Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had big plans for the record $1.3 billion she was given to tackle the homelessness crisis. But an analysis from the city controller shows that nearly half the money has gone unspent.
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The audit by City Controller Kenneth Mejia shows that only $599 million of the homelessness funding for the fiscal year actually went out.
The report blames “a sluggish, inefficient approach,” a lack of staff and resources, programs spread over multiple departments, and obsolete technology.
According to the L.A. Times, the city is questioning some of the findings, saying that $100 million of the unspent money included multi-year grants that weren't intended to go out all at once.
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office told the L.A. Times that Mayor Bass has been “executing a prudent and comprehensive strategy that brought down homelessness overall for the first time in years."
Mejia acknowledged the 2% drop in homelessness, but said the city lost the opportunity to do more.
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