LOS ANGELES (KNX) — A city audit disclosed Wednesday that a project under development in Los Angeles to build housing for its homeless population was expected to cost as much as $837,000 per unit.
The $1.2 billion program, known as Proposition HHH, "is still unable to meet the demands of the homelessness crisis," City Controller Ron Galperin said in a letter accompanying the 31-page audit report.
Most of the units are studios or one-bedroom apartments. The audit found that 14 percent of those units exceeded $700,000 each in building costs, with one project in pre-development estimated to cost the whopping $837,000 figure per unit.
The audit noted that surging prices for construction materials during the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with labor shortages, could be contributing to the eye-popping price tags.
In a tweet published Wednesday, Mayor Eric Garcetti pushed back against critiques of the program, insisting HHH was "producing more units than promised, at a lower cost than expected."
Proposition HHH includes a total of 8,091 housing units spread over 125 developments. About 4,200 are presently in construction. Funds sourced from outside HHH were being used to build an additional 2,369.
"While future plans have not been finalized, building tens of thousands of additional units using the same model will likely cost billions of dollars and will take far too long to match the urgency of the ongoing homeless emergency," the audit concluded. Its authors urged L.A. city officials to "find ways to scale up faster and cheaper projects."
