Minnesota’s Department of Human Services commissioner resigns

Jodi Harpstead, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, announced her resignation Monday. She will leave the department Feb. 3.

Gov. Tim Walz appointed Harpstead in 2019 to lead the massive agency, which administers federal health care and food assistance programs, homelessness and housing resources and disability services, among other programs. The agency accounts for nearly one-third of the state budget.

Harpstead oversaw DHS as the Legislature split it in three, placing some of the agency’s responsibilities in the newly-created departments of Children, Youth and Families and Direct Care and Treatment.

“I’m pleased that we were able to balance new, stronger process controls with greater responsiveness to community partners, worked with the DHS grants and contracts team to imagine a re-design of the agency’s thousands of grants, and built an unparalleled team of strong senior leaders,” Harpstead said in a press release announcing her departure.

The agency faced criticism during Harpstead’s tenure for its failure to follow its own grant management policies. An April 2024 audit found that the agency didn’t follow procedures for avoiding conflicts of interest and gauging whether nonprofits were financially stable enough to receive state grants.

The agency has also struggled to rein in fraud in recent years. DHS had contracts with more than two dozen individuals facing criminal charges in the Feeding our Future fraud case. DHS is also investigating a bevy of autism service providers on suspicion of fraud.

Gov. Tim Walz announced an anti-fraud initiative earlier this month, including an executive order and proposed legislation to catch and stop the theft of public money from safety net programs after numerous audits, prosecutions and investigations uncovered massive fraud schemes that have misappropriated hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars.

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