We audited the City and County of San Francisco (City) because its grant of more than $8.7 million was one of the largest Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) grants in the State of California. Our objective was to determine whether the City disbursed HPRP funding in accordance with program requirements. The City paid for HPRP services for ineligible participants and participants whose eligibility was not supported. It also paid for ineligible activities. We reviewed 31 case files and found that 4 participants were ineligible and 10 did not have adequate documentation to support eligibility. We also identified 17 additional participants that the City had reviewed during monitoring whose eligibility was not adequately supported. Thus, we questioned the City’s use of more than $63,000 in HPRP funds.

We recommend that HUD require the City to (1) reimburse the program $8,820 from non-Federal funds for the ineligible participants and activities and determine and reimburse any amounts that have been spent since our review for these participants; (2) provide supporting documentation for participants’ eligibility or reimburse its program accounts $31,172 for participants reviewed who lacked adequate documentation and determine and reimburse any amounts that have been spent since our review for these participants; (3) provide supporting documentation for participants’ eligibility or reimburse its program accounts $23,016 based on the City’s monitoring review and determine and reimburse any amounts that have been spent since our review for these participants; (4) develop and implement procedures to ensure that its subgrantees verify and document participant eligibility in accordance with HPRP requirements; and (5) develop and implement effective monitoring procedures to ensure, at a minimum, that reviews are timely, deficiencies and corrections are clearly documented, and any reimbursements for ineligible participants or participants whose eligibility cannot be determined are repaid to the program.