Reports

The California Department of Housing and Community Development administers the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) program, which received $316 million in federal funding to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic (ESG-CV) for individuals who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Th e following report details our conclusion that the department failed to expedite access to federal funding to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the homeless population.

The economic shutdowns in early 2020 led to historically high numbers of UI claims in a very short time (claim surge), and further shutdowns began in December 2020, raising the potential for additional spikes in unemployment. This audit reviewed EDD’s response to the claim surge, its handling of the resulting backlog of unpaid claims, and the assistance it has provided to individuals through its call center

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provides qualifying individuals with a recovery rebate (economic impact payment) of up to $1,200 (or $2,400 if married and filing jointly), plus up to $500 for each qualifying child. Congress added a number of exemptions concerning the economic impact payments within the CARES Act; however, it did not exempt child support debt. According to estimates, up to 10.5 million noncustodial parents are delinquent in their payment of child support and could have their economic impact payments intercepted. Based on the significant impact that the CARES Act will have on the collection of delinquent child support due to the intercept of economic impact payments, we determined that the focus of our audit would be to determine whether selected State(s) have policies and procedures in place to ensure that State child support programs collected and distributed delinquent child support under the Federal Tax Refund Offset program.