As California homeless count rises to 186K, Newsom faces call for accountability

(The Center Square) As California’s homeless population rises to a CalMatters-estimated 186,000, Republican legislators are demanding that Gov. Gavin Newsom sign a bill requiring the state to track homelessness spending and outcomes.

AB 2903 by Assemblymember Josh Hoover, R-Folsom, passed without any opposing votes, and would require any “state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs” to report “cost and outcome data for each program the agency or department administers” to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness. ICH would then be required to make those costs and outcomes available to the public.

Earlier this year a state auditor looked into $24 billion of state homelessness spending finding “the State lacks current information on the ongoing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs” because it has “not consistently tracked and evaluated the State’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness.”

Newsom vetoed another unopposed bill earlier this year that would have required the California Department of Housing and Community Development to include an evaluation of its Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program in its annual report.

In his veto message, Newsom said the bill was redundant as he already had “directed California's Housing Accountability Unit to increase its oversight and enforcement of existing housing laws to address homelessness” and that the 2024-2025 budget already “includes statutory language that requires more frequent reporting by HHAP grantees on their expenditures, corrective action plans for grantees not meeting specified performance measures, and maintenance of compliant Housing Elements prior to receiving additional HHAP funding.”

“While addressing homelessness is a critical priority for our state, we must also ensure that we are tracking the effectiveness of these programs and ensuring taxpayer funds are being used efficiently,” said State Senator and principal coauthor of AB 2903 Rosalie Ochoa Bogh, R-Yucaipa, in a statement. “This bill will provide essential oversight to ensure these programs are achieving their intended outcomes.”

Newsom’s office did not respond to request for comment by time of publication regarding the homelessness increase or its potential causes for growth despite the state’s significant spending on the matter.