A Denver-based nonprofit advocacy group for the homeless that has received more than $90 million in federal grants refuses to heed official rules on how tax dollars can be spent, according to a government watchdog.
Since 2007, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless — one of the nation’s oldest advocacy groups on behalf of persons living on the streets — has received 591 grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, Social Security Administration and Department of Labor, according to USASpending.gov.
The group, which is a tax-exempt educational foundation, has also received 219 charitable contributions worth more than $16 million, beginning in 2002, according to Foundation Search.
The group reported having 526 full-time employees and more than 400 volunteers on its 2012 IRS Form 990, the most recently available tax return.
But the group’s future eligibility for federal grants could be jeopardized as a result of an investigation by the HUD inspector general that focused on what investigators described as the coalition’s long-standing “unwillingness to follow” and “continually disregarding” government guidance on how tax dollars can be spent.
The IG said the group regularly misallocated and mixed funds received from federal agencies, improperly paid employee expenses, including parking, transit, entertainment and airline ticket costs, and used tax dollars to pay employees working on projects unrelated to the purposes of government grants.
The same problems were first noted in a HUD-IG report in 2003 and repeatedly described in subsequent audits and investigations.
In response, coalition officials said they disagreed and offered alternative interpretations of the federal regulations in question.
In the meantime, the group continued to manage its federal grant activities in a manner contrary to the regulations.
As a result, the IG recommended that HUD obtain an official opinion from its general counsel on the disputed regulations and then “seek administrative actions against the executive director of the coalition for continually disregarding HUD and HUD OIG guidance.”
A spokesman for the coalition did not respond to an Examiner request for comment.
Go here to read the full HUD IG report. 		
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.
