The Emergency Rental Assistance Program was developed in response to the pandemic and was implemented swiftly to meet the needs of low-income tenants affected by Covid-19. The program design involves fourteen partner agencies and their varying accounting systems. In March 2021, UWMC began this eme...
The Emergency Rental Assistance Program was developed in response to the pandemic and was implemented swiftly to meet the needs of low-income tenants affected by Covid-19. The program design involves fourteen partner agencies and their varying accounting systems. In March 2021, UWMC began this emergency program with an existing system, the Smart Referral Network (SRN) software, which was adapted in order to quickly launch the program. In March of 2022, the SRN tool was replaced with a software system (Neighborly) more specifically designed to administer and report on ERAP. The new data system facilitates reconciliation to the detailed payment data. Management agrees that the expenditures for the reporting period were overstated and accepts the recommendation along with implementing the following corrective action. UWMC conducted a comprehensive reconciliation of program data to financial expenditure records of its partnering agencies through June 30, 2022. In the current fiscal year, all partnering agencies are required to submit program data through the online Neighborly software along with providing a general ledger report that supports and is reconciled to the data submitted prior to receiving reimbursement. This new procedure was put in place for reimbursements effective January 1, 2023 forward. For reimbursements from July 1, 2022 ? December 31, 2022, we are going to reconcile past reimbursement requests to the partner agency general ledger report retroactively. The UWMC staff member overseeing these reconciliations with support from the UWMC Finance Department is: Kelly DeWolfe, Community Impact Director, Financial Stability kelly.dewolfe@unitedwaymcca.org (831)318-1997