Denver’s homeless encampment enforcement program officials still do not know how much money has been spent on the program or if contracted providers are performing to agreed-upon standards, according to city auditors.

In April 2023, Denver Auditor Timothy O’Brien audited how city agencies responded to homeless encampments and identified several risks involving compliance with laws and a legal settlement, equitable access to stored belongings, data input and monitoring, invoice and contract oversight, and encampment expense tracking. 

Despite agreeing to implement all 36 recommendations, a follow-up audit in March found the city had only fully implemented six, partially implemented 11, and failed to implement the remaining 11.

Eight recommendations from the previous audit were not reviewed as those findings centered on Denver’s Unauthorized Encampment Response Program, which no longer exists and was replaced by Mayor Mike Johnston’s All In Mile High program, auditors noted.

“When this audit report was initially released in early 2023, it was really a welcome addition to the conversation about how we could transform this response in our city on the transition to the Johnston administration in December of 2023,” Senior Advisor for Homelessness Cole Chandler told the audit committee on Thursday. “This was something that was part and parcel of our conversation about how we really would transform encampment response.”

Auditors pointed out that the city is still not fully tracking expenses related to homeless encampments or sufficiently monitoring invoices and contract performance.

While some progress has been made over the past four months, auditors said that without documented practices, the city could not be “fully transparent about its spending on encampment-related efforts or adequately assess whether it is spending money in the right areas.”

This places the city at risk of paying for services that were not received and may complicate the efforts to hold contractors accountable for the agreed-upon work, auditors said.

O’Brien said he’d like to see progress on the matter.

Andy Phelps, director of the city’s encampment response, said the city has now developed a specialized document tag and provided training to all city agencies of how to use it.

“So if there are any invoices related to homelessness response, they will now utilize a Workday tag so we can keep track of those expenses,” Phelps said. “We have also asked every city agency to let us know which of their staff are primarily assigned to a homelessness response, so we can now pull a report on that.”

Auditors also noted lingering risks with how the city manages and stores personal property belonging to those moved from encampments into other forms of shelter.

Findings included discrepancies with inventory spreadsheets and the security of storage facilities during hours of operation.

Several agencies within Denver are responsible for responding to areas with encampments in accordance with ordinances, regulations, and the 2019 Lyall Settlement, which requires the city to provide notice before clearing homeless camps. These agencies include the Mayor’s Office, the City Attorney’s Office, the Departments of Public Health and Environment, Transportation and Infrastructure, Parks and Recreation, Housing Stability, Public Safety, Denver police, Denver fire and Denver Human Services.

Denver’s Department of Housing Stability, one of 10 city agencies responsible for homeless encampment response across the city, was also tagged by auditors late last year for similar findings.

Auditors found that HOST, despite spending millions of dollars on shelter facilities and services, lacked financial oversight and effective monitoring systems to ensure providers and vendors remained in compliance with contracts.