Audit: Suffolk shelter owes $546,000

A homeless shelter operator owes Suffolk $546,000 for charging for workers who were allowed to sleep on overnight shifts, a top official's Jaguar car lease and for buildings and workers that were used in non-county programs, a county audit said.

The 2005 audit of Haven House/Bridge Inc. disallows nearly 25 percent of the $2.2 million the Brentwood-based nonprofit billed for homeless adults and families at a half-dozen shelters in Brentwood and Huntington. It also runs four emergency homeless sites in Huntington Station.

"While the shelter provides a good and needed service, at the same time they are required to abide by the same regulations as other homeless shelters," said Comptroller Joseph Sawicki Jr., who conducted the audit. "It makes no sense to pay staff to sleep on the job."

Bruno LaSpina, Haven House chief executive, called the audit one-sided and emphasized there were "no findings of a lack of client services or administrative wrongdoing or self-dealing." He said allowing staff to sleep on overnight shifts is an "industrywide standard and there's nothing unusual about that."

LaSpina said social service officials never told Haven House its practices were improper. "To say their rules are vague is to be very generous," he said.

Gregory J. Blass, county social services commissioner, said LaSpina was told repeatedly about the rules and changed his practices several years ago.

"He charged us for sleeping employees, rent and insurance on a building we didn't use and costs and repairs of a luxury car that were his alone," Blass said. "This is a clumsy and desperate diversion."

Sawicki's largest disallowance was $216,000 because the shelter operator "improperly permitted employees to sleep during the overnight work shift," even though the agency agreed to provide 24-hour-a-day supervision. Sawicki said another operator has been dunned for similar practices and made repayments.

"Those supervisors have a huge responsibility to make sure clients and their children are safe and no one is unattended," Sawicki said.

The comptroller also disallowed expenses totaling $8,419 for the lease, maintenance and insurance of a Jaguar used by LaSpina. While LaSpina said he pays one-third of the cost of the car from personal funds, Sawicki said there was no record of any such reimbursement. Blass said the department disallowed use of a luxury car, though LaSpina disputed the statement.