A grant lost is funding gained

Elise Gee

COSTA MESA -- Having the county of Orange lose a $1 million federal grant

application under a pile of boxes earlier this year could have been the

best thing to happen to a 10-shelter collaborative led by Orange Coast

Interfaith Shelter.To make up for the error, the county this month

coughed up a $300,000 contract to fund the collaborative’s program for

one year so that they can apply for funds next year.

Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter officials applied for the department of

Housing and Urban Development grant in June on behalf of nine other

agencies. But when they called to find out how they were ranked, the

county told them they weren’t even on the list.

The news caused total panic, said Sheri Barrios, executive director of

the Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter.

“Everyone was upset,” Barrios said. “The county was upset as well. We

couldn’t believe it.”

The group’s grant writer had spent about five months working with the

other nine agencies preparing the grant proposal, Barrios said.

Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter had submitted and received a receipt for

a box of 20 copies of their application for the grant, which requested

more than $300,000 a year for a three-year period.

County officials in the department of Housing and Community Development

said the error occurred while the department was being reorganized and

people were moving out of the office.

“Somebody inadvertently put it where it shouldn’t have been and placed it

with a number of other boxes,” said Paula Burrier-Lund, director for

Housing and Community Development. “I want to make it very clear this was

our responsibility completely. We signed for it and we misplaced it.

Unfortunately, we didn’t discover this until it was too late.”

Barrios said she feels the county has gone overboard to remedy the

situation in a fair way. In addition to making reparations to Orange

Coast Interfaith Shelter for its mistake, the county started a new policy

notifying agencies that its grant applications had been received.

The program proposed by Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter and nine other

shelters asked for funding that would help the homeless and disadvantaged

move into permanent housing. For example, the money would help with items

such as car registration or repairs, counseling, child care and

employment assistance.

The grant application wasn’t discovered missing until after the board had

already approved the county’s application to the federal department of

Housing and Urban Development, said Pam Leaning, a county Housing and

Community Development manager.

The county board of supervisors reviews grant applications and ranks them

before sending them on to the federal level for approval.

When the mistake was discovered, it was recommended to the board to fund

the first year of the collaborative’s program to make up for the loss of

the application. The board voted unanimously on Sept. 21 to provide

$317,000 to Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter and the collaborative so it

could begin the program while waiting to apply again next year.

Supervisor Jim Silva, who represents the 2nd District, was unavailable

for comment Thursday and Friday.

“Our feeling was we were denied the right to compete in that process,”

Barrios said.

But there’s also no way to know if Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter would

have qualified at the federal level for grant money. No one at the Sept.

21 public hearing spoke against the proposal that the county fund Orange

Coast Interfaith Shelter, Leaning said.

“We wanted to be fair to the other applicants, but we alsowanted to be

fair to Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter,” she said.

Officials at county social services agencies said it was difficult for

them to criticize the county because as nonprofits, they rely on the

county to administer grants for the funding in which their agencies rely

on.

Leaning characterized the lost application as a “fluke” in the

department’s 28-year history of administering federal grants. However,

Leaning did say prior to being reorganized, the department had been

haunted by criticism over how it managed some programs.

She added that the department began a new policy after losing Orange

Coast Interfaith Shelter’s application in June. In addition to issuing a

receipt upon delivery of the applications, the county will send follow-up

letters to the agencies confirming receipt of the materials.

“What we’ve done now is close the loop,” Leaning said.

As for Barrios, she said the 10-shelter collaborative plans on

resubmitting its grant application next year and is satisfied with the

way the county addressed the problem.

“They did everything they needed to do to remedy it,” Barrios said. “If

they hadn’t done it, it would have jeopardized the whole HUD process. It

would have [shown] the procedure wasn’t followed.”