An audit report gave Denver residents their first comprehensive look into the city’s homeless shelter system following Mayor Mike Johnston’s efforts to curb the crisis during his first term.

In late November, Denver Auditor Timothy O’Brien released an audit report that revealed the city’s Department of Housing Stability (HOST), which oversees many of Denver’s homeless shelter operations, lacked financial oversight and effective monitoring systems to ensure providers of shelters remained in compliance with contracts.

The report came even as Johnston already faced criticism over significant cost overruns for his homelessness campaign.

In June, the City Council learned that the Johnston administration was on track to spend $155 million between July 2023 and December 2024 — $65 million more than what he had previously promised.

Auditors found that HOST, despite spending millions of dollars on shelter facilities and services, did not specifically track such expenditures during the audit period.

Auditors also concluded that the department failed to adequately restrict access to sensitive information stored on a shared computer drive.

City employees not working for the agency’s accounts payable team had access to a shared drive folder, where shelter guests’ personal information was stored, including rental verification sheets with the names and addresses of tenants, birth certificate orders with each client’s name, their parents’ names, contact information and place of birth.

Johnston’s office pushed back, stating the audit report on Denver’s shelter system referenced data and information from more than eight months ago and was not an accurate representation of the current state of the city’s shelter system. The mayor’s office also said the audit did not acknowledge the city’s “substantial progress” in reducing homelessness.