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Home » California Lawmakers Want To Know Why Billions In Spending Isn’t Reducing Homelessness

California Lawmakers Want To Know Why Billions In Spending Isn’t Reducing Homelessness

by CLAYCORD.com
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By Marisa Kendall – CalMatters

The state has spent billions of dollars on homelessness in recent years. So why is the crisis getting worse instead of better?

That’s what a bipartisan group of California legislators is trying to get to the bottom of by calling for a first-of-its kind, large-scale audit of the state’s homelessness spending.

The state has stepped up its involvement and investment in the crisis under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s leadership, allocating $20.6 billion toward housing and homelessness since 2018-19, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. But despite the influx of cash, during that time, the number of unhoused people in the state has increased by nearly a third — to more than 170,000 as of last year.

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That discrepancy between what’s being spent in Sacramento and what voters see — tent cities in their neighborhoods — has many legislators clamoring for an accounting. They have instructed the state auditor to embark on a sweeping project that will analyze multiple state homelessness programs — as well as focus on homelessness spending in two cities — in an attempt to improve California’s response.

“What we’re doing is not working,” said Assemblymember Josh Hoover, a Republican from Folsom who co-authored the audit request with Democratic Sen. Dave Cortese of Santa Clara County. “And I think it’s important to get to the bottom of that and figure out where are we investing that is not getting a return on investment. And we need to stop spending money on the programs that are not working.”

The $743,400 audit, approved unanimously in the state’s legislative audit committee last month, will take about 5,000 hours of staff time and is likely to be complete by October, State Auditor Grant Parks said during the hearing. It will scrutinize the cost-effectiveness of as many as five state homelessness programs. The auditor has yet to reveal which ones, but Project Homekey — one of Newsom’s signature efforts to create homeless housing — likely will be one. And the audit will analyze spending in two California cities — San Jose and one other yet to be determined.

The analysis will focus on questions such as: How many people received services between 2020 and 2023? How much funding have San Jose and the other city received, and how has it been spent? How much of that money went toward administrative costs instead of services?

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Newsom’s office wouldn’t weigh in on the pending audit, except to issue a statement: “This process is still in its early stages, and we will continue to closely monitor any future developments.”

Myles White, assistant secretary of legislation for the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, defended the state’s track record during the legislative hearing. “A lot of the progress we’ve made provides a really solid foundation for us to continue in the days ahead,” he said.

San Jose officials said they have used state funds effectively and efficiently, and have been transparent in their work.

Local officials rallied at the state Capitol last week, demanding that the state give them an ongoing $3 billion a year to address homelessness.

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Cortese began pushing for the audit after touring a massive homeless encampment on vacant land near San Jose’s airport. One of the largest in California, the camp was home to more than 400 people during the pandemic.

What he saw shocked and appalled him:

“Rodents running around your feet. Massive piles of trash. Tons of broken RVs and abandoned cars. Cars turned upside down with people living inside.”

When Cortese brought up the idea of a state audit, he says local officials told him while they had spent local money, they hadn’t used state funding to improve conditions or offer services at that encampment.

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“Which to me just really begged the question: ‘What’s going on?'” Cortese said.

That camp has since been cleared; the Federal Aviation Administration had threatened to withhold airport funds from the city because the camp extended into flight paths. But the city couldn’t move everyone into housing or shelter, and some people have moved to another lot just across the street.

Past attempts at accountability

Cortese’s audit isn’t the first time California’s homelessness response has come under scrutiny. Earlier this year, the Interagency Council on Homelessness found the state spent nearly $10 billion on homelessness between 2018 and 2021 and served more than 571,000 people. But despite that effort, most of those people still didn’t get a roof over their heads.

And in 2021, a state audit of five local governments found that they did not always comply with federal regulations or follow best practices when responding to homelessness.

The new audit will be an “entirely different animal,” Cortese said, as it will go deeper into the state’s spending.

Legislators hope it also will make specific recommendations as to how ineffective programs could be improved or even cut — something the Interagency Council’s report didn’t do.

The heightened scrutiny comes as Newsom has both ramped up spending and rolled out a series of new homelessness programs since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Those include Project Roomkey, which temporarily put elderly and medically compromised unhoused people up in hotels; Homekey, which gives cities and counties money to turn some of those hotels (and other buildings) into longer-term homeless housing; and the Encampment Resolution Grant program, which gives cities and counties money to clear homeless encampments and move occupants into housing and shelters.

