Follow-up Audit Report on the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development’s Oversight and Monitoring of Its Crisis Shelters

Audit Finding and Conclusion:

The objective of this audit was to determine the extent to which the seven recommendations made in the Department of Youth and Community Development’s Oversight and Monitoring of Its Crisis Shelters (Audit # MJ18-054A), issued on August 6, 2019, have been implemented.

The initial audit found that the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) did not have adequate controls over the agency’s monitoring of the contracted crisis shelters in several key areas. Most notably, the audit found that there were inadequate supervisory reviews of the program managers’ site visit reports on the crisis shelters, a lack of evidence that DYCD appropriately informed crisis shelters of the results of the site visits, and, in some instances, crisis shelters’ personnel files showed that the required Statewide Central Registry of Child Abuse and Maltreatment clearances and criminal background checks were not completed until after employees’ start dates.

DYCD provides emergency shelter and crisis intervention services for young people between the ages of 16 and 20, or Homeless Young Adult sites for those between the ages of 21 through 24. These services are intended to reunite youths with their families or, if family reunification is not possible, arrange for appropriate transitional and long-term placements.

This follow-up audit found that DYCD has improved its oversight of crisis shelters to help ensure compliance with key provisions of their contracts and with applicable rules and regulations. Of the seven recommendations made in the initial audit, this follow-up audit found that five have been implemented and two have been partially implemented.

Audit Recommendations

This follow-up audit recommends that DYCD take reasonable efforts to: (1) confirm the evaluation reports completed by staff contain all necessary information and reconcile with information documented elsewhere, and (2) make certain that providers take appropriate steps to safeguard against uncleared employees having unsupervised contact with youths. The audit also recommends that DYCD provide more detailed instructions for how reviews are to be conducted and documented.

Agency Response

In its response, DYCD agreed with the audit’s recommendations.