The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless has been performing outreach services since March without the Denver City Council approving a contract that is supposed to pay for that work.
The glitch surfaced Tuesday during discussion of a $525,000 contract prepared for consideration by the council.
Council members Charlie Brown and Jeanne Faatz had objected to the contract Monday night, saying the council couldn’t afford it. The contract is now scheduled for consideration by the council Monday.
Jay Morein, director of business management for the Department of Human Services, said his agency gave the coalition the go-ahead to start spending the money before the council got a chance to consider it.
“I don’t like this, Jay,” Brown said. “I don’t think you can run a city that way. I don’t think you can run a department that way.”
Morein said it was an oversight that would not occur again. He said delays occurred while the city waited for the coalition to renew insurance policies and because of miscommunication between him and other city staffers.
Council members Doug Linkhart and Rick Garcia pointed out that although the practice of allowing contractors to do work before council approval of a contract isn’t exactly standard practice, it’s not unheard of.
Actually, only $69,000 of the contract will come from the city’s beleaguered general fund, which faces a $120 million deficit over the next 17 months. The general fund money will be taken from an appropriation the council approved months ago to shore up homeless services.
The rest of the contract will come from property taxes dedicated to the Denver Department of Human Services. Department officials originally had expected to spend $5.7 million this year from the dedicated mill levy, but they cut that amount by $1.5 million because of slumping property-tax revenue.
The council moved $325,000 in general fund money to the homeless programs back in March.
Morein and other agency officials point out that local dollars have leveraged federal, state, foundation and private-sector dollars to help generate $46.1 million in new resources for the homeless in the first four years of the 10-year Road Home plan.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
