It's not just SJ: LA can't track its mammoth homelessness spends, either

Image by Robin Kanouse

Even as local Housing First bitter-enders complain about moves to redirect city funds towards Shelter First, news from LA underscores the utter financial mismanagement and grift of Permanent Supportive Housing. The Center Square reports.

A court-ordered assessment of the City of Los Angeles’ $2.3 billion in recent homelessness spending has found officials often paid bills without verifying services were provided.

This means in many instances, taxpayer money was spent without any results. That could explain some of the contradiction about rising homelessness despite rising homelessness spending. 

The City of Los Angeles is home to 45,252 homeless individuals, while Los Angeles County is home to 75,518 homeless individuals, according to the latest point-in-time homelessness count from early 2024.

Go Deeper:

• Ridiculous bureaucratic collisions undercutting CA's homeless remediation efforts
• Chron op-ed: Housing First's no-barrier orthodoxy
• Strategy fail: Why some states (like CA) and some cities (like SJ) have high (and rising) homelessness rates despite billions in spending

“LAHSA did not contemporaneously verify that the service provider invoices reflected actual services provided at the given location before approving payment,” wrote staff at Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector Services, who completed a court-ordered assessment of the City of Los Angeles’s homelessness spending. “Instead, it appears that LAHSA approved service provider invoices based solely on a high-level review of supporting financial documents, which did not include receipts or clear indications of the specific services delivered, allowing for potential misalignment between the services being reimbursed and those outlined in the service providers’ contracts.”

A&M also said it could not actually assess much of the spending because ”insufficient financial accountability led to an inability to trace substantial funds allocated to the City Programs.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who is currently facing a recall effort, said these failures are something she has faced since taking office and has been trying to change.

Read the whole thing here.

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