Report 2017-112 All Recommendation Responses

Report 2017-112: Homelessness in California: State Government and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Need to Strengthen Their Efforts to Address Homelessness (Release Date: April 2018)

Recommendation for Legislative Action

To better serve the needs of homeless Californians, and to provide statewide leadership to agencies at all levels for better coordination of efforts to address homelessness, the Legislature should enact legislation and include funding within the Budget Act of 2018 that will allow the state homeless council to hire permanent staff, including the appointment of an executive director.

Description of Legislative Action

Senate Bill (SB) 850 (Chapter 48, Statutes of 2018) requires the

Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency (agency) to staff the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (council) rather than the Department of Housing and Community Development, and it provides for an executive director of the council under the direction of the agency.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Legislation Enacted

Recommendation for Legislative Action

To better serve the needs of homeless Californians, and to provide statewide leadership to agencies at all levels for better coordination of efforts to address homelessness, the Legislature should enact legislation and include funding within the Budget Act of 2018 that will allow California's CoCs to obtain the state funding necessary to better implement HUD-recommended activities, including annually counting the unsheltered homeless population, improving efforts to raise nonfederal funding, and improving their coordination with other agencies; and to more fully meet HUD requirements, including implementation and administration of the HMIS and entry systems.

Description of Legislative Action

SB 850 (Chapter 48, Statutes of 2018) establishes the Homeless Emergency Aid program to provide localities with one-time flexible block grant funds to address their immediate homelessness challenges. This statute requires the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency (agency) to administer the program in consultation with the council. Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the agency will allocate $500,000,000 to a general purpose local government or a nonprofit organization that meets specified requirements, with $250,000,000 allocated according to groupings based on homeless point-in-time counts, $100,000,000 allocated based on the administrative entity's proportionate share of total homeless population, and $150,000,000 allocated to cities or cities that are also counties that meet specified requirements.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Legislation Enacted

Recommendation for Legislative Action

The Legislature should require the state homeless council to develop and implement by April 1, 2019, a statewide strategic plan for addressing homelessness in California, including goals and objectives and timelines for achieving them, and metrics for measuring their achievements. Included among the goals and objectives should be the identification of additional funding sources that state and local agencies can use to better address California's homelessness issues.

Description of Legislative Action

As of April 2023, the Legislature has not taken action in the 2023-24 Legislative Session to address this specific recommendation.

AB 2325 (2022) would have required the renamed council, as part of its goals, to develop and implement a statewide strategic plan on homelessness that establishes measurable objectives and strategies to enhance state-level accountability, coordination, and best practices. This bill died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Legislation Proposed But Not Enacted

Description of Legislative Action

As of April 19, 2022, the Legislature has not taken action in the 2021-22 Legislative Session to address this specific recommendation.

However, AB 2325 (Ramos, 2022) would place the California Interagency Council on Homelessness under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Interagency Council on Homelessness, which the bill would establish within the Governor's office, and the bill would require the council, as part of its goals, to develop and implement a statewide strategic plan on homelessness that establishes measurable objective and strategies to enhance state-level accountability, coordination, and best practices.

Additionally, SB 333 (Wilk, 2019) would have required the state homeless council to develop and implement a statewide strategic plan for addressing homelessness in the State by July 1, 2021. The bill would have required the state homeless council to implement strategic plans to assist HUD CoC lead agencies in better implementing HUD-recommended activities and meeting HUD requirements. This bill died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

As of April 19, 2021, the Legislature has not taken any additional action to address this specific recommendation.

SB 333 (Wilk, 2019) would have required the state homeless council to develop and implement a statewide strategic plan for addressing homelessness in the State by July 1, 2021. The bill would have required the state homeless council to implement strategic plans to assist HUD CoC lead agencies in better implementing HUD-recommended activities and meeting HUD requirements. This bill died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

SB 333 (Wilk, 2019) would require the state homeless council, by July 1, 2021, to develop and implement a statewide strategic plan for addressing homelessness in the state. The bill would require the state homeless council, by January 1, 2021, to implement strategic plans to assist HUD CoC lead agencies in better implementing HUD-recommended activities and meeting HUD requirements. This bill was held in the

