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The City of Los Angeles-funded homeless program is essentially a black hole when it comes to surveillance and tracking results.
The report, released Thursday, was conducted by global consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal. From June 1, 2020 to June 30, 2024, we considered four years of homeless services managed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Agency (LAHSA).
A&M said it was hampered by information gaps and incomplete data that hindered its ability to measure the outcomes of approximately $2.3 billion in homeless spending over that period.
“This gap in the document comprehensively tracks complex efforts to comprehensively track spending and highlights the need for more accurate recordkeeping within Lahasa’s financial and performance monitoring process,” A&M said in its executive summary.
Two homeless people rest in the shade of a tree at MacArthur Park on Friday, September 6, 2024 during the heat wave in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
In many cases, the auditors have discovered that independent contractors operate under ambiguous arrangements and accidental bookkeeping, and cannot properly explain the money they receive.
In one example, the A&M team discovered a contradiction between 2023-24 years, with “exit rates” for homeless individuals and permanent housing.
“The site sample reported a median permanent housing exit of around 22.0%, but 47.8% of exits returned to homelessness, surpassing the exit percentage to permanent housing, the report said.
The auditor also found that Lahsa frequently approved payments to the contractor before confirming that the service was provided.
In response to the report, Councillor Monica Rodriguez named Lahasa “the modern Titanic.”
“The audit findings confirm that I have repeatedly warned: billions are wasted by the homeless without surveillance, accountability or consequences,” Rodriguez told KTLA on Friday. “For over a year, I pushed the law to end this failed arrangement, but my colleagues have stagnated for over a year, pouring taxpayer dollars into the system and the program that continues to fail.”
The LA Times got a statement from Lahsa, denounced the “silence and fragmented nature of the homeless response in our area” on accountability issues.
The audit stems from a 2020 lawsuit filed by US District Judge David O. Carter and filed by the LA Alliance for the LA Alliance. The alliance, made up of local business owners and residents, argued that the city was unable to protect public health and safety by allowing homeless people to ramp out.
The lawsuit settled in 2022, but the group accused the city of failing to meet conditions, including providing more beds and housing.
On his first day in office in 2022, Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of homelessness emergency and launched a safe program within Hallmark. Among its goals is to dramatically reduce the costs of building temporary housing at affordable prices, drive people off the streets and provide a variety of services.
Almost 3,900 homeless individuals have been “moved indoors” since the mayor took office, with 878 finding permanent homes, according to the program’s website. The latest point-in-time counting identified more than 45,000 people living on the streets of LA in 2024.
Mayor Bass claims that the audit findings validate her work.
Rats sniff a sleeping man experiencing homelessness in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, December 18th, 2024 (AP Photo/Damiand Bargan)
“The broken systems that the audit identifies are the ones I’ve been fighting for since I took office,” Bass said. “We still have work to do, but the changes we made have helped us reduce the long-standing increase in homelessness by 10%, which is the first time in years.”
In fact, the point-in-time count noted that the number of homeless people in the city between 2023 and 2024 decreased from 46,260 to 45,252. Countywide, the figures remained little different at 75,000.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who threatened to withhold homeless funds from cities and counties that once showed no progress, is also seeking greater accountability.
“This (audit) reaffirms the state’s previous findings that local governments need to do a better job tracking homeless spending,” Newsom spokesman Tara Gallegos told KTLA. “That’s why Governor Newsom has implemented new strict accountability measures to increase accountability and ensure that all dollars are spent effectively.”
Gallegos directed its citizens to visit Accountability.ca.gov and tracked statewide spending on homelessness and affordable housing.
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