Feds Say Senior Center Still Violating Grant Rules

Michael Levine/Civil Beat

WASHINGTON — A Wahiawa senior center remains in violation of federal grants rules, according to a Jan. 12 letter to Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Federal officials are giving the city until the end of June 2012 to bring ORI into compliance with Community Development Block Grants requirements, or the city will have to repay a portion of the $7.9 million in federal funds that it gave to ORI over the course of a decade.

HUD is also giving the city until the end of January to report how much ORI charges for use of its facilities. The city was required to provide this information in October 2011, but missed the deadline, HUD says. The federal agency wants to know ORI's fee structures to determine whether the low-income clients that ORI's facilities were built to serve are being precluded from using it.

While HUD did say it "notes that the City and County of Honolulu (City) and its subrecipients are making progress in addressing the CDBG findings and concerns," it said it continued to have concerns.

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