NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) altered more than one-third of the site visit reports it provided to the Comptroller
DYCD first approved incomplete and inconsistent reports and then changed them for the audit
New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer released a disturbing new audit that revealed that the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) improperly altered more than one-third of the 93 site visit reports it had filed for seven crisis shelter locations for runaway and homeless youth in Fiscal Year 2017 before providing them to the Comptroller’s auditors. The audit also found that the agency failed to adequately monitor the shelters and accurately report the results of its site visits to check on the shelters’ performance in working with vulnerable youth. DYCD is the agency tasked with supporting New York City’s young people and their families through community-based programming.
The audit revealed that a DYCD manager initially approved subordinates’ incomplete and inconsistent site visit reports, which were later revised and reapproved by the manager after the auditors requested them. The audit also found that DYCD failed to send a large majority — 79 percent — of the sampled site visit reports back to the crisis shelters to alert the operators to improvements needed in their efforts to serve runaway and homeless youth.
In addition, the audit found that DYCD’s reports covering their Fiscal Year 2017 site visits did not identify the specific case files they reviewed during 91 percent of their case-management visits to the youth crisis shelters or the specific personnel files they reviewed in 96 percent of their administrative visits. The absence of that kind of specific information hinders DYCD’s ability to effectively monitor the shelters’ performance. In that regard, the audit also revealed deficiencies in some shelters’ performance in obtaining timely background clearances for their employees, including criminal history checks, and in ensuring that their staff met training requirements.
“The young people who need our help the most should be able to count on full and honest support from the City, but our audit found inadequate supervision, altered records, and shifting explanations at the agency that exists to help them. When it comes to runaway and homeless youth, we can’t be absent and we can’t hide the truth to shirk our responsibilities. DYCD sets a terrible example by giving us altered records and obscuring the facts, which ultimately only magnifies its own failures,” said New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. “Our job is to hold City government accountable, so we constantly challenge agencies to raise their game for the New Yorkers we all serve. But that’s impossible if we can’t count on honesty from the City agencies we review. We do this work to protect our young people – that mission shouldn’t be undercut by adults. I’m calling for uncompromising accountability and transparency from the top down.”
DYCD protocols call for the agency to monitor crisis shelter service providers by mandating that DYCD’s program managers working with runaway and homeless youth conduct monthly site visits to the contracted facilities providing services. These inspections ensure the shelter service providers are operating safe and supportive environments that meet contractual obligations and comply with applicable regulations.
Comptroller Stringer’s audit of DYCD’s oversight and monitoring of the Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) crisis shelter providers found:
- DYCD did not have adequate controls over its own monitoring of the contracted RHY crisis shelters, hindering the agency’s ability to ensure that the services for which it contracts were properly provided to the City’s vulnerable young people.
- DYCD altered and “reapproved” more than one-third of the site visit reports it had previously completed, approved, and filed, after the Comptroller’s auditors requested the reports as part of the Comptroller’s audit.
- The DYCD manager responsible for overseeing the program mangers’ work initially approved the site visit reports without properly reviewing them to verify that the site visits were appropriately conducted and the results were adequately documented showing whether the crisis shelters were compliant with key performance indicators.
- The agency failed to send 79 percent of the sampled site visit reports back to the crisis shelter providers to alert them to improvements needed.
Comptroller Stringer’s audit recommended a series of measures to ensure that DYCD properly supervises and monitors its staff and that its site visits to its contracted youth crisis shelters are adequate, properly performed, and accurately reported. Those steps are necessary to ensure that the shelters operate in compliance with applicable standards and regulations for the protection and well-being of vulnerable young people they serve. The recommendations included:
- DYCD should properly and timely supervise its site visits to the youth crisis shelters and ensure that the reported results are complete and accurate. DYCD’s supervision should include discussions with its staff and if necessary supervisory follow-up visits to the shelters to ensure they provide adequate services to runaway and homeless youths.
- DYCD should require its staff to provide detailed documentation on the personnel and youth-case files they review during site visits to the shelters to ensure that the service providers meet contractual and regulatory requirements.
- DYCD should remind the crisis shelter service providers to obtain required clearances for all prospective employees before their start dates, or in instances where pre-employment clearances cannot be obtained, to ensure that the employees have no unsupervised contact with youths until the clearances are received.
- DYCD should adequately review the service providers’ records to confirm that the required clearances are obtained timely and that providers ensure that employees have no unsupervised contact with youths until such clearances are obtained.
To read Comptroller Stringer’s audit of DYCD’s crisis shelter programming, click here.
