SACRAMENTO – Assemblyman Josh Hoover (R-Folsom) announced the passage of a bipartisan audit of homelessness spending in California.
The audit request — authored by Senator Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Silicon Valley), and Assemblymember Josh Hoover (R-Folsom) — was approved by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee with unanimous bipartisan support.
“Since 2018, California has spent $20 billion taxpayer dollars on homelessness,” said Assemblyman Hoover. “During that same period we have seen a 77% increase in our state’s homelessness population. Approving this audit is a critical first step toward improving our investments, protecting taxpayers, restoring our public spaces, and getting people the help they need.”
The audit will evaluate statewide coordination of homelessness funding and programs, including:
- Assessing the cost effectiveness of up to five homelessness programs, including how many individuals received shelter and services annually in five years.
- Identifying any barriers to assessing and tracking the homeless population.
It will also assess how the City of San Jose and another city selected by the Auditor have used state homelessness funding at the local level. California State Auditor Grant Parks stated he expects the audit to take 6-7 months to complete.
SENATOR CORTESE REQUESTS STATE AUDIT ON SAN JOSE HOMELESSNESS SPENDING
While the 2021 state budget included $12 billion over two years to address homelessness, the population of people living on the streets of San Jose continues to rise. In fact, San Jose has the highest number of unhoused youth in the nation, according to a recent report. Within the City of San Jose, the 2022 Point-In-Time Report on Homelessness counted 6,650 unhoused individuals.
Senator Cortese’s Audit Request seeks answers to multiple questions, in cluding:
- How many people has the city helped move off the street and into shelter and services?
- Has the state’s investment been effective? What steps has the city taken to evaluate its own efficiency?
- Does the city have goals around ending homelessness? And if so, how is it meeting those goals?
Senator Cortese initiated the audit last year following a tour of the Columbus Park encampment in San Jose, one of the largest homeless encampments in California. The audit request, which will look at all public funding spent to address homelessness in San Jose, was encouraged by homeless advocates and Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez.
“With our homeless population rising, we need to understand how public dollars are being spent and what interventions are working and not working,” said Senator Cortese. “We need transparency. We need to know which strategies have worked best. We need to know how we can improve future efforts. We need action now.”