Assembly Appropriations Committee.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Legislation Proposed But Not Enacted

Description of Legislative Action

SB 333 (Wilk) would require the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council, by July 1, 2021, to develop and implement a statewide strategic plan for addressing homelessness in the State, which shall include goals and objectives and timelines for achieving them, and metrics for measuring their achievements. Included among the goals and objectives shall be the identification of additional funding sources that state and local agencies can use to better address homelessness issues in the state.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Legislation Introduced

Description of Legislative Action

Senate Bill 792 would have required the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council to develop and implement a statewide strategic plan for addressing homelessness in the State. This bill died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Legislation Proposed But Not Enacted

Description of Legislative Action

Senate Bill (SB) 792 (Wilk) would require the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council to develop and implement a statewide strategic plan for addressing homelessness in the State.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Legislation Introduced

Recommendation for Legislative Action

The Legislature should require the state homeless council to implement steps by January 1, 2019, to assist CoC lead agencies in better implementing HUD-recommended activities including conducting annual counts of the unsheltered homeless population, raising nonfederal funding, and coordinating with other agencies.

Description of Legislative Action

As of April 2023, the Legislature has not taken action in the 2023-24 Legislative Session to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

As of April 19, 2022, the Legislature has not taken action in the 2021-22 Legislative Session to address this specific recommendation.

SB 333 (2019) would have required the state homeless council, by January 1, 2021, to implement strategic plans to assist CoC lead agencies in better implementing HUD-recommended activities and meeting HUD requirements. This bill died in the Assembly Appropriations committee.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Legislation Proposed But Not Enacted

Description of Legislative Action

As of April 19, 2021, the Legislature has not taken any additional action to address this specific recommendation.

SB 333 (Wilk, 2019) would have required the state homeless council to implement by January 1, 2021, strategic plans to assist CoC lead agencies in better implementing HUD-recommended activities and meeting HUD requirements. This bill died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

SB 333 would require the state homeless council, by January 1, 2021, to implement strategic plans to assist CoC lead agencies in better implementing HUD-recommended activities and meeting HUD requirements. This bill was held in the Assembly Appropriations committee.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Legislation Proposed But Not Enacted

Description of Legislative Action

SB 333 (Wilk) would require the Homeless Coordinating Council, by January 1, 2021, to implement strategic plans to assist HUD Continuum of Care lead agencies in better implementing HUD-recommended activities and meeting HUD requirements.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Legislation Introduced

Description of Legislative Action

SB 792 would have required, by January 1, 2020, the state homeless council to implement two strategic plans to assist CoC lead agencies to better implement HUD-recommended activities, including conducting annual counts of the unsheltered homeless population, raising nonfederal funding, coordinating with other agencies, and assisting lead agencies in meeting HUD requirements, including implementation of the HMIS. This bill died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Legislation Proposed But Not Enacted

Description of Legislative Action

SB 792 (Wilk) would require the council, by January 1, 2020, to implement two strategic plans to assist federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Continuum of Care lead agencies in better implementing HUD-recommended activities and meeting HUD requirements.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Legislation Introduced

Recommendation for Legislative Action

The Legislature should require the state homeless council to implement steps by January 1, 2019, to assist CoC lead agencies in better meeting HUD requirements, including implementation of the HMIS and entry systems. The state homeless council should include among its considerations the establishment of a balance-of-state CoC area to help alleviate the administrative burdens imposed on CoC lead agencies, especially in rural areas.

Description of Legislative Action

As of April 2023, the Legislature has not taken action in the 2023-24 Legislative Session to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

As of April 19, 2022, the Legislature has not taken action in the 2021-22 Legislative Session to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

As of April 19, 2021, the Legislature has not taken any action to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

As of April 19, 2020, the Legislature has not taken action to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

The Legislature has not taken action to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

SB 792 would have required, by January 1, 2020, the state homeless council to implement two strategic plans to assist CoC lead agencies to better implement HUD-recommended activities, including conducting annual counts of the unsheltered homeless population, raising nonfederal funding, coordinating with other agencies, and assisting lead agencies in meeting HUD requirements, including implementation of the HMIS. This bill died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Legislation Proposed But Not Enacted

Description of Legislative Action

SB 792 (Wilk) would require the council, by January 1, 2020, to implement two strategic plans to assist federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Continuum of Care lead agencies in better implementing HUD-recommended activities and meeting HUD requirements.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Legislation Introduced

Recommendation #6 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To ensure the consistency and transparency of its processes, the Authority should implement updated written policies and procedures by July 2018.