It’s no surprise that Republicans would continue their critique of the liberal governor’s spending. But the recent involvement of Cortese and other Democrats signals the politics have shifted.

For example, Assemblymember Luz Rivas, a Democrat from the San Fernando Valley, is pushing her own accountability bill.

Assembly Bill 799 would force the state to set specific goals for reducing homelessness, while also allowing funding to be reallocated away from local agencies that fail to meet their goals.

“We get asked by our constituents,” she said. “They ask ‘Where is this funding going to? Is it really being used effectively?'”

Even Newsom himself has advocated for more accountability. He recently began requiring that cities and counties submit “homeless action plans” before receiving state funding, and he briefly held $1 billion hostage after determining the plans they drafted weren’t ambitious enough.

During last month’s hearing, several legislators advocated for the auditor to choose cities in their own districts. Some made pitches for Los Angeles and Sacramento, while others pushed for smaller cities.

Gail Osmer, a San Jose advocate who led Cortese on the encampment tour that inspired the audit, spoke alongside the senator at the hearing. In an interview, she said she hopes the audit’s findings will be a wake-up call for her city.

Osmer has been critical of how the city cleared the airport encampment. Camp residents were promised services, such as free repairs for their cars and RVs, that many people never received, she said.

“People are not held accountable,” Osmer said. “Where’s the money going?”

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Easy, repeal Prop 47 and enforce drug laws and property crimes. Let Prop 36 do what it’s supposed too and put people in treatment. There will a 90% improvement.
What caused the homeless population is the democratic liberal voter. Open up your eyes people. Democrats are destroying the state and country.

The homeless population exploded in 2014 when Prop 47 pass thus negating Prop 36.

63
7

Since California gives lottsa goodies for the homeless, un-housed, people from other states flock here. Does anyone even check for residency?. Also illegal families come to the Bay Area who cannot afford the cost of housing as it is almost impossible to find work. Find a school that has been closed, construct individual rooms inside the classrooms, and have the kitchen feed the people like a dormitory having the residents sign up for support job that comes with a stipend.Some of these older schools come with laundry facility and showers if it was a high school.

13

And abandoned strip malls m.Nobody wants to manage those projects They turn bad because of the tenants. And corruption sucks the money away.

That’s it in a nutshell. Blame the Democrat voters who are at best naive. At worst
self destructive.
If you put out sugar on a plate, you’ll have ants.

12

So you don’t understand it was the voters who voted for prop 47. Not the leaders. Overcrowded orisons no one wanred ti oay fir not even republicans . Govt 101

I’d kinda like to know myself.

14

Don’t get to know yourself too well. You will go blind.

Oh this should be good. It would be nice if the audit actually exposed all the grift going on in the various homeless advocacy groups, but I doubt it will.

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And while they are at it, start auditing some of the other money faucets that are within this state…i.e: Calpers, Bart, Teachers Union, plus many more. Or better yet, cut 20% of every department’s budget.

28
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The homeless advocacy groups do barely enough to justify theirs existence. If they were to really care, we would have little to no homeless and thus no more funding for the leeching groups.

25
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Check the politicians pockets.

35

My granddaughter was recently looking for a new apartment and was told she needed to make three times the rent in order to qualify. Given that, for a place costing $1500/month (if you can find one that cheap), you would need to make $4500/month. Working 40 hours a week, you’d have to make $28.13/hour. Retail and fast food jobs certainly do not pay $28/hour, and even if they did, they don’t guarantee a 40 hour work week. It made me wonder why there aren’t even more people living on the streets in this country.

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Cost of living is way too high and unjustified. I wonder if one actually lowered the minimum wage what effect it would have? Seems all we’ve been doing for years is raising it and it doesn’t seem to help. I know it’s been studied and often when a property owner sees wages go up they figure they can charge more for their rental. And then the cost of living goes up. About the only thing to solve this is a total crash of the economy. Not that that hasn’t happened before.

@KPA
The cost of living is a small part of the problem. It’s the states failure to enforce the drug laws already on the books. See my earlier post.

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I, too, would like to see a real solution to the problem of so many people being addicted to drugs. We tried putting people in prison and ended up with a huge prison population at an exorbitant cost to taxpayers. I recall a study being done that showed it was cheaper to send someone to Harvard than prison, which may be why people are looking for other alternatives to handling drug addiction.

It should be San Francisco and LA, and I’m glad we will finally learn where the money is going, because it’s ridiculous how much has been spent and how little there is to show for it. That money could be going to our schools and infrastructure, or literally any other need instead of this bottomless hole. The people living and dying on the streets don’t need $700K condos with granite counter tops, they need a place to get back on their feet and mandatory drug/alcohol/mental health counseling to keep it.

