Audit Report on the Processing of Clients’ Permanent Housing Applications by the HIV/AIDS Services Administration of the Human Resources Administration

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

This audit assessed the efficiency of the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) in processing clients’ applications for permanent housing. The Human Resources Administration (HRA) provides a broad range of programs and services intended to help individuals and families achieve their highest level of self-reliance. HASA is the primary mechanism within HRA to provide access to benefits and services to persons with AIDS and HIV-related illnesses.

HASA is not efficient in processing clients’ applications for permanent housing, nor does it comply with its own time frame for processing requests for financial assistance for clients who have secured a valid lease or letter of intent to rent.

Case managers at HASA field centers do not track the progress of permanent housing applications filed with the Housing Unit. By not following up on clients’ applications, case managers are failing in their duty to clients to help ensure that their housing needs are met. The lack of monitoring by case managers may be due in part to inadequate procedures detailing the specific steps and responsibilities of the HASA units involved in the placement process. Finally, only 14 (44%) of the 32 financial assistance request packages for the sampled clients were processed by HASA within the required five business days.

These weaknesses serve to make the difficult task of finding permanent housing for clients even more difficult. At the exit conference, HRA officials acknowledged the problems we identified during the audit and stated that HASA has instituted, or is in the process of instituting, corrective measures to improve its efficiency in processing housing applications.

We made seven recommendations, some of which are listed below. HRA should:

• More fully develop the HASA procedures manual so that the housing placement process, and the roles that the various HASA units play in the process, are clearly defined. At a minimum, the manual should identify the key stages in the placement process, the responsibilities of all parties at those stages, the maintenance of key documents, and the controls to ensure that the process operates as intended.
• Ensure that HASA management develops monitoring tools to track the housing placement process. The monitoring tools should be designed to identify areas where improvement is needed; management should then develop strategies to initiate corrective measures in those areas.
• Ensure that Case Financial Assessment (CBCFA) packages are processed in a more timely manner and that key events related to the processing are documented in the case files. These events should include, at a minimum, the dates that packages are forwarded to the CBCFA coordinator, the dates packages are returned, and any other significant events that affect the timely processing of the packages.
• Ensure that supervisors and/or directors track the timeliness in processing CBCFA packages. For packages that are not processed in a timely manner, directors should identify the causes for the delays and develop strategies to address those causes.

HRA agreed with the audit’s findings and recommendations.