1-Year Agency Response

LAHSA has revised policies and procedures that relate to making subawards: RFP, RFSQ, and RFI. The revised procedures have been reviewed and approved by LAHSA management and are posted on SharePoint. LAHSA's sixth month response interpreted this as a recommendation to update the agency-wide procurement policy. However, after reading the original report again, LAHSA now interprets the intention of this recommendation to update the policies and procedures that impact making subawards. These updates have been made.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

LAHSA has updated its policies and procedures to include the changes recommended by the State Audit. Updates are reflected in the RFSQ, RFP, and RFI processes. LAHSA is currently working to update its agency wide Procurement Policy. Please see the provided project plan detailing the steps that will be taken in obtaining executive management and LAHSA Commission approval by December 31, 2018.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

An updated procurement policy is being prepared for presentation to LAHSA's Commission for approval in July 2018. Procedural documents for the RFP, RFI, and RFSQ solicitations are up to date and have been published to a dedicated LAHSA Intranet page with easy access for all staff and clear indication of approval status and dates.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #7 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To ensure the consistency and transparency of its processes, the Authority should update its written policies and procedures regularly to reflect changes in its processes.

60-Day Agency Response

LAHSA adopted a policy titled, Approval and Review of Internal LAHSA Policies and Procedures, on June 9, 2018. Per this policy, LAHSA will review policies and procedures within the 18 months of their last approval date and be updated as needed.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

Recommendation #8 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To ensure that its funding recommendations are effective, consistent, and transparent, the Authority should develop and implement a process by July 2018 to ensure that staff complete evaluation tools as intended.

6-Month Agency Response

As stated in our previous response, LAHSA has developed and implemented a process to ensure evaluation tools are completed. The pending item that remained outstanding was the RFSQ desk guide, which has now been completed. M&C began using the RFSQ Desk Guide as part of the October 2018 RFSQ applications.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

LAHSA has incorporated clear and detailed instructions for completion of its RFSQ and RFP review processes within the review tools provided to both staff and external reviewers. In addition, LAHSA is drafting a desk guide for the RFSQ process, this desk guide is currently in draft form and is expected to be fully implemented by July 30, 2018.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #9 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To ensure that its funding recommendations are effective, consistent, and transparent, the Authority should develop and implement a process by July 2018 to document supervisory review of its application evaluation process and of meetings in which it discusses funding decisions.

1-Year Agency Response

LAHSA has fully implemented recommendation 9 as of December 2018. LAHSA updated the policies and procedures for documenting supervisory reviews of internal staff evaluations and scoring of the Budget as well as Past Performance sections of proposals that are part of the Quality Review process. The Finance, Performance Management, and Reporting Units have been following the updated procedures since December 2018.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

LAHSA is in the process of standardizing procedures for documenting supervisory reviews of internal staff evaluation and scoring of the Budget as well as Past Performance sections of proposals that are part of the Quality Review process. Please see project plan and timeline for detailed the action steps that will be taken to implement the revised forms and related procedures by December 31, 2018.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

As of February 2018, LAHSA developed and implemented a process to document supervisor review for the RFSQ process. This process is detailed in the RFSQ policy and the accompanied tool. Beginning February 2018, LAHSA procurement team began taking meeting minutes for each meeting in which funding decisions are discussed and has executive management sign-off on all funding recommendation before they go to the committee. This process has been operationalized and LAHSA is updating the applicable procurement procedures to reflect this new process.

