Los Angeles is directing millions to tackle homelessness but not all of it appears to be well-spent or properly accounted for, according to auditors charged with looking at how the city is putting those public funds to use.
Auditors with the firm Alvarez & Marsal said during a court hearing Wednesday that contracts with service providers were not written in a way by the joint city-county Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to measure outcomes or to set standards for what counts as a hot meal or storage, for example.
That, auditors said, has resulted in inconsistent and poor care which they described witnessing during 18 “spot checks’ on providers.
Auditors, who are expected to complete a report this year, also described seeing broken showers and people still going hungry despite the massive public investment in reducing homelessness.
Auditor Diane Rafferty recounted how a woman with a traumatic brain injury prostitutes herself so she could afford food.
“It’s heartbreaking, your honor,” she told U.S. District Judge David O. Carter. “It is heartbreaking.”
Kevin Call, who is part of the Skid Row community, was at the hearing and said afterward he agreed with the auditors’ assessments.
“In the city of Los Angeles, people are suffering on Skid Row,” Call said. “Even with all the money that’s supposed to be available and all that – somebody’s got to be held accountable for that.”
Lack of accountability
The audit comes out of a 2022 settlement with LA Alliance for Human Rights, a group of business owners and residents that had two years earlier sued over how homelessness is managed in the city and county.
The city settled…
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