May 2, 2025
State auditor, homeless service groups, battle over what’s needed to audit programs
November 18, 2024 4:37 PM in News
Source: WBRZ
By: Jordan Ponzio
BATON ROUGE - A case involving homeless service groups in the state and the state auditor will move forward after a Monday hearing at the 19th Judicial Court in Baton Rouge.
Unity of Greater New Orleans and similar organizations sued in August after state auditors demanded that they hand over the names, Social Security numbers, medical histories and other records involving their clients. The state says it needs the information to gauge how well the agencies are spending millions of dollars in federal funding. The groups supporting the homeless say releasing the data will violate federal privacy protections.
Jenifer Schaye, representing the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, said Monday at the hearing that under a legislative subpoena, they are able to review those records.
She said the state has no intent to put personal information in the audit reports, but needs to examine the millions of dollars going through the organizations.
John Campbell, who is representing the Louisiana Services Network, said after the hearing that the subpoenas go too far.
"These broad subpoenas that they issued, were very broad, and they request information my clients don't even have and they request information that my clients didn't even enter into the system, and they request information that has nothing to do" with what the state needs, Campbell said. “I think it’s an extreme overreach of power that the Legislative Auditor does not have.”
Judge Beau Higginbotham did grant the case to move forward, they will return to court Jan. 6.