NYC social services department accused of poorly managing CityFHEPS

NEW YORK — A scathing new audit report says poor management of a New York City-run rental assistance program led to major problems for families in need of housing.
The state comptroller says the process of finding your new home and getting approved to move in takes an average of 10 months under the city’s Family Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, or CityFHEPS, program.
The audit report says those delays are due to weak monitoring and oversight from the city’s Department of Social Services.
Back in July, affordable housing advocates told CBS News New York Investigates that they regularly hear about CityFHEPS recipients struggling to get repairs after they move in. David Lopez, for example, says he emailed the building management for weeks to get his air conditioning fixed, but it didn’t get resolved until CBS News New York’s Tim McNicholas started investigating.
The audit found a lack of regular inspections from the Department of Social Services puts tenants at risk of living in hazardous conditions.
The social services department inspects homes before a tenant moves in, but some affordable housing advocates have called for regular, bi-annual inspections after the lease starts.  
“The New York City Department of Social Services really needs to step up its game in terms of oversight of this program. It’s not serving the people that need the service very well, a lot of inefficiencies that we’ve pointed out,” State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.
The Department of Social Services is aggressively pushing back, saying the audit points to anomalies from a small sample of cases and is “rife with misleading assessments and inaccuracies” and “completely fails to acknowledge the monumental scope of the city’s efforts.”
In a statement, a department spokesperson said:
Back in July, the commissioner told CBS News New York she also works with the housing preservation department regularly to combat bad landlords.