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$858,762 intended to help veterans emerging from homelessness was wasted by the Joint Office of Homeless Services, according to a report released Tuesday by the Auditor鈥檚 Office for the city of Portland.

The Joint Office 鈥� a partnership between the city and Multnomah County 鈥� paid Portland housing nonprofit Do Good Multnomah (DGM) to provide shelter and support services to veterans at a publicly funded apartment complex 鈥� Sandy Studios. An investigation found that the agency took no action as the nonprofit let the 32-unit building become 鈥渦nsafe and unsanitary.鈥�

The auditor鈥檚 investigation was launched last year after a tip was left on a hotline alleging that the Joint Office was paying rent for a property in unlivable condition.

A building inspector in January 2021 found a section of the ceiling had collapsed and the roof had sustained damage and allowed water to seep into the building. Nearly all apartments had 鈥渄angerous鈥� levels of mold.

Three months after the inspection, a KOIN 6 news crew visited the building and found broken plumbing, pest infestations, and holes in ceilings and walls.

Sandy Studios鈥� conditions had been devolving for almost two years without action from the Joint Office, according to the report.

The audit implicated several of the agencies in charge of caring for the property. DGM was the service provider and property manager. However, the nonprofit subcontracted the day-to-day property management duties to Home First Development, a real estate developer.

Neither DGM nor Home First conducted a thorough inspection of the property once they were contracted to manage it, according to the report. Nor was an agreement made with the landlord for specific property repairs to take place before the lease was signed. Instead, DGM and Home First created a list of repairs for the landlord based on their own observations rather than a certified inspection.

No records showed that the landlord made many of the repairs, which included malfunctioning electric wiring and tripping breakers, a hole in the basement floor, missing exhaust screens, a nonworking toilet in a common area, and noncompliant wheelchair ramps.

Joint Office staff rarely visited Sandy Studios, and never walked through the site before or after contracting with DGM, according to the report.

The Joint Office, by policy, completes annual risk assessments of its properties to ensure conditions are safe and tenants are receiving services, according to the report. But no risk assessment was performed at Sandy Studios in either 2019 or 2020. A risk assessment performed in 2021, one month before the ceiling collapsed, noted no serious problems.

The auditor鈥檚 report offered four recommendations to the Joint Office:

1. Ensure staff are knowledgeable about contract requirements and prepared to enforce them.
2. To address role conflicts, separate employees charged with contract oversight and enforcement from those responsible for advocating for and supporting nonprofit providers who may be subject to enforcement.
3. Develop compliance checklists and guidance to ensure oversight is comprehensive and includes prompts to review high-risk areas.

4. Follow up on problems identified by service providers in their quarterly performance reports and monitor action plans; document when they have been resolved.

In a four-page response to the recommendations, the Joint Office鈥檚 interim director, Shannon Singleton, stated that some assertions were 鈥渄emonstrably inaccurate鈥� or 鈥渆xaggerated.鈥� She disputed the statement that Joint Office staff did not walk the site. She added that there were on-site walk-throughs with DGM and Home First during which staffers went through their punch lists as repairs were made in December 2018, January 2019 and January 2020.

Singleton stated that the report failed to consider the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacerbated Sandy Studios residents鈥� mental health issues and made property repairs more difficult.

The Joint Office has begun restructuring team members鈥� roles and responsibilities, hired new people to handle facilities work, and changed and refined its processes, Singleton added.

Sandy Studios was condemned shortly after the January 2021 inspection.