An anti-poverty agency has suspended operations in Milwaukee. The Social Development Commission (SDC) provides food services, child care, and educational support.
Earlier this year, the agency admitted to misallocating funds. Staffing cuts followed, and a state audit was ordered. Then, last month – operations abruptly stopped, leaving many in limbo and in need of support.
Gina Lee Castro and Cary Spivak, investigative journalists from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, have been reporting on the issues plaguing SDC.
Last month, CEO Dr. George Hinton, announced that there were misallocated funds in the organization. He then resigned while and the remaining workers were laid off with the doors officially closing on April 25th. How do things get to this point?
"You got a combination of incompetence. This stuff just ain't supposed to happen. And they operate pretty much out of public view," explains Spivak. "An agency that gets very little coverage but has a budget of about 30 million or so...it's a pretty good recipe for problems when you have that much money and that little oversight."
Their absence has been prominently felt in many daycares around the city that depended on the SDC's Youth Food Service Program. "They've been spending hundreds of dollars each week to support that [need]," says Castro. "Services from Milwaukee County or Milwaukee Schools are really focused on, like school-based food. So, that's a major loss."
The latest issues are bringing doubts to the future of the organization. "So, I think right now the future of SDC. Would be a question mark of, 'does it continue?' And if it does, what type of condition it will be?" says Spivak. Castro adds how the Mayor's office has halted all payments on invoice from the SDC.
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