luvmykid's Blog

Read this in this mornings DMN:

With an annual budget of more than $250 million, the DHA provides housing assistance to 60,000 area families. This latest federal audit of the agency, which covers January 2006 through March 2008, is the most critical yet. It is expected to be officially released soon. Findings include:

•The DHA spent more than $11 million for 872 clients that it did not report to the federal government. The agency says it will demonstrate that the families were eligible and will enter them into the HUD system.

•The agency provided nearly $8 million for 2,305 clients after it terminated them from the rental assistance program. The DHA agrees and will review records to determine if overpayment has been recovered. A new software program will allow staffers to place a hold on such payments, according to the agency.

•The agency spent more than $250,000 on duplicate payments to 376 landlords. The agency agrees and will seek to recover the funds.

•Caseworkers had up to 800 clients each, twice the number of other housing agencies. The agency responded that it has reduced caseloads to 500 clients per case manager and added training.

 •The DHA's own compliance department reported problems, including error rates as high as 91 percent, in 2006. But the problem continued. Federal auditors recommended that the authority's board should require the compliance officer to report directly to the board and the chief executive officer. The DHA responded that its compliance officer will share reviews with the board.

•The DHA has been told repeatedly about weaknesses in its system to detect problems including fraud. The agency responded by saying it continues to identify and correct problems.

•The agency did not consistently try to recover overpayments.

But, the real kicker was this one:

•The DHA spent $167,000 on 45 clients whose Social Security numbers identified them as dead. Between January 2006 and December 2007, the agency paid assistance for 235 clients whose Social Security numbers indicated they were dead as of April 2007. The authority confirmed that it provided assistance on behalf of dead clients and will seek to recover the funds. The agency may transfer the payments to eligible surviving family members.