36

All the billions of dollars that is being spent is to maintain homelessness not solve it.

28

So under the Newscum leadership model, the homeless situation has GROWN by 33% … you don’t say! Project Homekey didn’t work? I am aghast! I am shocked! You mean, giving out free phones, money and more did not work! I am speechless … but only because I am laughing that anyone actually believed Newscum’s leadership would reduce homelessness or that his Homekey would work.

I am optimistic to see an audit occurring. Now some of my questions; will the audit be honest and truthful on where the money was spent? Will it highlight the failures of leadership at the state level and actually hold them accountable? If they do hold the state leadership, like Newscum, accountable, I will be dumbfounded and speechless.

And for those that say I should be proposing a solution if I am going to throw rocks, well, imagine if we spent some of this money on a job corps program and the materials to fix things like roads, or tree work, or building trails … teach them a skill as they get clean and sober.

34

You are advocating for a program similar to ones FDR implemented during the Great Depression, like the CCC and WPA; programs that really worked. I’m all for it! Of course, people will scream socialism — which they did back then as well — but I know my father was grateful for the job, as were his friends. We do have the California Conservation Corps — maybe that could be expanded.

The difference between your grandfather and today’s out of work folks is that your G-pa had a moral drive to take care of himself by being productive. Today’s homeless would rather get freebies or stay self medicated and blame others for their lot in life.

10

CA has homeless industrial complex.
.
‘ ‘I get PAID to be homeless in San Francisco – it takes one phone call’: ‘Old-school junkie’ says he moved to woke city because he gets $620-a-month that pays for his Amazon Prime and Netflix and ‘cops are like neighbors’ ‘
dailymail https://tinyurl.com/2pvuscsx
.
Lets showcase newsom’ abilities and track record on homeless,
“Just a few months after Gavin Newsom was sworn in as mayor of San Francisco in 2004, he announced a plan to get all of the city’s chronically homeless residents off the streets within 10 years.”
https://tinyurl.com/42cdnnup
.
DEMs are adept at one thing, throwing your tax dollars at any problem they encounter.

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Remember Gavin Newsom is going to be running for president promising the country that he’ll do for them what he’s done for California. He seems to think it’s a good thing. Everyone else sees what a disaster is. And you’re right he did not solve homelessness in San Francisco at all! Failure failure failure

22

… “A lot of the progress we’ve made provides a really solid foundation for us to continue in the days ahead,” what a great CYA statement. No specifics though, LOL. How many ‘advocacy’ groups are on the take here? I think they are mainly advocating for more street people to increase their revenue.

21

Money goes into the local general fund and disappears just like the taxes to fix the streets.

18

They could start by shipping the homeless back to the state they came here from. It has to be an easy arrest of those selling drugs to the homeless. They just don’t seem to be doing it. Others belong in a mental institution. They are doing none of that.

18

Buy or build all the shelters you want, but if the HOBO (Human Occupants Beneath Overpasses) people aren’t allowed to do drugs and drink alcohol there, they are going to keep camping out and leaving their litter everywhere…. sorry, but that’s just the way things are.

25

Yes, free range people will go where they can live without any responsibility.
Can’t do Fentanyl or Heroin in housing supplied by the state. Doesn’t work.
The wrong assumption is that they are down on their luck. Most are mental
cases or addicts, and are willing to live in squalor.
Eventually, the Plague could happen, if there are enough rats. I can only assume
their population is growing.

The vast majority of the visible unhoused have mental and/or substance abuse issues that need treatment. There is no where to put 170,000 people. There is strong resistance in every neighborhood to supportive housing (heck even any housing at all). You would fill more than 1/3 of hotel rooms in the state. (About 440,000 total.) Many of the homeless would end up destroying any housing they are put in. We need to identify those that really want help and those that don’t need to be held to a higher standard, no tents, no trash, no parking of RV anywhere, etc. Before tents were common, shelters were fuller.

17

Has anyone seen the film The Producers? The new one. I have an accounting degree and all I am going to say is there is always going to be some type of petty embezzlement going on in the system. I mean I am sure the office really needs that 100k fax machine, and lets not forget about those new age toilets that come from japan that cost like ….. well lets just say its like refinancing or mortgaging a house, and hey lets not forget about that coffee maker, I am sure they used a coupon to buy it for the office, 500k is a great deal, I mean C’mon. 650k is not the best price but with coupons hey why not rite? Forbid the trustees of the money by coffee on their own time or buy a coffee maker from a store or whatever. There is always a GROSS miss use funds. its a terrible , misallocation of valuable resources And the gluttony needs to stop

11

I have said for years that a breakdown of everything that government (city, state and federal) spends and on what needs to be made public. That should make all politicians straighten up or be on their way out the door.

