California’s approach to its myriad problems invariably involve spending more taxpayer dollars to fund public programs. While officials here are adept at taxing, spending and building bureaucracy, they are less fastidious about following up and analyzing how state officials have fared in implementing past rounds of government spending.
The latest example comes from the California State Auditor’s Office, which does yeoman’s work calling out bureaucratic inefficiencies. It’s easy to forget, but before COVID-19 had grabbed the bulk of state officials’ attention, the governor, Legislature and local governments had focused their attention on dealing with the growing homelessness crisis.
California has the nation’s largest homeless population, with 151,000 homeless people who receive services from nine state agencies and 41 different programs, according to the audit. The state’s growing homeless population is due in part to its “disjointed” approach. “Unlike in some other states,” it added, “no single state entity in California oversees efforts to address homelessness or is responsible for developing a statewide strategic plan.”
California established a homeless council in 2017 to coordinate state and federally funded programs, but it has “yet to set priorities or a timeline for achieving its 18 statutory goals.” Furthermore, the council “cannot coordinate existing state and federal funding because it lacks expenditure data from state agencies.” The council “is not required to develop guidance or disseminate best practices,” nor does it have a means to enforce them.
The audit also looked at five local “Continuum of Care” agencies in Fresno, Mendocino, Riverside, Santa Barbara and Santa Clara counties. The situation isn’t much better at the local level, where “individuals may have to wait weeks or even months” to find service providers. “At that point, difficulties in locating the individuals – who are generally transient – can cause an even longer delay before they receive needed services.”
California governments have spent $13 billion on homeless programs over three years, but the programs don’t conform to federal policies, the money is poorly tracked and most homeless Californians are not receiving needed services. “Given the magnitude of the homelessness crisis,” Auditor Elaine Howle concluded, “the state needs to ensure that its system for addressing problems … is coherent, consistent and effective.”
That’s a polite way of saying the state’s system meets none of those goals. The audit offers a variety of recommendations, but the problem is more fundamental. Our government agencies have a bleak record fulfilling their basic duties. One need only look at ongoing state scandals – from the fraud-ridden Employment Development Department to endless incompetence at the Department of Motor Vehicles – to see the pattern.
Yet state officials are doubling down on the “throwing money at the problem” approach. An investigation by this newspaper group found that more than a third of the units funded from the city of Los Angeles’ 2016 $1.2-billion homeless bond initiative “will each cost more than $546,000, the median sale price of a condominium in Los Angeles.” Some of the units cost an unbelievable $700,000.
The state needs to learn lessons from many of the private nonprofit organizations, such as the Rescue Mission, that have years of success at dealing with homeless Californians. The state audit is the latest evidence that California needs more creative thinking when it comes to homelessness – as well as its many other serious crises.
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