Report Highlights
What We Found
The Auditor’s Office follows up on audit recommendations to support county government accountability.
We found that the Joint Office of Homeless Services (Joint Office) has implemented one recommendation. Additionally, the Joint Office is in the process of implementing five recommendations, but has not implemented two recommendations.
What the Statuses Mean
- Implemented – Auditee has fully implemented, or auditee has resolved the issue to meet the recommendation’s intent.
- In Process – Auditee has started implementation.
- Not Implemented – Auditee has not implemented, or does not intend to implement.
Status of Audit Recommendations
Acknowledgment
The Joint Office of Homeless Services (Joint Office) and contracted homeless service providers face a challenging environment in providing crucial services to Multnomah County community members. Despite the political and public pressures of the homelessness crisis within the county and throughout the United States, they have demonstrated a commitment to helping people who are experiencing hardship. We appreciate all Joint Office staff and leaders who participated in this evaluation, and we are grateful to the service providers who responded to our survey.
About the survey
During this evaluation of the status of recommendations from the 2023 audit, Joint Office of Homeless Services: Providers were frustrated with contract management and communication, we surveyed staff and service providers to learn about their experiences and perspectives about the Joint Office. We used the same survey that we sent to staff and providers for the 2023 audit so that we could determine whether perspectives had changed.
Recommendations Implemented
We consider this recommendation implemented because the Joint Office has hired three Contract Specialist Senior positions, which oversee the contract management process. Additionally, the Joint Office indicated that they have hired a Procurement Analyst Senior for their contracts team. The Joint Office no longer relies on an outside department for assistance with contract management.
Joint Office staff and homeless service providers responded to follow-up surveys we sent that included the same questions from the surveys conducted in the original audit. This allowed us to see whether there were changes in staff and service provider perspectives on how the Joint Office supports their work. One provider said, “[Our contract team] gave us support in understanding contractual requirements, our budget packet and accessing additional funding for capacity.” Another provider commented that, “[the Joint Office has] improved their practices as a manager of public contracts.”
Recommendations In Process
As we noted in our 2023 audit report, we made this recommendation to reduce the planning and communication barriers that were caused by silos among the systems of care (Adult, Families, Youth, and Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence).
The Joint Office shared evidence that they held recurring meetings and project-based, topic-specific meetings that facilitate regular communication with both Joint Office staff and service providers from the different systems of care. One example of recurring meetings is a monthly meeting hosted by the Joint Office adult and family system of care teams that invites homeless shelter providers that work with either system of care to gather for system coordination and training as well as information and resource sharing. An example of project-based, topic-specific meetings is a workgroup of Joint Office staff and service providers representing the adult and family systems of care, which came together to design a two-year community sheltering strategy.
Additionally, the Joint Office held semi-regular provider conferences, with the intention of bringing together Joint Office staff and providers to discuss and problem solve on common issues of concern. The first conference was held virtually in October 2023, and the most recent conference was held in-person in November 2024.
Despite these efforts, providers continued to indicate there is a need to improve communication and reduce silos, such as through the coordination of providers.
Providers had split opinions on the Joint Office’s coordination of providers
Survey question for homeless service providers: How well does the Joint Office do in providing coordination between service providers?
The Joint Office finance team said that they use an informal workaround when dealing with invoice errors to avoid delay in processing large payments. Currently, the county’s finance system requires invoices with discrepancies over $3 to be reviewed and corrected prior to processing payment under the county’s administrative procedure FIN-1, which is in the process of being updated. The Joint Office finance team’s work flow includes a tracker that captures issues with invoices, but they are revising the tool to include markers that better detail payment processing issues to speed up timely payments to providers. They plan to have materials and trainings ready to share with staff and providers around the end of Fiscal Year 2025 (June 30, 2025).
Joint Office program management shared evidence that they have been working on a project during Fiscal Year 2025 (July 2024 through June 2025) around standardization of outcomes and outputs across all contracts by service type through collaborating with providers to gather performance data. They also noted how the Joint Office data team has been working with them to develop effective ways to analyze the data gathered.
