California spent $7.2 billion on its homeless population in 2021 and 2022, equivalent to $41,000 per homeless person.
Taxpayer money was wasted on housing and rental assistance, healthcare, case management and temporary accommodation for 172,000 rough sleepers.
In total, the Democratic state has invested a whopping $24 billion over the past five years in hopes of cracking down on homelessness there.
Despite this, the number of homeless people in the state in 2023 was 181,000, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
A homeless woman shoots herself on a San Francisco street in 2022. It is now known that California spent $41,000 per homeless person that year
A grim scene on Los Angeles’ infamous Skid Row in February 2023. California has poured money into the homelessness crisis, but the money doesn’t seem to be yielding tangible results.
Last year, auditors criticized the state’s homeless czars for directing funds to 30 programs between 2018 and 2023.
The damning audit said they were unable to track whether the money was actually helping the growing number of homeless people in the state.
Auditors investigated five plans that received a combined $13.7 billion in funding.
They found that only two of them were “likely profitable,” including one that converts hotel and motel rooms into housing and another that helps prevent families from becoming homeless.
Three other programs, which have received a total of $9.4 billion since 2020, could not be evaluated due to lack of data.
The auditor’s office said: ‘The California Interagency Homeless Council (Cal HIC) has done a poor job accounting for homeless spending and tracking the results.
‘Cal ICH has also failed to align its action plan to end homelessness with its legal goals of collecting financial information and ensuring accountability and results.
“We believe state policymakers and the public need up-to-date information to evaluate the effectiveness and effectiveness of billions of dollars in state spending.”
At the time, Thomas Wolf, a San Francisco-based consultant and former homeless drug addict, called the findings a “scandal.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom had previously threatened to withhold $1 billion in funding from cities and counties after criticizing homeless plans for being weak.
Last year, auditors criticized the state’s homeless czars for directing funds to 30 programs between 2018 and 2023. Pictured is Skid Row in Los Angeles.
Gov. Gavin Newsom had previously threatened to withhold $1 billion in funding from cities and counties after criticizing homelessness plans as weak.
Speaking in 2022, he said: ‘I want to see results. I don’t want to read about them. I don’t want to see the data. I want to see it.’
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had declared a state of emergency in December 2022 after being in office for less than 24 hours.
Its ‘Inside Safe’ program used $250 million to allocate money to help homeless people transition into temporary housing.
A city website tracking the results of that initiative says more than 21,000 people have been helped to find housing again and 5,000 have been able to find permanent housing.
Homeless tents seen near San Francisco City Hall in California
A homeless man injects fentanyl into his friend’s armpit, due to a lack of usable veins, as people pass by San Francisco City Hall in September 2022.
In San Francisco, which has also been plagued by open hard drug use, Mayor London Breed began cracking down on rough sleepers earlier this year.
He promised a “very aggressive” operation after the Supreme Court ruled that removing sleeping equipment from a public space was not unconstitutional.
A task force took to the streets of the besieged city and dismantled tents and temporary shelters that had been tolerated for years.
Mayor Breed claimed that the Supreme Court had finally given her the power to do something about it.
“The problem is not going to be solved by building more homes,” he said. “Thank God for the Supreme Court’s decision.”
