Kevin Kiley: “The California Legislative Analyst has just released a new report on the amount of homelessness spending in California.…”

“The California Legislative Analyst has just released a new report on the amount of homelessness spending in California. It reports that since 2019, the State has spent over $36 billion. This is truly astounding when you consider what has actually happened with homelessness in California during that time. During the Governorship of Gavin Newsom, we have seen a 24 percent increase in homelessness. The population is now over 187,000 people, and roughly half of all unsheltered homeless in the United States are in California. We have continued to spend more and more money, over $36 billion over this time period, and the homeless population has only continued to grow. What is worse, the legislative analyst has found that the Governor's office lost track of most of that money. This was in an audit that was released last year. In this new report, even since that audit, we are seeing the same problem with the new spending that has been authorized. Indeed, the LAO reports that, despite many requirements, as of this writing, no data have been provided to the legislature on how many people living in encampments have received permanent housing or any other type of housing. The legislature lacks other key outcomes data such as the number of encampments that have been resolved. We continue to see the same problems in California: spending billions of billions, homelessness getting worse, and zero accountability.…”