Additionally, the Joint Office program management said they are now reviewing current procedures and working on next steps to develop guidance that includes criteria, common situations, and work flows to assist Joint Office staff through evaluating provider performance and adjusting performance measures. They intend to move the project into performance target standardization in fiscal year 2026 (July 2025 through June 2026), with the plan of developing materials and trainings for staff and providers around changing performance measures of providers.
We are considering this recommendation in process because criteria for changing provider performance measures have not yet been developed and communicated to staff and providers. Additionally, survey results showed that providers and staff thought that this was an area that needed to be improved.
For example, a provider commented that, “The [Joint Office] needs to develop budgets and performance measures in collaboration with contracted providers. We have never been included in budgeting or outcome conversations.”
Staff comments from the survey included:
“… there is little to no effort to coordinate with [Joint Office] fiscal and budget staff to properly ensure outcomes being presented or reported are accurate... [there is] no clarity if the effort and expense [of data reporting systems] will lead to being able to accurately report and analyze/evaluate outcomes when it does not include proper input from and coordination with [department] finance/budget [teams].”
Recommendation #7: Joint Office management should ensure they send regular communications to service providers to address policies and goals.
The Joint Office pointed to the meetings described earlier, under Recommendation 1, as addressing this recommendation as well. They also said that many of their recent communications to providers have connected how the Joint Office policies and goals relate to the Homelessness Response Action Plan. Additionally, the Joint Office noted that they send contract-level communications around policies and goals to service providers through contract solicitations and throughout the contract cycle.
However, mixed survey responses from homeless service providers indicated that regular communications to providers to address policies and goals remains an area of improvement.
About 2 out of 3 providers said that the Joint Office did a poor job in providing policies that are easy to understand, worsening from 2022
Survey question for homeless service providers: How well does the Joint Office do in providing policies that are easy to understand?
Providers were split on if the Joint Office provides clear system goals
Survey question for homeless service providers: How well does the Joint Office do in providing clear system goals?
The Joint Office indicated that program management is working with their department’s equity team to build equity work plan monitoring into the standard guidance and tools for contract management that program staff currently use.
The Joint Office planned to provide specific training to contact managers on monitoring equity plans at a program retreat scheduled on January 28, 2025. We consider this in process because the standard guidance and tools for monitoring equity work plans have not been finalized and shared with Joint Office staff. Additionally, survey results show that staff and providers have mixed perspectives on whether equity has been an area of improvement for the department.
More than half of providers still had negative or mixed feedback about the Joint Office's practice of racial equity in 2024
Survey question for homeless service providers: Do you have any feedback about the Joint Office's practice of racial equity?
Provider comments from the survey included:
“We have not received any supports for practicing racial equity despite requests for that support.”
“I believe racial equity is a fundamental value of the [Joint Office]. Training opportunities, guidance with program development, and overall strong support with respect to racial equity are interwoven to all aspects of my relationship with the [department].”
“[The Joint Office] requires an equity plan from providers but has not given any feedback on what's been submitted and had ZERO guidance at the last provider conference.”
Staff comments from the survey about equity were mixed and included:
“Racial equity is lacking tremendously.”
“[The] Joint Office is very strong on developing and implementing racial equity strategies.”
“I don't see that there is consistency in use across the department or how the department is able to evaluate equity in outcomes or provider performance.”
“I appreciate the [department’s] commitment to racial equity… [The Joint Office] also has the largest equity team in the county.”
“[The Joint Office] doesn't currently provide strong guidance to providers on what should be included in an Equity Plan, nor do the contract managers receive explicit training on how to review and evaluate the equity plans that are submitted by providers.”
