Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on homeless audit:
Hillsborough administrator apologizes for homeless program’s continued problems
WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
Tampa Bay Times
Wednesday, March 18, 2015 6:14pm
TAMPA — A new internal audit of Hillsborough County’s homeless program shows the county failed to conduct all required inspections of housing where the homeless are referred, a deficiency that occurred despite promises by county officials to fix and rebuild the troubled program.
County Administrator Mike Merrill apologized to commissioners Wednesday, saying he was “very disappointed and upset” at the audit’s findings given his previous assurances to remedy program ills.
Merrill said it was particularly galling that inspections did not take place because that specific problem is what led the Hillsborough Homeless Recovery program to unravel after a 2013 Tampa Bay Times investigation documented slumlords getting public cash to place families in unsafe living conditions.
“Even though no clients were put in harm’s way in this case, that is not an excuse,” Merrill said at the commission’s regular meeting. “There is no excuse for not inspecting properties the way that we had promised that we would, that I had promised you and the community. And so I apologize for that. It’s my responsibility to make sure that this gets cleaned up. And I will do that.”
The audit also noted “monitoring procedures are incomplete” to ensure program compliance with county rules and charities working with Hillsborough sometimes did not conduct required criminal background checks on those seeking services.
A 2013 Times investigation of the county’s Homeless Recovery program found that Hillsborough funneled millions in public dollars to slumlords in a program providing transitional housing for the poor. The investigation won a Pulitzer Prize and led the county to the first major reform of the housing program in two decades.
The new audit sampled 25 out of more than 2,000 required inspections in the program for nine months of 2014 and found no evidence in four cases that inspections of housing had taken place. That is 16 percent of the sample.
The housing is provided by three charities under contract with Hillsborough — Metropolitan Ministries, the Salvation Army and the Agency for Community Treatment Services.
“If property inspection are not performed, clients may be living in and the county may be paying for properties which do not meet the minimum housing standards,” the audit said.
The county’s audit rated the homeless program as “satisfactory” overall, meaning that program controls and oversight are adequate but can be improved. The audit said the problems have either already been corrected or were in the process of being fixed.
Merrill said in an interview that the county does not believe any of the housing provided was deficient. But he said he was still angered because this specific issue was a top priority in revamping the program.
“That is the problem we had in the prior program and the one we promised to fix,” he said. “And it’s the one we have the resources to fix. And it should be the easiest to fix. It’s not difficult.”
Merrill said he was particularly disturbed that he found out about the problem only from the audit and not from county staffers working in the program. He said staffers explained they were too busy administering the program and did not discover problems.
“Staff did not perform properly,” Merrill said. “So I need to do something to make sure it never happens again.”
The audit said that of the nine full-time employees in the program, four positions are now vacant. Merrill said that might have been one of the reasons problems were not discovered by staff. He said the manager of the program was doing case work.
“Then again, if they had said to me that they needed to fill the position, I would have filled the position,” Merrill told the Times.
Merrill said he is not yet sure what changes he will make in the program to ensure 100 percent compliance with county rules and policies.
“But again, I will assure you I will get this remedied,” he told the commission.
Hillsborough’s internal auditor, Michelle Leonhardt, told commissioners the audit was “satisfactory” overall and services are vastly improved from a year ago. “There are opportunities to improve,” she said. “But (it’s) a huge difference from where we were to where we are now. Absolutely.”
Commission chairwoman Sandy Murman said she was confident in county staff’s ability to work out any problems in homeless services.
“I know these things do take time,” she said. “Let’s just tighten up the ship. Get it right.”
An April 2014 internal audit found the homeless program in far worse shape. It said the county had not inspected property where it sent the homeless for years and had no policy to respond to complaints that places were filthy and dangerous.
Hillsborough ended up replacing its program by outsourcing it to charities under county contract. As of Sept. 30, the three charities had housed at least 553 people and 275 children, and received $2.2 million in funding, the audit said.
