Tag: Department of Human Resources

Group home founder protests state rejection of renewed funding

by | June 13, 2013 | | 0 |

REVISED AND CORRECTED: The Maryland Board of Public Works on Wednesday approved 44 new contracts for child residential care services in locations throughout Maryland totaling over $364 million over five years.

But one Montgomery County provider did not win an award for a group home that the state and Montgomery County have previously invested in, virtually ensuring the foreclosure of the Sandy Spring group home, its founder said .Hattie Washington of Aunt Hattie’s Place Inc. vociferously protested the lack of funding.

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Child support administrators make progress on reforms

by | March 6, 2013 | | 4 |

Within the past few months, the Department of Human Resources has made significant progress in resolving the issues raised by the Office of Legislative Audits concerning their Child Support Enforcement Administration, auditors said. But senators reviewing the department budget are pushing for more changes before they release some funding to the agency.

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Senators dismayed at Human Resources Department’s repeated problems

by | January 30, 2013 | , , | 1 |

State senators on a budget subcommittee said that they were dismayed by the abysmal results of the state’s most recent audit of its Department of Human Resources, which distributes welfare, foster care, and other social services to needy Marylanders.

Its 2012 audit revealed hundreds of financial and ethical improprieties committed by state social workers between 2008 and 2011, including 77 repeat findings of mistakes that were discovered by auditors five years earlier.

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Auditors find continuing problems at county social service agencies

by | May 23, 2012 | | 6 |

County social service agencies don’t do a good job of tracking foster children, leave federal funding on the table, have missing files on welfare checks and grant food stamps to too many ineligible people, a new state audit found.

These problems and a host of others on documentation and control were found in some of the largest social service agencies in the state, and scores of the issues were repeat errors that had been found in previous audits.

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Social services offices drastically understaffed while needs increased, study says

by | June 10, 2011 | , | 2 |

As state dollars got tighter and average incomes got lower, the state’s social services offices were nearly 1,100 employees and $50 million short of what was needed to meet demand according to a new study from the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute.By the institute’s calculations, the state needs 640 more case managers and 241 more clerks, along with 94 more supervisors. Many of these missing employees would work for the state in local offices, and they are most likely to work for the Department of Human Resources.

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Less demand for group homes saves state $126 million

by | March 24, 2011 | | 0 |

The Board of Public Works approved $245 million in two-year contracts with 71 different providers of residential child care services for the Department of Human Resources on Wednesday. The contracts cost the state about $126 million less than in 2008, because fewer children need those services.
Ted Dallas, interim secretary of the Department of Human Resources, said that before the department implemented a new approach to foster services in 2007, they needed about 2,200 beds for young people in residential care. The contracts approved on Wednesday provide 1,376 beds in residential care, and Dallas said the amount of young people needing that kind of care is continuing to drop.

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Maryland faces $34M shortfall in short-term welfare program

by | January 28, 2011 | , | 2 |

If Congress does not approve additional funds for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, the Maryland Department of Human Resources will be scrambling to offset a $34 million shortfall.

The TANF program, funded by the federal government and administered here by Human Resources, help families with short-term financial needs. Every year, Maryland receives a base grant of $229 million, according to interim Human Resources Secretary Ted Dallas. The program has also received money from the federal stimulus program, as well as TANF contingency funds, set aside for states with large caseload increases.

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State government uses Facebook to “friend” Marylanders

by | December 13, 2010 | | 0 |

Several Maryland state government agencies are discovering that there’s a lot to “like” on Facebook.

The social networking site, which boasts more than 500 million users worldwide, is free; offers an easy way to share information, videos and pictures; and is becoming a social necessity for anyone with a computer.

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