They do that. A simple internet search will direct you to that information.

Has anyone seen the film The Producers? The new one. I have an accounting degree and all I am going to say is there is always going to be some type of petty embezzlement going on in the system. I mean I am sure the office really needs that 100k fax machine, and lets not forget about those new age toilets that come from japan that cost like ….. well lets just say its like refinancing or mortgaging a house, and hey lets not forget about that coffee maker, I am sure they used a coupon to buy it for the office, 500k is a great deal, I mean C’mon. 650k is not the best price but with coupons hey why not rite? Forbid the trustees of the money by coffee on their own time or buy a coffee maker from a store or whatever. There is always a GROSS miss use funds. its a terrible , misallocation of valuable resources

The issue is white collar crime, not nickle and dime expenses around the office that usually justify themselves.

For every $15 billion stolen at gun point, $1 trillion is embezzled nationally.

It’s good to see a Republican and a Democrat working together on this, at least they agree on something.

18

I’ll place my bet on money laundering.

.
Why?
.
Because naive liberals run this state.
.
Liberals are ENABLERS. They set up “warming centers”, provide free food (like Glide church), shelters, Narcan, relief from laws, and allow them to block sidewalks and camp in parks.
.
The homeless need to hit rock bottom before seeking help.
.
Move them along until they figure out what it means to live in civilized conditions instead of being feral.
.

29
1

Lack of any responsible leadership Governor, mayors, etc. …everyone is only looking out for their own political careers…

16

I have said for years that every dollar spent by government (city, state and Federal) and on what each dollar is being spent on should be made public. That would get every politician in line or out the door.

11

If they really want to know why it hasn’t gotten better they should read “San Fransicko_
-why progressives ruin cities” by Michael Shellenberger. Excellent book by someone who has actually done the research and the interviews.

Are California lawmakers really that ignorant/clueless they have to ponder with that question…

The USA is turning into a 3rd world nation with California’s leading the way..

Clueless individuals everywhere generally are Newscum and Biden supporters.

20

Think of them as gritty, airhead 14 year olds who have a NO LIMIT credit card that tax payers and their children get to pay for.

Why do I envision a bunch of self-important tools sitting around going “Duh, why didn’t this work?” I am waiting for the next genius to say, “Uhhhh, maybe we should throw more money, it’s not ours, who cares how we spend it…”

13

$ 20.6 billion 2018-2019 add another $10 billion per year for 2020-2023 = $ 60 billion + or -. Why audit just two cities? What are they scared of?

Seems to be more involved with Enabling as opposed to Improving.. Actually making Tough Decisions, that the Newsom People can’t seem to deal with..They Do NOT want to address the Drug Issue and low level Crime.. (same failed approach as he had in San Francisco)… I do NOT see a real path forward with the Current Administration’s Approach..

The entire state is experiencing a housing shortage. Is it that difficult to figure out why there are unhoused people?

Many homeless want it that way and be left alone

The good news is the California housing shortage will eventually solve itself.
Wage growth and scholastic scores are number 50 in the nation. As such people with families and or quality of life/career ambition are leaving. Seniors not enamored with violence are leaving now. The statistics don’t lie.
So eventually the state will be comprised of the ultra-wealthy, the mentally ill, the drug/alcohol addicted, and the illegals willing to work for poverty level wages. At that point there will be plenty of housing for everyone. Of course taxes will be much higher than they are now……..

https://youtu.be/bpAi70WWBlw

This documentary is excellent, and answers every question about the mentally ill and homelessness. Is everyone who is homeless mentally ill? No. Is everyone who is mentally ill, homeless? No. So why is it that some mentally ill people become homeless?

Rhode Island has figured this out and done a fabulous job. Please, watch this and share widely.

Build it and they will come.

Have mentioned this before,
DEMs have never found a problem they couldn’t throw your tax dollars at.
AND they will continue to do so until YOU vote them out of office.! ! ! !
.
‘LA mayor Karen Bass wants to spend a record $1.3 BILLION on converting hotels and motels into housing for the city’s sprawling homeless population’
https://tinyurl.com/mrkwm277

They’re obtuse.

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