Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Council on Homelessness puts local governments over state audit report that reveals California fails to track how billions of dollars are spent to address the homelessness crisis In the same week, the Los Angeles City Council agreed to pay significant restitution. An outside company paid $2.2 million to audit its program.
Last month, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter of California requested an independent audit of Los Angeles’ homelessness program, saying the city had not done enough in recent years to significantly curb the problem. . City and county officials are also requiring leading homeless service providers to publicly release data about their efforts.
The $2.2 million contract is about half the amount originally requested by Carter’s chosen independent company. It is unclear why the amount was reduced.
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Homeless camps line the streets of Oakland, California, on Friday, March 15, 2024. Homelessness continues to plague the city as neighborhood businesses close due to safety concerns. (DWS for Fox News Digital)
The audit comes after a lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Human Rights Alliance, a coalition of business owners and residents, and a 2020 settlement agreement in which the city promised to build thousands of shelters and clear out homeless encampments. It was claimed that the regulations were not complied with.
The coalition asked Carter to sanction the city for failing to meet the terms of the settlement and pay up to $6.4 million.
“As the city and county of Los Angeles spend record amounts of tax dollars to combat homelessness, the impact on individuals and neighborhoods is somehow only getting worse,” LA Alliance spokesperson Daniel Conway said on Fox News. told Digital. . “It is long past time to rigorously examine how these funds are being used and the programs used to do that work.”
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Conway said the audit “provides an unprecedented look into the spending and outcomes of homeless services, with implications for how local, state and federal funds are spent.”
“Five unhoused people die every day on the streets of Los Angeles, and Angelenos deserve answers,” he said.
by Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA)More than 75,500 people will be considered homeless in the city, the city’s main hub for homeless services, in 2023, a 9% increase countywide. Approximately 46,200 people are considered homeless in the city, an increase of 10% from the previous year.
Last month, councilors also introduced a motion to develop an evaluation framework for LAHSA that would examine LAHSA’s contracts, spending and other data points.
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Meanwhile, LAHSA’s 2022-2023 budget totals approximately $845.4 million, of which $726.2 million will go to service providers.
Approximately $662 million was earmarked for housing, according to LAHSA’s financial documents. Just over $40 million was donated to the LAHSA administration.
Despite the increase in taxpayers’ taxes At work, the homeless population continues to grow in the Golden State. This is a 6% increase compared to last year and has the highest number of homeless people living outdoors in the country. In the state’s 2023 count, about 181,000 people will be considered homeless, most of them struggling with drug addiction or mental illness.
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The senior public relations officer of California Interagency Council on Homelessness CICH, which coordinates homeless programs across the state, told FOX News Digital on Wednesday that the audit results “highlight significant progress in recent years addressing homelessness at the state level, including the completion of a statewide evaluation of homelessness programs.” “I’m doing it,” he said. ”
The spokesperson added: local government “The primary responsibility is to implement these programs and collect data on outcomes that the state can use to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs.”
