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January 20, 2022
  • Community Planning and Development
2022-LA-1001
2022-LA-1001.pdf

We audited the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program.  The audit was initiated because of the homelessness crisis in the City of Los Angeles, which has the highest number of unsheltered people in the United States.  In addition, the Los Angeles city controller issued a report in 2019, criticizing the Authority for falling short of City of Los Angeles homeless outreach goals.  (See Background and Objectives.)  Our audit objectives were to determine whether the Authority met the goals and objectives of housing and helping the homeless become self-sufficient through its CoC program and administered the program in accordance with HUD requirements.

The Authority did not fully meet the goals and objectives of the program and did not always follow program requirements.  Specifically, it (1) did not use $3.5 million in CoC grant awards and left the funds to expire, (2) did not support Homeless Management Information System and planning grant costs, and (3) did not submit timely annual performance reports (APR).  As a result, the unused CoC funds represent a missed opportunity to meet the program’s goals of assisting the homeless, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) does not have assurance $879,847 in salary and rent costs were for the CoC grants, and CoC funds may have unnecessarily sat idle and unavailable for future awards.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development require the Authority to (1) develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that grant agreements are executed in a timely manner and effective monitoring is performed to prevent similar occurrences of grant funds going unused, (2) support payroll and rent costs or repay its CoC grants $879,847 from non-Federal funds, and (3) develop policies and procedures to ensure APRs are submitted in a timely manner and personnel are routinely trained on the grant closeout process.

Recommendations
Recommendation Status Date Issued Summary
2022-LA-1001-001-A Open January 20, 2022 Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that subgrantee agreements are executed in a timely manner, effective monitoring is performed, and subgrantees maintain an emphasis on using their CoC funds, thereby preventing similar occurrences of $3.5 million (see appendix D) in CoC funding going unused.
2022-LA-1001-001-B Open January 20, 2022 Develop and implement strategies to address capacity and organizational problems or obtain technical assistance to address these issues.
2022-LA-1001-001-C Open January 20, 2022 Develop and implement procedures and controls to clearly define and update point-of-contact staff for subgrantees.
2022-LA-1001-001-D Closed January 20, 2022 Work with HUD and subgrantees to reevaluate its CoC program’s performance goals and set targets that help to ensure that funds for future CoC grants are fully and effectively used to advance the goal of ending homelessness.
2022-LA-1001-002-A Open January 20, 2022 Adequately support the eligibility of payroll costs or repay its CoC grants $824,302 from non-Federal funds.
2022-LA-1001-002-B Open January 20, 2022 Adequately support the eligibility of rent costs or repay its CoC grants $55,545 from non-Federal funds.
2022-LA-1001-002-C Open January 20, 2022 Develop and implement additional written procedures and controls to ensure that employees charge time in accordance with program requirements and that the Authority fully documents and supports that salary and rental cost allocations are charged to its CoC grants in accordance with its cost allocation plan.
2022-LA-1001-003-A Closed January 20, 2022 Complete and implement policies and procedures to ensure that APRs are submitted by the closeout deadline.
2022-LA-1001-003-B Closed January 20, 2022 Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that relevant personnel are routinely and regularly trained on the grant closeout process.