☆ Local business leaders: City homelessness audit "long overdue and urgently necessary"
Tracey Enfantino, chair of the Silicon Valley Business PAC--the leading group advocating for local small and medium businesses--is thumbs up on the Doan/Batra city homelessness audit. The main reason? According to Enfantino, the City Housing Dept has ignored basic business logic and ethics for decades, and the bill is way past due.
The failures of San Jose's homelessness programs, as outlined by the California State Audit, were eminently predictable. Why? Because the City did not follow basic business accountability protocols regarding how it spent money. It didn't track it. It didn't set success metrics. And it clearly privileged non profits that had a way-too-cozy relationship with city staff.
Councilmembers and business leaders who historically pointed out the strategic and operational flaws have been ignored.
The State report should have been a noisy wake up call for the city, as it daylighted what independent auditors view as deeply flawed fiscal management.
But it wasn't.
And so we applaud CM's Doan and Batra for taking the important next step, and demanding that the city do a deep dive into how we (mis)spend San Jose residents' taxes on homeless programs that flop. It's long overdue and urgently necessary
It's important to note that the Doan/Batra audit is not redundant with the State audit because the State audit only explored how the city was ineffective and unaccountable with *state* money. It is vital to find out if the Housing Dept was similarly ineffective and unaccountable with *city* money, as well.
--Tracey Enfantino, Silicon Valley Business PAC
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