Where L.A. Sends Its Billions in Homeless Spending
As far as homeless populations go, New York may have more in shelters. Other cities like Washington, D.C. have a larger homeless population rate per capita.
But the Los Angeles metro area has by far the largest unsheltered homeless population—52,307—than anywhere else in the country according to Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) point in time estimate for 2023. New York City is a distant second with one-tenth the homeless population of L.A.
That total for L.A. has only grown year over year. Ten years ago the total homeless population was almost half that at 22,590 in 2013. Of the homeless population in L.A., 73 percent are unsheltered.
Overall California has a massive homeless problem as 28 percent of all homeless in the country reside in the Golden state.
Being the most populous state, some of this is expected. But then Texas, which has a similar population to California, has 1/5th the homeless population.
And it’s not for lack of spending. California allocated over $24 billion towards the issue between 2018 and 2023 alone. After that $24 billion, Governor Gavin Newsom produced a plan to spend an additional $12 billion in 2021 to contain the still growing homeless population.
Much of that allocated money is going towards housing, but while some metrics show huge improvements in housing the homeless, others make it seem like little has changed and the situation is only getting worse.
Newsom’s struggles with the homeless epidemic in California goes back decades to when he was mayor of San Francisco. In 2004, he declared a ten year plan to end the epidemic in the city, but ten years after the fact and after much effort little had changed. San Francisco now has a much larger homeless problem than it did prior to his plan, and it continues to struggle with an ongoing fentanyl epidemic.
LAHSA’s Largess
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA)—the joint public agency for both the city and county of Los Angeles that handles homeless issues—had an annual budget of an astounding $845 million in 2023, up from $63 million in 2015.
Much of that is due to the passage of Measure H in 2017: the Sales Tax for Homeless Services and Prevention that adds a quarter cent sales tax for homeless services. The budget for Measure H would swoon from $92 million in 2018 to $439 million in 2023. A current ballot measure is set to increase that sales tax to a half cent.
Then there is Proposition HHH—the Permanent Supportive Housing Loan Program—also passed in 2016, which dedicated $1.2 billion towards housing for the homeless.
Then there are the various Los Angeles-based non-profit organizations such as Homeless Health Care, People Assisting the Homeless (PATH), Midnight Mission, and Los Angeles Mission with annual budgets of tens of millions as well—$15.6 million, $30.1 million, $14.9 million, and $20.9 million respectively based on recent IRS filings.
Of LAHSA’s recent $845 million budget, $662 million is spent on housing with 59 percent on interim housing. Yet the number of sheltered homeless has barely budged according to HUD numbers. Since 2016, the number of those sheltered increased by just 7,940 with the number of unsheltered still increasing.
A recent Los Angles housing development funded by HHH, Weingart Towers, had estimated costs of $595,000 per residential unit.
Discrepancies in Shelter Counts
Almost 8,000 additionally housed homeless might still be considered a reasonable success, but based on LAHSA’s housing estimates data, it should be more like 24,979 additionally sheltered.
Rather than 19,013 total sheltered in Los Angeles according to HUD, it’s more like 56,585 according to LAHSA’s numbers.
Based on LAHSA’s point-in-time estimates, the number of available beds and the number of occupants has been consistently increasing each year far beyond what HUD shows. What was once 550 shelters has grown to 1,229 and many are at peak capacity.
Excess Capacity
LAHSA’s occupancy estimates also show seemingly improbable numbers, like the average number of occupants per available bed—otherwise known as the shelter utilization rate—of over 120 percent.
Certain locations show an intense level of overcrowding, like the 680 percent utilization rate for Project Homekey in Brynhurst run by the Saint Joseph’s Center. At that shelter, 136 people share 20 beds.
Others are at over two to three times their capacity. But then there are also nine other shelters with no occupants and hundreds of empty beds each.
Prior Audits
Questions about LAHSA’s estimates were brought up in a 2023 audit by Los Angeles city controller Keith Meija, which showed huge discrepancies in the utilization of interim housing.
In that report, some housing units showed large underutilization—around 36 to 46 percent. And then some shelters showed completely improbable overutilization—111 to 148 percent.
A 2021 audit of LAHSA criticized the organization for its inability to meet its targets despite doubling its staff in recent years.
Outreach workers were supposed to place into permanent housing 10% of the homeless people they assessed. But in the fiscal year that ended in June, they placed only 4%, the audit reported. The goal was 20% for placing people in shelters, but they achieved only 14%. The discrepancies were greater for referrals to treatment: 6% for substance abuse and 4% for mental health. Both had goals of 25%.