Critical Reports Highlight Importance of Council’s Work to Bring Greater Accountability to Homeless Spending

Almost six years ago, the Bay Area Council released a seminal report highlighting the scope and severity of the Bay Area’s massive homelessness crisis and identifying numerous solutions. Among the key recommendations we made was improving accountability and transparency for how hundreds of millions in public dollars are spent to address the problem and increasing coordination among the myriad state, regional and local agencies in both the public and private sectors to provide greater efficiency and effectiveness in how money is spent and services delivered.

Since then, the Council has advocated strenuously for breaking down entrenched jurisdictional and bureaucratic barriers. But progress has been slow against the inertia of resistance to making reforms. So, we reacted with dismay but little surprise that two separate reports released this week delivered a scathing assessment of the inability of state and local governments to track homeless spending.

The first report from the Legislative Analysts’ Office criticized local governments for failing to provide outcome data for a $855 million state Housing and Community Development program designed to move homeless residents from encampments to safe and stable housing. Despite reporting requirements, the LAO found no data has been submitted to the Legislature on how many of the 20,000 homeless people who were supposed to benefit from the program actually received permanent or any type of housing.

A second independent audit commissioned by federal district Judge David Carter in Los Angeles torched the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority for “a high level of noncompliance” that included repetitive information gaps, lack of accurate and complete data, insufficient financial accountability, fragmented data, and the “lack of uniform data standards and real-time oversight increased the risk of resource misallocation and limited the ability to assess the true impact of homelessness assistance services.”

These damning reports highlight the importance of the Council’s homeless advocacy work and why we are co-sponsoring two bills this year — SB 606 (Becker) to adopt a statewide goal of achieving functional zero unsheltered homelessness and SB 16 (Blakespear) to improve coordination between counties and cities to deliver quality shelter – to bring greater transparency, accountability and results in how funding is spent and programs and services are delivered. To engage in the Bay Area Council’s homelessness advocacy, please contact Senior Vice President of Public Policy Adrian Covert.