROW TRIBAL HOUSING AUTH. V. HUD 7 consideration. In a September 2001 letter, HUD informed Crow Housing it had been overpaid because several units had “been conveyed or were eligible for conveyance.” The letter gave notice to Crow Housing that HUD planned to recover the overpayments, and that the Tribe should contact HUD “within 30 days of the date of th[e] letter” if it disagreed. Crow Housing did not respond. In January 2002, HUD sent a second letter indicating it had not heard from the Tribe, and that it was writing “to confirm . . . agreement with [HUD’s] information and to determine a repayment plan to recover any over-allocated funds.” Because it needed to finalize the matter, HUD informed Crow Housing that if it did not respond within 30 days, HUD would assume it acceded to repayment. Crow Housing’s silence persisted. In June 2002, HUD sent a third letter enclosing copies of its two previous letters and stating that the agency had updated the calculations and determined the overpayment amount. HUD also set forth a schedule to recoup that amount through adjustments to Crow Housing’s grants over the course of five subsequent fiscal years. More than a year passed. In November 2003, Crow Housing provided its first response on the issue. It requested copies of the first two HUD letters and indicated it would “make the substantive argument against HUD’s position” upon receipt of those letters. HUD supplied copies of its earlier letters and informed Crow Housing that although it had made deductions to the Tribe’s 2002 and 2003 allocations, the agency failed to remove the ineligible units from its subsequent calculations, resulting in continued overpayments. HUD added the additional overpayments to 8 CROW TRIBAL HOUSING AUTH. V. HUD the balance—resulting in a total of $1,244,837—and invited Crow Housing to establish a new repayment plan within 30 days.