In 2014, NIK focuses mainly on measures taken by the general government sector supporting Polish families. Getting out of homelessness, preventing its expansion and activating the homeless in professional terms - are important elements of the pro-family policy, in this case when a family member is homeless. Usually these are men, but it happens that women, also single mothers with children, have nowhere to live.
NIK is having a close look at the following:
- how and to what extent are municipalities aware of the scale of homelessness?
- are there enough places in homeless shelters to help all the needy?
- what does cooperation among various institutions look like: Municipal Social Welfare Centres, Police, Municipal Guards, Emergency Service, hospitals?
- what has been done to prevent the spread of homelessness (e.g. professional activation, help to get out of alcoholism)?
- how are public funds for the homeless support used?
- what are accommodation standards in dosshouses, shelters and social welfare institutions of different kind?
- what is the progress of implementation of the government programmes concerning homelessness and social housing? How are individual homeless assistance programmes executed?
- how are social lodgings allocated?
The audit is just finishing in Warsaw, Katowice, Łódź, Szczecin and Bydgoszcz. 38 different entities are covered by the audit, mainly social welfare centres and homeless shelters.
At the beginning of February, NIK branches will start audits in other provinces where they will check what support is provided to homeless persons.
Tasks related to the homeless assistance are financed from local governments’ own funds. Besides, every year non-governmental entities and organisations are given grants from the state budget to financially support the end homelessness programmes.
Last years’ audits.
In the audit report of 2011 concerning among others the municipalities’ assistance to the homeless NIK confirmed the following:
- In most audited municipalities support was provided to the persons with no place to live who wanted to use homeless shelters, lodging houses or warm-up places. In winter time, though, the homeless’ needs were more intense which required opening ad hoc lodging places.
- In some municipalities, that did not have their own shelters, few homeless persons were sent to the facilities located in neighbouring municipalities, financing the cost of their stay there.
- The audited municipalities provided shelter to the homeless mainly by non-governmental organisations (Caritas, Polish Committee for Social Welfare, St. Albert Brotherhood of Mercy and others) with which they signed contracts.
- In some municipalities the strategic tasks related to homelessness were defined in general terms, without naming measurable objectives or indicators to assess their execution. It was caused e.g. by the lack of funds for the construction and maintenance of premises for the homeless and small needs in that area.
- The objectives defined in some of the municipalities’ strategies were met above all as a result of cooperation with non-governmental organisations but also thanks to the execution of investment tasks (few but still). One municipality (Pszczyna) did not open a shelter for the homeless, although it was part of the town’s strategy.
Significant irregularities were identified during a preliminary audit in 2012:
- municipalities did not know exactly how many homeless people there were in their area,
- aid was provided mainly on an ad hoc basis,
- agreements with organisations leading lodging houses to find places for homeless persons were not concluded properly.
Coordination of the pro-family policy in 2014
In 2014, the Supreme Audit Office is going to conduct audits on the pro-family policy coordination.
The state outlays for families of about PLN 50 billion per year are dispersed among eight ministries and are related to nearly 50 different ways of financing (financial streams). All those expenses, as well as the ones made by local government units, make up the state pro-family policy.
In this audit NIK is going to check:
- what legal, organisational and financial tools the state has at its disposal to shape the pro-family policy;
- which of these tools are missing to execute this policy even better;
- which of them are used properly and which are not;
- how is the pro family policy coordinated? How about coordination of legal, organisational and financial tools used for its execution? Who does that and in what scope?
Another important aspect will be the way of coordinating these actions as part of the government organisation. NIK wants the audit to answer the question to which extent the existing solutions consistently support the processes of setting up and functioning of families.
