An audit released Thursday says Denver's 10-year plan to end homelessness does not collect sufficient data to measure its own progress.
Started in 2005, Denver's Road Home set out to end homelessness in the city by this year, funding a variety of service providers in the city. It's spent $63 million so far, the audit says.
“We have spent all this money but we don’t know if anything is actually getting any better,” Auditor Dennis Gallagher said in response to the findings.
In a discussion following the auditor's presentation, the organization's executive director, Bennie Milliner, pushed back at that assertion. He said his team uses industry standard "point in time" surveys and in-person interviews to inform their activities.
“Our volunteers are trained. They go out -- they don’t just check boxes for bodies. They interact with people, get demographic information. So those that we contact, we know are a good reflection of who the homeless are, their circumstances and where they came from.”
The audit recommends the city improve its data collection efforts in its next homeless plan, which the city will unveil later this year.