LAHSA has focused implementation of Recommendation 9 on the RFSQ process. With further guidance from the State Auditor, LAHSA will expand supervisory documentation to our evaluation process under Request for Proposals Quality Review. Currently, LAHSA is working to standardize procedures for documenting existing supervisory reviews of internal staff evaluation & scoring of the Budget and Past Performance sections of proposals that are part of the Quality Review process. The changes will be used for the next RFP Quality Review process by the end of this year.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #10 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To ensure that its funding recommendations are effective, consistent, and transparent, the Authority should include the previously mentioned changes to its processes in its updated written policies and procedures by July 2018.

1-Year Agency Response

LAHSA has fully implemented Recommendation 10. LAHSA has updated the RFSQ, RFP and RFI procedures to include documentation of supervisory review and approval of internal application evaluations. As referenced in Recommendation 6, LAHSA now interprets the intention of this recommendation to update policies and procedures that impact making subawards. By removing the agency-wide procurement policy as one of the documents needing to be updated, LAHSA has completed this task.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

LAHSA has updated our RFSQ, RFP and RFI policies and procedures to reflect our current process and is working to incorporate changes regarding documentation of supervisory review and approval of internal application evaluations. Additionally, LAHSA is in the process of updating its agency wide procurement policy. Please see project plans and timeline for the final approval and implementation of these updated policies and procedures.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

As of July 2018, LAHSA has revised and adopted the following policies: Request for Proposals (RFP), Request for Information (RFI), and Request for Funding Statement of Qualifications (RFSQ). These policies reflect the previously mentioned changes. Additional policies changes are in process regarding supervisory documentation for the Request for Proposals Quality Review process. We anticipating completing these changes by the end of this year.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #11 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To expand the number of service providers through targeted technical assistance, the Authority should evaluate the use of a document management system to support the application evaluation process and implement the appropriate system by December 2018.

1-Year Agency Response

LAHSA has fully implemented this recommendation by expanding the use of the MyOrg online system to collect and analyze application scores and awards. The Procurement team tested the MyOrg system in October and November 2018 and met with IT to provide feedback for further enhancements. IT completed the enhancements to MyOrg in December 2018. Procurement is now using the scoring function in MyOrg to track the application evaluation process. All awarded application data is being entered into Contract Logix.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

LAHSA Procurement and IT departments are working to enhance current LAHSA systems including, MyOrg and Contract Logix, to allow more functionality including aggregate data tracking and analysis as requested by this audit. These enhancements are under development. The Procurement team has started testing the evaluation tracking with the scores from the most recent RFP. This will be fully implemented by the end of December 2018.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

LAHSA Procurement and IT departments are working to enhance current LAHSA systems including, MyOrg and Contract Logix, to allow more functionality including aggregate data tracking and analysis as requested by this audit. These enhancements are under development and are scheduled for testing in October 2018 with full implementation by December 2018. LAHSA continues to investigate a robust grant management system.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #12 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To expand the number of service providers through targeted technical assistance, the Authority should evaluate the effectiveness of the selected system within 12 months after implementation.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2020

LAHSA completed the design and implementation of enhancements for our Request for Statement of Qualifications (RFSQ) and Request for Proposals (RFP) process in the MyOrg System in September 2019. Throughout the past year, these enhancements have proven effective in providing a simpler and streamlined process by which new agencies can apply and be evaluated for certification as a qualified bidder for funding opportunities . Additionally, the enhancements have proven effective in tracking applications received in response to our RFPs by region across the Continuum of Care (CoC) and the reasons for applications failing to achieve a fundable score. Based in part upon the analysis of this data, LAHSA is currently undergoing a Contracting & Procurement Modernization Project (CPMP). The goals of the CPMP are to greatly reduce the time needed to accomplish procurement and contracting, encourage and support the expansion of new providers participating in the system thus creating stability and predictability of funding throughout the homeless services system in the Los Angeles CoC.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2019

LAHSA has partially implemented recommendation 12. LAHSA has completed the myOrg enhancements for the RFP and RFSQ processes. The roll-out date was September 2019. LAHSA will evaluate the effectiveness on an ongoing basis and will report out in 12-months.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

LAHSA will begin to evaluate the effectiveness of the systems in October 2019 and will have the evaluation complete by 12/31/2019.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

6-Month Agency Response

Twelve months after the implementation of Recommendation 11, LAHSA will evaluate the systems mentioned in Recommendation 11.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

12 months after implementation of Recommendation 11, LAHSA will evaluate the systems mentioned in Recommendation 11.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #13 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To expand the number of service providers through targeted technical assistance, the Authority should develop and implement a process by December 2018 to track aggregate application evaluation data, including the common reasons applicants fail to qualify for funding, among other information.

