More Stimulus Money Misspent

The March 7, 2012 Detroit News reports on where that 2009 stimulus money went.  It turns out that $11 million was given to Detroit to set up a program to help low income people who were looking for work obtain appropriate clothing for job interviews.  

Now, you might think the idea itself is ridiculous, but it really isn't.  There are people so poor that the only clothes that they have are not going to make a good impression.  Many years ago, when I worked as an employment agent in Los Angeles, we had a computer programmer come in and ask for our help.  He had been sober for a year, after his alcoholism had cost him his job, his wife, and his home.  He was living in a flophouse downtown, and was ready to look for work.  His suit was dirty (and suits were absolutely required for job interviews in the 1970s), so we paid to get his suit drycleaned, found employers willing to interview a person with a good job record before the bottle won, and in a couple of weeks, we found him a job.  The pay wasn't great, because the employer was taking a risk, but a year later, he was still working, and everyone was happy.  (And we were happy, too, because we earned a commission placing him.)

So how many people did this $11 million program dress for success?  Two.  Not 200.  Two.

Detroit — Part of an $11 million grant intended to provide business attire to 400 low-income job-seekers instead helped only two people, an audit of the city's Department of Human Services has found.

The audit, conducted by the city's auditor general for the period from July 2009 to September 2011, found the department failed to control the operations and finances of a boutique that was to provide the clothes.

The department did not safeguard grant funds or create an inventory for the clothing, the audit found.

Among the most telling findings, which will be discussed today during a City Council committee meeting, is that a third-party contractor advanced $148,000 to a downtown Detroit clothing store and opened an account, but did not include the city on the account.

As much as I want to blame the Obama Administration for this, the failure was Detroit city government.  But it does explain how so much stimulus money went out, and produced so few jobs.