Recommendations Not Implemented
We consider this recommendation not implemented based on responses from the Joint Office of Homeless Services and analysis of survey responses from homeless service providers. The Joint Office did not agree with this recommendation, although they said they acknowledge and understand the importance of maintaining a balanced approach of advocating for service needs and holding service providers accountable for their contractual commitments. The Joint Office said they provide routine discussions about strategies for balancing those dual roles occurring between program staff and program management, which includes reviews of best practices and tools, as well as problem solving.
However, a couple providers noted frustration with their experience with the Joint Office program teams’ dual roles of advocacy and accountability. They commented:
“[Program] teams we providers work with… regard themselves as advocates for providers but are still expected to enforce contract requirements.”
“It seems now that [Joint Office staff] are being put in a position where they aren't able to support us in key ways anymore and we are struggling.”
We consider this recommendation not implemented based on responses from the Joint Office of Homeless Services, review of materials they provided, and analysis of survey responses from Joint Office staff as well as homeless service providers. The Joint Office said their strategic vision is closely tied to the Homelessness Response Action Plan that the Portland City Council and the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners approved in July 2024, and that they have communicated how the department’s strategic vision fits within the larger Homelessness Response Action Plan to staff and providers in meetings, events, and public communications.
However, the Homelessness Response Action Plan is not directly led by the Joint Office, and we were unable to confirm the existence of a formal strategic vision statement in the documentation they provided to us or on the department’s external and internal websites.
Survey responses also highlight the need to ensure that Joint Office staff and providers are aware of the department’s strategic vision. In 2024, there was a slight decrease in the number of providers who said the Joint Office did a good job providing a countywide strategy for addressing homelessness. Among staff who took our survey, we saw an increase in staff who felt the Joint Office did a good job in this area, but also saw an increase in those who said the department did a poor job in this area.
Less than half of providers said that the Joint Office did a good job in providing a countywide strategy for addressing homelessness in 2024
Survey question for homeless service providers: How well does the Joint Office do in providing a county-wide strategy for addressing homelessness?
Objectives, Scope, & Methodology
The objective of this evaluation was to determine the status of the eight recommendations from the 2023 audit, Joint Office of Homeless Services: Providers were frustrated with contract management and communication. Half of the recommendations (1, 4, 6, and 7) were due on January 1, 2024, while the rest of the recommendations (2, 3, 5, and 8) were due on June 1, 2024.
Audit staff evaluated the status of recommendations based on reviews of documentation and other available evidence, interviews, and the results of the surveys sent to Joint Office staff and homeless service providers.
In the fall of 2022, audit staff conducted a survey of Joint Office staff and homeless service providers during the course of the audit mentioned above. As part of this evaluation of status of recommendations, we resurveyed Joint Office staff and providers to see if things had changed since the initial survey. The survey was open between October 24, 2024 and December 4, 2024.
We sent the survey to the same 45 homeless services providers as for our 2023 audit report and to an additional 28 providers that were listed on the Joint Office’s provider contract list as of October 2024. As with that prior survey, we encouraged provider management to forward the survey to all staff in their organizations. Similarly, we sent the survey to all Joint Office staff, as we did for the 2023 audit report. For the 2023 audit report surveys, we received 69 responses from homeless service providers and 37 responses from Joint Office staff. For this evaluation’s surveys, we received 70 responses from providers and 25 from Joint Office staff. Because we do not know how many providers forwarded the survey to their staff, we are unable to calculate the response rate. The purpose of the survey was to find out generally how perspectives had changed, particularly whether providers continued to experience challenges with the Joint Office.
Updating the Status of a Recommendation
During each audit our office conducts, we develop recommendations intended to improve government operations, particularly with regard to effectiveness, transparency, accountability, and equity. Our goal for evaluating the status of recommendations is to help ensure management implements these recommendations for improvement.
We recognize that after we publish an evaluation on the status of recommendations, management may fully implement a recommendation that we reported was in process or not implemented. Management can then provide evidence to the Auditor demonstrating why the recommendation’s status should be changed in the Auditor’s future reporting. The final decision on whether to change any recommendation’s status rests with the Auditor.
Staff
Michelle Greene, Performance Auditor