The Auditor General of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish) says that a housing assistance program initiative under the Directorate General for Immediate Assistance (DGAI) "does not make home visits" to grantees "due to a lack of time." However, the plan requires consideration because it’s performing a community service.

Nuestras Familias (Our Families) aims to help people with basic needs through a grant equivalent to six installments of $ 200 argentine peso, to receive the funds one household member must provide a service in the City’s activities assistance program.

The audit found no evidence that the beneficiaries have done some community work. Even the possibility that various subsidies granted by DGAI went to the same family is suggested because, the report says, "there is a risk that once the period of recovery plan is completed another member of the family may request the subsidy." This is because "the computer system cannot observe a person’s entire family.” 

Moreover, the report states that the DGAI doesn’t know of any unmet demands and shortfalls of the population. The audit also noted that "it is necessary for management to make a strict examination of the application of the basic needs of the population of the City and those who are homeless, in order to plan a more appropriate management.”

On average, the program has for each activity two social workers

The AGCBA’s work approved this year on data from 2008, adds that the team that monitors and evaluates the activity Homeless Families only "has three employees: one responsible for follow-ups, another for administrative tasks and a social worker.”

Meanwhile, the report explains that "there are four employees" who work in the activity Housing Support; directed to low-income families that are housed in hotels; but only one employee is a social worker and is responsible for "monitoring of 964 people."

This last activity aims to give those who were staying in hotels more stable housing solutions or empower them to enter the Buenos Aires Institute of Housing. The AGCBA says that this activity has four "social workers" to be ordered directly from the "monitoring and care" of 1,103 people, fill out forms, advice on legal institutions to solve problems and violence, among other things.

As indicated by the Audit, "during 2008 there were no entering or exiting hotels (1,103) therefore, no subsidies or loans were granted”. 

The report specifies, in turn, that out of the entire program "only four people are employed in the permanent staff" and "95% -of the staff- agents are hired part time."

Hotel Housing Support

The audit determined that the Buenos Aires hotel owners, who still take in beneficiaries, "bill for an extra 71 passengers." In turn, based on a survey completed in 10 of the 56 hotels that are part of the service, the building conditions can be summarized as "deteriorating due to lack of maintenance, non-compliance of architectural barriers, and settings that were not designed for the purposes for which they are used."

Finally, the AGCBA pointed out that the DGAI "does not anticipate control work over the housing conditions of the hotels that house the program’s beneficiaries."