'Wasting away'

The sad legacy of the District's HIV/AIDS agency

THE MORASS of fraud and dysfunction at the District's HIV/AIDS Administration revealed in "Wasting Away," the two-day exposé by Post staff writer Debbie Cenziper, is sickening. Scarce housing dollars went to assistance programs with little or no oversight or accounting of how they were spent. There was sloppy record-keeping and falsified documentation. Conflicts of interest abounded. What red flags that were raised were ignored. And many in need went without as phone calls went unanswered, and services that were promised were either not forthcoming or poorly delivered.

The Post stories examined the record of the HIV/AIDS Administration during the years 2004 to 2008 and specifically cast a troubling eye on the agency's housing arm, which at the time was run by Debra Rowe. During that time, millions of dollars were ill-spent. Miracle Hands, one nonprofit organization, received $4.5 million in grants in those five years, including $400,000 to fund renovations of a job-training center that still hasn't opened. Ms. Rowe's son worked for Miracle Hands, and her father and uncle worked for the nightclub operated next door by the group's founder, Cornell Jones. Neither Ms. Rowe nor Mr. Jones saw a conflict in this.

Much changed when Mayor Adrian M. Fenty took office in 2007. Later that year, he hired the highly regarded Shannon L. Hader to lead the troubled agency, now called the HIV/AIDS Hepatitis, STD and Tuberculosis Administration (HAHSTA). Within six months, Ms. Rowe had left the agency and Dr. Hader had begun the slow process of bringing oversight and accountability to an agency that lacked both. For instance, the unwieldy system of 11 separate groups charged with dispensing housing support has been replaced with one point of contact. Funding is now contingent on fiscal and program performance reviews conducted by the agency. Federal housing dollars now go to rent and emergency housing, not renovations and job training.

But more must be done to fully transform HAHSTA from an emblem of waste, fraud and abuse into a model of service delivery for a vulnerable population. In a city where 3 percent of the total population is living with HIV/AIDS, anything less is no longer acceptable.