California spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness over the past five years but didn’t consistently track whether the huge outlay of public money actually improved the situation, according to state audit released Tuesday.
With makeshift tents lining the streets and disrupting businesses in cities and towns throughout California, homelessness has become one of the most frustrating and seemingly intractable issues in the country's most populous state. An estimated 171,000 people are homeless in California, which amounts to roughly 30% of all of the homeless people in the U.S.
Despite the roughly billions of dollars spent on more than 30 homeless and housing programs during the 2018-2023 fiscal years, California doesn't have reliable data needed to fully understand why the problem didn’t improve in many cities, according to state auditor's report.
“This report concludes that the state must do more to assess the cost-effectiveness of its homelessness programs,” State Auditor Grant Parks wrote in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers.
The audit analyzed five programs that received a combined $13.7 billion in funding. It determined that only two of them are “likely cost-effective," including one that converts hotel and motel rooms into housing and another that provides housing assistance to prevent families from becoming homeless.
Under the $3.6-billion program that converts hotel and motel rooms, which is a linchpin in Newsom's homelessness plan, the average cost of a room is at least 2.5 times cheaper than building a new home, the audit found. The housing assistance program, which has received $760 million over the past five years, gives an average of $12,000 to $22,000, depending on which county, to help a low-income family stay in their home. That's a fraction of the roughly $50,000 the state spends on a person once they become homeless.
The remaining three programs, which have received a total of $9.4 billion since 2020, couldn't be evaluated due to a lack of data.
Democratic state Sen. Dave Cortese, who requested the audit last year after touring a large homeless encampment in San Jose, said the report depicts “a data desert” and shows an unsettling lack of transparency at every level.
Republican state Sen. Roger Niello said the lack of accountability is troubling.
“California is facing a concerning paradox: despite an exorbitant amount of dollars spent, the state’s homeless population is not slowing down,” Niello said in a statement. “These audit results are a wake-up call for a shift toward solutions that prioritize self-sufficiency and cost effectiveness.”
Newsom has made tackling homelessness a top priority, and the growing crisis is sure to dog him should he ever set his sights on a national elected office. He has pushed for laws that make it easier to force people with behavioral health issues into treatment, and he campaigned aggressively for a proposition that voters passed in March that imposes strict requirements on counties to spend on housing and drug treatment programs to help tackle the state’s homelessness crisis.
Just another example of how far California has sunk under the leadership of Newsom. It's their mess let them figure it out themselves.
With makeshift tents lining the streets and disrupting businesses in cities and towns throughout California, homelessness has become one of the most frustrating and seemingly intractable issues in the country's most populous state. An estimated 171,000 people are homeless in California, which amounts to roughly 30% of all of the homeless people in the U.S.
Despite the roughly billions of dollars spent on more than 30 homeless and housing programs during the 2018-2023 fiscal years, California doesn't have reliable data needed to fully understand why the problem didn’t improve in many cities, according to state auditor's report.
“This report concludes that the state must do more to assess the cost-effectiveness of its homelessness programs,” State Auditor Grant Parks wrote in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers.
The audit analyzed five programs that received a combined $13.7 billion in funding. It determined that only two of them are “likely cost-effective," including one that converts hotel and motel rooms into housing and another that provides housing assistance to prevent families from becoming homeless.
Under the $3.6-billion program that converts hotel and motel rooms, which is a linchpin in Newsom's homelessness plan, the average cost of a room is at least 2.5 times cheaper than building a new home, the audit found. The housing assistance program, which has received $760 million over the past five years, gives an average of $12,000 to $22,000, depending on which county, to help a low-income family stay in their home. That's a fraction of the roughly $50,000 the state spends on a person once they become homeless.
The remaining three programs, which have received a total of $9.4 billion since 2020, couldn't be evaluated due to a lack of data.
Democratic state Sen. Dave Cortese, who requested the audit last year after touring a large homeless encampment in San Jose, said the report depicts “a data desert” and shows an unsettling lack of transparency at every level.
Republican state Sen. Roger Niello said the lack of accountability is troubling.
“California is facing a concerning paradox: despite an exorbitant amount of dollars spent, the state’s homeless population is not slowing down,” Niello said in a statement. “These audit results are a wake-up call for a shift toward solutions that prioritize self-sufficiency and cost effectiveness.”
Newsom has made tackling homelessness a top priority, and the growing crisis is sure to dog him should he ever set his sights on a national elected office. He has pushed for laws that make it easier to force people with behavioral health issues into treatment, and he campaigned aggressively for a proposition that voters passed in March that imposes strict requirements on counties to spend on housing and drug treatment programs to help tackle the state’s homelessness crisis.
Just another example of how far California has sunk under the leadership of Newsom. It's their mess let them figure it out themselves.
