Detroit Restores $100,000 in ‘Misplaced’ Federal Grant Funds for HIV/AIDS Assisted-Living, Food Program

The Detroit Department of Human Services on Monday restored $100,000 in federal funding to Wellness House -- a not-for-profit HIV/AIDS organization that helps operate food and assisted-living programs for low-income, HIV-positive people -- after the city found the funds, which had been "missing" for four months, the Detroit Free Press reports. The grant, which comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and is administered by the city DHS, was "misplaced" into another city agency's account because of a coding error, which has been corrected, according to Dwayne Haywood, director of the city DHS, the Free Press reports. The error marks the second time in four years that Wellness House faced closure because the city mismanaged funds, according to the Free Press. In 2000, the city delayed a federal grant contract for nearly 15 months and subsequently lost $26,000 of the funding. During that time, Wellness House, which provides food to 3,000 HIV-positive people and assisted-living housing to 25 people, exhausted its savings, extended its credit and built up "thousands" of dollars in debt, according to the Free Press. In 2003, HUD ordered that city officials improve their grant tracking procedures and cited the city for "unusually long delays" in federal grant contract approval, according to the Free Press (Bello, Detroit Free Press, 8/31).