Scathing report criticizes accountability of California's homeless funding

In a community like the Arts District in North Hollywood, the streets are always packed with patrons, neighbors and the unhoused.

"I've only been in the area since 2018, and in those years, I've seen it increase exponentially. It's really sad," said resident Asia McNair. 

A state legislative audit committee confirmed this increase in homelessness in a scathing report. In it, state auditors found that homeless numbers jumped 53% in the last decade with an estimated 180,000 people unhoused in California, despite the spending of more than $20 billion to stop it.

"My initial reaction is that this is a big problem," political analyst Jessica Levinson said. 

Levinson said the bigger issue in the report is a lack of accountability as the audit can't verify that 3 or the 5 homeless programs the state is funding are working. 

"The government is failing to account for where the money is being used and whether it's being used wisely," Levinson said. 

Those working with the unhoused refuted the report.

"The key reason our homeless numbers are going up is because more people are falling into homelessness," Stephanie Klasky Gamer, CEO of Los Angeles Family Housing, said.

Gamer's organization has helped 15,000 people who were experiencing homelessness or fighting to save their homes last year. 

"The funds that were audited were all emergency response programs that came out during the pandemic," Gamer said. 

She said she knows how her agency's dollars were spent. However, since state money is mixed with local funding, they just may be harder to trace statewide. 

"I imagine gathering data based on how these funds were released is more challenging, not because they haven't had an impact," Gamer said.

The two programs the audit said are clearly working are CalWorks and Project Homekey. 

"Project Home Key dollars were used to purchase hotels so that's an easy quantifiable measure," Gamer said. "You received $100 million and both 10 motels."

However. in spite of the report, Gamer said the funds used to fight homelessness are key for everyone in the state, not only those living on the street. 

"Homelessness is a crisis that responds to resources," she said.