All of the fraud we’ve witnessed—from "COVID"-era PPP loans to the recent findings in Minnesota—could have been largely avoided by doing one simple thing: verifying information in person. Physically going out, confirming identities, and validating circumstances would have stopped much of this abuse before it ever happened. 
That is exactly what we do.
 

Before any application can be approved and any funds awarded applicants must undergo an in-home visit from one of our organizations advocates. During the visit they will confirm residence status, number of adults and children living in the residence as well as provide of income, bank account balances (prepaid AND regular), lease agreements and any other necessary information requested. If the residence is managed by an on-site property management company, such as an apartment complex, our advocate would meet with those individuals at that time also. 

We have found that these field visit quickly bring to light any misrepresentations individuals have made during the application process. Although it is not our only approach to combat fraudulent claims being approved it certainly gives us a huge advantage in the fight against them. 

We understand that cost & safety are the two biggest factors organizations consider when choosing to use an online or automated verification process. That certainly was the case but present day seems to be a totally different animal. The volume of fraudulent claims that we are seeing get approved (estimates say it could allegedly be as much as half of the funds allocated in Minnesota) and the boldness of the individuals perpetrating the fraud is unprecedented.  We feel that the cost benefit of returning to field visits will be worth it for the reduction in fraud. 

Advocacy safety are more of a risk today then ever before. For this reason we require that any field visits be done with a minimum of two individuals with at least one male in the group. They must enter each residence together and remain together for the duration of the visit. Never at any time are they to be out of line-of-site with one another. In certain high-risk cases we have had advocate accompanied by plainclothes security guards provided from local security companies. Use of security guards also depends on the current political climate in the area, which can be tumultuous to say the least.