Audit finds Allegheny County could improve services for homeless people

Allegheny County programs aimed at preventing and assisting homeless people could more effectively use existing resources but are in dire need of additional funding, according to an audit by the county auditor’s office.

The report, released Thursday, recommends that the county Department of Social Services work to reduce stays in local emergency shelters and waitlists for transitional services such as transitional housing. But County Comptroller Corey O’Connor stressed that ending homelessness in the county will require buy-in from government agencies, nonprofits and private companies.

“We need more money. We need more resources. But we also need to start putting a focus on new housing, new locations for people — not necessarily more shelters, but more space,” O’Connor said.

The number of people experiencing homelessness has been steadily increasing since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and has become more visible in Allegheny County and across the country. Rising rent prices and tight housing supply have forced more people out of permanent homes and into temporary shelter.

Allegheny County’s Point-in-Time count, which tracks the number of people experiencing homelessness on a given night, has increased every year since 2022. The count is conducted annually but varies depending on volunteers, weather conditions and areas surveyed. This is just one measure DHS estimates the number of unsheltered homeless people.

But auditors said the increase is indicative of what many residents have observed anecdotally: More Allegheny County residents are experiencing homelessness this year than last. At the last Point-in-Time count in January, the homeless population was 1,164 — a 31% increase from 2020.

About 1,000 of those people were staying at one of the county’s 15 emergency shelters, which the audit found are currently housing people who far exceed the 30-day goal set by DHS. Stays ranged from one day to 1,551 days, which auditors described as “excessive.” About 41% of people stayed longer than 30 days. Those people spent an average of 47 days in shelters.

Most temporary shelters remained fully utilized during the audit period, with occupancy rates hovering around 70% for most of the fiscal year.

At the same time, the county’s bridge housing programs have struggled to operate at near capacity. Bridge housing is a transitional service that is designed to bridge the gap between emergency shelters and stable, long-term housing. Residents receive temporary housing and support services, such as case management, as they prepare to live independently. Auditors found that none of the county’s six bridge housing programs were fully occupied in any quarter of the fiscal year audited, and occupancy was above 70% in about a third of cases.

The units remained empty even as the waiting list for them grew, auditors said. At the end of 2023, 380 people remained on the waiting list for bridge housing, potentially prolonging their stays in shelters or on the streets.

In a written response, DHS Director Erin Dalton said the difference between total capacity and total occupancy in housing programs “is expected due to systemic inefficiencies,” including difficulty identifying eligible units, the time it takes to make necessary repairs and cleanup after a previous resident moves out of a unit, and staff turnover and vacancies.

She added that while bridge housing is important, it is only a small part of DHS’s overall housing strategy; only 148 beds were provided in the program during the audit period.

DHS is trying to close some of the gaps identified in the audit. The department “regularly monitors bed/unit utilization, among other key metrics,” Dalton said, adding that the overall performance of the bridge housing program has improved since the audit. Since then, the program has achieved an 88% occupancy rate, and the new construction will increase housing capacity by 33%.

She also noted that the inefficiencies in the transitional housing system and long stays in shelters are “largely due to significant increases in housing costs, particularly at the lower end of the rental market, combined with staffing challenges following the pandemic.”

The lack of affordable housing “is driving homelessness and reducing the flow through the system,” Dalton wrote. “People are becoming homeless because they cannot afford higher housing costs, and it is harder for them to exit shelters and homelessness because they cannot afford higher housing costs.”

“Providing permanent housing is the best way to provide previously homeless people with long-term stability,” she said.

The auditors also recommended that DHS strengthen internal controls and documentation.

The inescapable conclusion from the audit, O’Connor said, is that DHS does not receive enough state funding to fully administer programs that serve the county’s homeless population.

DHS received $2.6 million in state funding to cover program costs in the fiscal year audited. But HAP spending during that time exceeded $12.6 million — meaning the county had to use funds that could have gone to other programs to cover costs. (About $1.7 million was spent on transitional housing, and $4.6 million was spent on the emergency shelter program.)

“These are services that need $10 million,” O’Connor said. “If you take away from one service, those people are going to suffer as well.

“You are actually robbing Peter to pay Paul in many ways.”

Dalton said DHS plans to work with county and state officials to increase funding for the state’s HAP program, and noted the county could receive an additional $500,000 for those programs next year thanks to a planned increase in state spending for the program.

County Executive Sara Innamorato “500 in 500” PlanThe program, which aims to move people from shelters to 500 newly created or identified very affordable housing units within 500 days, should also help address some of the issues detailed in the audit.

“If people are stuck in temporary housing and they want to move into affordable housing or the next step where there are services that will help these people if they have nowhere else to go, what do they do?” O’Connor asked.

“The whole housing process has to be changed. We need more housing; we need more units. And we should have had this conversation years ago. And that’s why everybody’s suffering now: because you’re four or five years behind the times.”

The funds being audited are just a fraction of what the county spends on homeless services each year. O’Connor said his office will conduct additional audits of DHS spending in the future.