An audit of the New York Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance shows oversight of local social service offices and homeless shelters needs improvement, according to Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office.
The audit, conducted between January 2018 and October 2022, found many needs assessments of people who entered homeless shelters were either missing or late. While assessments were missing or late 40% of the time, individual living plans meant to help get the person back to self-sufficiency, were missing or late 38% of the time.
“Thousands of New Yorkers, many of them in need of mental health care or drug addiction services, are in desperate need of permanent housing and other support,” DiNapoli said in a press release. “My auditors, however, found as we have in previous audits, the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance is not doing enough to ensure local social service offices and other providers are providing them with the services they require when they enter homeless shelters."
The comptroller recommended that the OTDA work with districts and/or shelter providers that are experiencing late or undone assessments; look for ways beyond annual inspections to find the districts that are struggling; and gather data allowing the office to better figure out why people aren't getting into permanent housing.