SACRAMENTO, Calif. — While California spent nearly $24 billion on homelessness and housing over the last five years, a new audit found the state lacks data on the outcomes of its efforts.
The document released Tuesday is 53 pages long. The report found the state doesn’t consistently track and evaluate its efforts to prevent homelessness. The auditor said the state must do more to assess the cost-effectiveness of its programs.
Homelessness is a growing problem in California. More than 180,000 people experienced homelessness in 2023, which is a more than 50% increase from 2013.
California has about 30% of the nation's homeless population.
"It's pretty shocking at multiple levels, right?" said Bob Erlenbusch, with Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. "Shocking that they're not doing their job and that the state legislature is not holding that agency accountable."
The audit was requested in March 2023 by Senator Dave Cortese and assesses funding throughout the state and in two cities: San Jose and San Diego. It looks at the cost-effectiveness of homelessness spending.
"It's the old adage, how much of each one of our dollars are actually getting to the end user," Senator Cortese said.
In the document, California State Auditor Grant Parks said, the state "does not have a consistent method for gathering information on the costs and outcomes for individual programs."
The state funds more than 30 programs, but the audit assesses five. It finds two of the five state programs reviewed are likely cost effective, the Homekey program and CalWORKS Housing Support program, but the state lacks clear data for the other three.
The audit also found most people placed in interim housing don’t end up in permanent housing with only 13% moving into a permanent solution.
"Stop criminalizing people experiencing homelessness and start creating affordable housing," Erlenbusch said.
In a statement, Assemblyman Josh Hoover from Folsom said, “the results of this audit are a critical first step toward improving our investments, protecting taxpayers, restoring our public spaces, and getting people the help they need. Now that we have identified the ineffectiveness and limitations of our current approach, it is now necessary for the Legislature to take action and improve accountability of the dollars we are spending."
The state auditor recommends lawmakers mandate reporting by state agencies to track the outcomes and costs of homelessness programs and calls on the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) to publicly report that information.
In response to a draft of the audit in February, Cal ICH said, "Cal ICH generally agrees with the recommendations provided by CSA and will take appropriate measures to implement where possible."
But they also noted limited existing resources for implementing a recommendation to publish an online scorecard for homelessness programs by next year.
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