How Philadelphia plans to revive troubled Office of Homeless Services
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Philadelphia is bringing in more outside help to get the Office of Homeless Services' finances in order.
Why it matters: OHS overspent its budget by about $15 million in recent years, triggering investigations and a City Council hearing centered on the agency's financial bungling.
Driving the news: The city is hiring an independent consultant to help improve oversight and streamline financial operations at the beleaguered agency, per city bidding documents.
- The goal is to ensure OHS achieves "sustained financial health and stability" after the city's inspector general identified several problems with how the agency spent taxpayers funds.
Catch up quick: Former Mayor Jim Kenney's administration said officials learned of the overspending late last year, prompting an investigation from the Office of the Inspector General.
- Meanwhile, some nonprofits under contract with OHS complained that they had gone months or years without being paid, per the Inquirer.
- The OIG released findings in April showing a pattern of questionable accounting practices under former executive director Liz Hersh, but no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
- The OIG reported the agency routinely entered into contracts with housing providers despite knowing it didn't have the funds to cover those expenses.
After Mayor Cherelle Parker took office, she tapped an outside accounting firm to conduct a separate probe into OHS.
- And City Council held a hearing in April where several OHS staff testified they hadn't stolen money from the department.
The latest: The city now wants to contract with another firm to conduct a sweeping review of the agency's inner workings, identifying policies and practices ranging from budgeting to grant reporting "that lead to errors."
- City officials didn't provide an estimate in the bid for how much the contract will cost. Parker's administration didn't return Axios' request for comment.
What's ahead: The work will begin in September and is expected to take a full year.
- The firm must produce a report of its findings to be shared with Parker's administration and city lawmakers.
- Those findings will then be used to overhaul OHS procedures and establish a better system of "checks and balances" to "prevent this kind of issue" from happening in the future.