California’s effort to fight homelessness stops working to suppress increasing unhoused population
California is investing billions of dollars on homelessness and real estate, however the state auditor discovers it’s refraining from doing enough to track the cash and whether it’s working.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
California Assembly member Gregg Hart is requiring an oversight hearing into how the state’s homelessness programs are tracked. While California has actually installed more than $20 billion over the previous 6 years to resolve real estate and homelessness, the state auditor discovers that legislators do not understand if it’s working. The state is home to about a 3rd of the nation’s unhoused population. That’s more than 180,000 individuals, which figure has actually increased in the last few years in spite of unmatched costs. Vanessa Rancano with KQED has this report.
VANESSA RANCANO, BYLINE: The state audit discovered a revolving door of homelessness. The majority of people coming off the streets were put in short-lived real estate. Forty-four percent of them wound up homeless once again. The report explains the state frantically requires more long-term cost effective real estate and a long-lasting method to arrive. Another finding – there wasn’t sufficient info about a few of the state’s essential homelessness programs to understand whether they’re reliable. State Senator Dave Cortese of San Jose asked for the evaluation. He states it shows an information desert.
DAVE CORTESE: What appears to have actually taken place here is that in the rush to resolve this issue, maybe, you understand, cities have actually stood systems, and even the state for that matter, that have actually been insufficient.
RANCANO: The report suggests legislators take actions to need much better reporting by state firms. It comes as California has actually invested almost $24 billion over the previous 5 years on homelessness and real estate cost. Regional firms are attempting to resolve the issue, however Ray Bramson of the Bay Area advocacy group Destination: Home states they can’t fix it alone.
RAY BRAMSON: This has actually been years and years of disinvestment in our poorest citizens at both the state and the federal levels of federal government.
RANCANO: A spokesperson for the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, on the other hand, blamed city governments, stating the state counts on them to gather precise information.
For NPR News, I’m Vanessa Rancano.
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