California allocated billions of dollars to tackle homelessness in the state.

However, a recent audit revealed the state stopped tracking the appropriated funds for its homelessness programs after $24 billion.

The state has zero idea where the money went and how it impacted homelessness.

According to the audit, it appears billions of dollars did nothing to curb homelessness in The Golden State.

“More than 180,000 Californians experienced homelessness in 2023—a 53 percent increase from 2013. To address this ongoing crisis, nine state agencies have collectively spent billions of dollars in state funding over the past five years administering at least 30 programs dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness,” the audit read.

“Cal ICH is responsible for coordinating, developing, and evaluating the efforts of these nine agencies. In this audit, we reviewed the State’s efforts to track and evaluate the effectiveness of the homelessness programs that it funds,” it continued.

WATCH:

From the Associated Press:

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.

“The reason California spends $24 billion on homelessness only to have the problem get worse is the same reason we pay the highest gas taxes yet drive over the deepest potholes: our government is broken. And Californians have had enough,” Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) commented.

WATCH:

The Daily Signal reports:

Yet, the audit found that there was little way to assess the programs because the agencies tasked with overseeing this massive endeavor stopped tracking its effect long ago.

From the information auditors were able to gather, they concluded that in many cases homelessness got worse.

“According to the audit, California’s homelessness population grew 32% over the last five years, and by 53% over the last 10,” The National Desk reported.

A spokesman for the California Interagency Council on Homelessness said in an interview with Fox News that the blame is with local governments that “are primarily responsible for implementing these programs and collecting data on outcomes that the state can use to evaluate program effectiveness.”

Read the full audit HERE.

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.


We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.