1-Year Agency Response

LAHSA has partially implemented recommendation 13. The MyOrg system has been built out to collect and analyze RFP application scores. The core functionality of the RFSQ application and basic export capabilities have been finalized, however LAHSA's IT team is working to implement user permissions to enforce organization control systems to increase system accountability. As this was not initially part of the project scope, but is required for successful use of the app, the overall delivery of the application is set back about 4-6 weeks. IT is building out final enhancements to the RFSQ app and will have it done for Monitoring and Compliance to start testing by late-March 2019 for a period of 2-3 weeks. After Monitoring and Compliance tests the RFSQ app, Monitoring and Compliance and IT will meet to discuss any last enhancements for IT to build before rolling out the RFSQ app by the end of April 2019.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

LAHSA Procurement and IT departments are working to enhance current LAHSA systems including, MyOrg and Contract Logix, to allow more functionality including aggregate data tracking and analysis as requested by this audit. These enhancements are under development. The Procurement team has started testing the evaluation tracking with the scores from the most recent RFP. This will be fully implemented by December 2018.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

LAHSA Procurement and IT departments are working to enhance the current application system, MyOrg, to ensure aggregate application evaluation data is collected and analyzed. These enhancements are under development and are scheduled for testing by October 2018 with full implementation by December 2018.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #14 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To expand the number of service providers through targeted technical assistance, the Authority should track service areas in its database management system or by another mechanism to identify accurately the results of its application evaluation process, amounts awarded, amounts funded, and amounts disbursed by service area by July 2018.

1-Year Agency Response

LAHSA has fully implemented this recommendation. There are three systems that will track the data in this recommendation. MyOrg identifies the results of its application evaluation process, amounts awarded. Contract Logix identifies amounts funded. The MIP system identifies amounts disbursed by service planning area (SPA). The IT Unit has finalized the MyOrg enhancements that track awards from RFPs. The RFP pages in Contract Logix are finalized and data is being inputted. After enhancements were made, allocations can now be tracked by SPA in MIP.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

As of June 2018, Contract Logix tracks amounts awarded and funded by SPA for every contract. The Contract Logix system enables reporting on a SPA by SPA basis for RFP awards and funded Contracts. The MyOrg enhancements that the LAHSA Procurement and IT departments are working on will also allow LAHSA to identify accurately the results of its application evaluation process, including reporting functionality for proposals that are recommended for an award and those that are not. As of October 2018, LAHSA's IT department has developed the MyOrg enhancements and the Procurement Unit is testing the MyOrg enhancements for tracking the RFP application evaluation process and reporting functionalities.

LAHSA tracks funding allocations by SPA, which are linked to the contract numbers using the funding matrix worksheet. As of August 2018, LAHSA's has created a new segment specific to SPAs in Abila's MIP (fund accounting software). The new SPA segment on MIP will help LAHSA staff enter transactions and run reports by SPA. While the build-out phase of this function is complete, the data entry phase is currently underway and will be fully implemented by December 31, 2018.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

Effective July 1, 2018, LAHSA's Financial Software (Abila MIP) will be able to track expenditures by SPA, which are linked to the contract numbers. As of June 2018, Contract Logix tracks amounts awarded and funded by SPA for every contract.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #15 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To expand the number of service providers through targeted technical assistance, the Authority should track HUD awards, including renewal projects, by service area by July 2018.

60-Day Agency Response

LAHSA tracks service planning area (SPAs) in Contract Logix for all LAHSA awarded contracts, including HUD awards. SPA tracking in Contract Logix was implemented in June 2018 and will continually be updated as contracts are awarded.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

Recommendation #16 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To expand the number of service providers through targeted technical assistance, the Authority should track the reasons that service providers who attend the mandatory bidders conference do not apply for funding, and address any barriers by July 2018.

