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An audit of Los Angeles’ homeless services found numerous problems within the system.
Los Angeles City Commissioner Kenneth Mejia on Tuesday released the Pathways to Permanent Housing Homelessness Audit, which analyzes the city’s funded transitional housing program, which ran from 2019 to 2023. This includes crisis shelters, bridge homes, hotel and motel-based programs, and small home villages.
Auditors use indicators such as permanent housing referral rates, occupancy (retention) rates, and homelessness returns to identify time-limited subsidies, vouchers and other subsidies, unsubsidized permanent housing, and permanent supports. We measured the performance of each program before evaluating permanent housing destination types such as housing.
According to their analysis, “a woefully inadequate number of people” were moved from transitional housing to permanent housing. Fewer than two in 10 temporary housing residents were able to secure permanent housing over a five-year period, and more than half of those who left temporary housing returned to homelessness or an unknown destination.
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The audit also found “serious concerns” over the long-term stability of those who reached permanent housing.
What’s more, over the five years audited, an average of one in four transitional beds, which officials describe as “gateways to permanent housing,” went unused, costing Los Angeles taxpayers an estimated $218 million. caused damage.
Citywide Transitional Housing Occupancy Rate 2019: 78% 2020: 68% 2021: 64% 2022: 74% 2023: 73% Source: Pathways to Permanent Housing Homelessness Audit 2024
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s target occupancy rate is 95%, according to the audit.
Auditors said they were slowed by “significant” data quality issues and cited a lack of reliable information as the reason it was so difficult to meaningfully assess system performance.
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Additionally, the audit found LAHSA’s program management and oversight to be “significantly inadequate.” The agency does not have a formal process in place to regularly review provider performance, including determining occupancy and referral rates, and to hold underperforming service providers accountable.
The lack of a formal policy for elected officials to request reservations for shelter beds based on geographic areas (known as “catchment areas”) leaves beds going unused and leaving people unused. The auditors said the service provider’s efforts to accommodate “fairly and efficiently” were undermined.
FILE – A man walks by a homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Jay C. Hong, File) Tents line the North Hill Street overpass above Cesar Chavez Avenue near US 101 in Los Angeles. Angeles, Wednesday, November 15, 2023. (AP Photos/Christopher Weber) FILE – In this photo, off-camera flash, a tarp covers part of a homeless tent on a bridge overlooking the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C.Hong, File) A man sleeps on the roof. Tuesday, June 27, 2023, on a sidewalk in Los Angeles. (Getty Images) People sleep outside tents set up on the sidewalk early on Wednesday, June 26. 2024, Westlake District, Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damien Dovarganes)
“Data shows that some people who secured permanent housing through limited-time grants returned to homelessness within a short period of time,” the audit said. “Less than one in five people enrolled in city-funded shelters are able to secure some type of permanent housing.”
So what can you do? The audit makes several important recommendations to LAHSA.
Service Provider Performance: Improve contracts and performance monitoring programs to quickly identify underperforming providers New Bed Solutions: Feasibility of developing new trauma-informed bed solutions that provide more privacy and comfort Consider Performance-Based Incentives: Develop service-related compensation incentives such as shelter occupancy rates, permanent housing placement rates, and other relevant metrics. Increase the number “as much as possible.” Ensure access to permanent housing Consolidate contracts: Assess the feasibility of consolidating services to clearly define service provider responsibilities or streamline case management Revise metrics: Shelter occupancy Signs of improvement in permanent housing rates by adopting a rate-independent measure of permanent housing placement rates to minimize instances of harm caused by low occupancy rates Formalization of reservation policy: Develop a formal policy to manage ‘catchment areas’ and shelter bed reservations to ensure equitable access to increase the number of beds and maximize occupancy Monitoring outcomes: Improve monitoring of outcomes for people whose subsidies have expired and who obtained housing without government assistance
“As a city, we must do more to ensure that unhoused residents have access to rehousing programs, access to permanent housing, and the support they need to stay there.” ” said Director Kenneth Mejia during the audit. “Our office remains committed to studying and evaluating the system’s performance and making recommendations on how to more effectively bring unhoused community members indoors permanently.”
Secretary Mejia said, “This audit is an important step in helping the city understand the work it needs to evaluate its programs and performance, as well as analyze whether it is making the right decisions to permanently house unhoused residents.” I hope it will become a useful tool.” .
The full audit can be viewed here.
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