Auditor General Denise Hanrahan has released her audit report on the Horizons 106 transitional housing facility, finding that it incurred unanticipated costs and that it was underutilized.
The facility has cost taxpayers more than $24-million to date, and the report highlights numerous issues related to procurement, management, and oversight of the facility.
Hanrahan concludes that government “did not adequately plan, procure, manage, or oversee the….initiative in a manner that ensured accountable and cost-effective delivery.”
(VOCM News)
The report notes that some aspects of the initiative were developed under urgent conditions, and the accelerated approach resulted in decisions being made before the full scope of what was needed was known, including incomplete planning and limited documentation.
As of December 2025, the facility had cost the province a total of $24-million, $15.5-million of that in rent. That amount, according to the AG, falls short of what was publicly disclosed by $1.7-million.
For the 34 occupants up to last December, the AG concludes that the total cost per-person was about $706,000.
The AG says the facility has also been under-capacity. With 105 rooms available, residency was capped at 75. As a result, she says 30 rooms went unused at a cost of $1.5 million annually.
Other issues discovered include NL Housing not following its own 10-year-old Supportive Living Program Policy, and what the AG calls ineffective oversight.
The AG has made 11 recommendations, including improvements to contract monitoring and enforcing reporting and accountability requirements.