1-Year Agency Response

LAHSA's Procurement Unit has fully implemented this recommendation. LAHSA sent out surveys to attendees for the New Projects RFP, Winter Shelter Program RFP, Shallow Subsidy for Rapid Rehousing RFP (Operator) and Shallow Subsidy for Rapid Rehousing RFP (Evaluator). The Procurement Unit reviewed responses for each survey and convened a multidisciplinary, internal group to discuss the feedback received by attendees.

The two main themes most often cited in recent survey responses are 1) that LAHSA's bed rates for interim housing are too low, and that LAHSA sometimes tends to make funding opportunities too complicated and restrictive when such restrictions are not required by the funder. The bed rate issue is being evaluated by leadership of the Procurement & Performance Management and Policy & Systems Departments. The Procurement Team will carefully evaluate the proposed program requirements future RFPs against funder requirements to address the issue of LAHSA requirements being too restrictive.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

Starting in July 2018, LAHSA began sending surveys through Survey Monkey to capture data from agencies who attended the bidders' conference but did not submit an application. LAHSA will send the survey after each RFP submission date. The Procurement Unit will hold quarterly cross functional team meetings to analyze Survey Monkey responses to identify any barriers that can be addressed through LAHSA resources or referral to external resources. Please see project plan and timeline for implementation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

Starting in July 2018, LAHSA will utilize Survey Monkey to capture data regarding bidders' feedback for evaluation process. This survey is currently under development and will be released to applicants after the next RFP submission deadline of July 13, 2018. Analysis and review of the survey will be completed by a cross-functional LAHSA team, including Performance Management unit and Capacity Building unit, in order to address any barriers.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #17 To: Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

To expand the number of service providers through targeted technical assistance, the Authority should continue its efforts to develop and implement technical assistance programs for service providers, and track and analyze the results of that assistance by April 2019.

1-Year Agency Response

LAHSA received the final aggregate report from TCC group on 3/4/19 and is scheduling a series of planning sessions with TA providers to develop recommendations for system leadership based on the analysis. Further, LAHSA is developing of a plan to evaluate the impact of technical assistance provision. The plan will be fully developed by April 30, 2019.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

6-Month Agency Response

LAHSA posted the RFSQ instructional webinar to our webpage on 9/28/18.

The capacity building unit has sent invitations to the Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT) to providers identified in one of three ways: 1) current subrecipients and subcontracted providers, 2) providers that submit documents for RFSQ certification, and 3) providers that apply for the Organization Capacity Building Technical Assistance RFP. Detailed implementation plan is outlined in supporting document entitled, Timeline Communications Management.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

LAHSA provides technical assistance through multiple means. Active contract management and technical assistance is provided through the Performance Management unit. RFSQ technical assistance is typically provided by the Procurement unit, who is currently developing an RFSQ webinar which will be released by September 2018.

Furthermore, in January 2018, LAHSA launched a technical assistance initiative to strengthen the operational infrastructure of homeless service providers across LA County. This initiative is comprised of several strategies to identify technical assistance needs, connect providers with technical assistance opportunities which include access to public and private resources to build capacity, and analyze the results of that assistance.

To track and analyze results of technical assistance, LAHSA has contracted with The Core Capacity Group (TCC Group) to obtain access codes to the Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT). The agreement provides 300 CCAT access codes to be administered and analyzed between May 2018 - June 2020. On an annual basis, TCC group will aggregate the CCAT data of participating organizations to provide a snapshot of strengths and challenges to LAHSA to inform the delivery of capacity building services to partners, and track the results of capacity building initiatives over time.

Providers will be identified and referred to an access code to self-administer the CCAT in the following ways:

1) Providers that apply for RFSQ certification will receive a CCAT access code to obtain a baseline assessment of their organization's capacity.

2) Providers that apply for the Organizational Capacity Building Technical Assistance Application (RFP) are required through the statement of work to self-administer the CCAT within 0-120 days to provide a baseline assessment of their organization's capacity.

3) Providers that are currently a LAHSA subrecipient and are administering LAHSA funds will receive a CCAT access code.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2017-112

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.