Giving Compass' Take:
- Josie Huang reports on auditors raising concerns regarding poor accounting, lack of consistency, and overall mismanagement of LA's homelessness funds.
- How can funders hold governments accountable to their promises to make effective public investments in ending homelessness?
- Learn more about key issues in homelessness and housing and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on homelessness in your area.
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Los Angeles is directing millions to tackle homelessness but not all of it appears to be well-spent or properly accounted for, according to auditors charged with looking at how the city is putting those public funds to use. The mismanagement of LA's homelessness funds not only misuses public funding — it also has devastating impacts on the lives of vulnerable people experiencing homelessness.
Auditors with the firm Alvarez & Marsal said during a court hearing Wednesday that contracts with service providers pointed towards the mismanagement of LA's homelessness funds. They were not written in a way by the joint city-county Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to measure outcomes or to set standards for what counts as a hot meal or storage, for example.
This mismanagement of LA's homelessness funds, auditors said, has resulted in inconsistent and poor care which they described witnessing during 18 “spot checks’ on providers.
Auditors, who are expected to complete a report this year, also described seeing broken showers and people still going hungry despite the massive public investment in reducing homelessness, further providing evidence for the mismanagement of LA's homelessness funds.
Auditor Diane Rafferty recounted how a woman with a traumatic brain injury prostitutes herself so she could afford food.
"It's heartbreaking, your honor,” she told U.S. District Judge David O. Carter. “It is heartbreaking.”
Kevin Call, who is part of the Skid Row community, was at the hearing and said afterward he agreed with the auditors’ assessments.
“In the city of Los Angeles, people are suffering on Skid Row,” Call said. “Even with all the money that’s supposed to be available and all that – somebody’s got to be held accountable for that.”
The Lack of Accountability for the Mismanagement of LA's Homelessness Funds
The audit indicating this mismanagement of LA's homelessness funds comes out of a 2022 settlement with LA Alliance for Human Rights, a group of business owners and residents that had two years earlier sued over how homelessness is managed in the city and county.
The city settled first with the LA Alliance, agreeing to create nearly 13,000 new shelter and housing beds. L.A. County, in its 2023 settlement, said it would provide 3,000 new beds for the treatment of mental health and substance abuse.
Read the full article about the mismanagement of homelessness funds by Josie Huang at LAist.