One-quarter of all city of Los Angeles-funded homeless shelter beds went unused between the 2019 and 2023 fiscal years, according to a new audit from City Controller Kenneth Mejia.
The cost of those unused beds totaled more than $218 million in taxpayer money. And despite the available shelter beds, many who have expressed interest in them have been unable to obtain one, including about 30% of eligible people in the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years.
The city has regularly reported a massive shortage of available beds for the unhoused. Mejia called the millions of dollars spent on unused beds over the past five years “unjustifiable.”
“Any bed that goes unfilled means an unsheltered person living on the streets is waiting longer than they need to move into a safer space and begin their path to permanent housing,” Mejia said in a news release.
A man sleeps on the sidewalk in Los Angeles, Tuesday, June 27, 2023. (Getty Images)
The audit from Mejia’s office reveals the high cost and low success rate of the city’s recent homeless crisis initiatives, not just when it comes to the city’s shelter programs.
The audit also found that only one in five people to take advantage of interim shelter arrangements went on to obtain permanent housing, while more than half ended up returning to homelessness or falling off the radar entirely.
Mejia says the audit from his office is meant to provide information and recommendations to city leaders and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
“With this homelessness audit, we wanted to find out what’s working and what’s not working about existing pathways out of homelessness,” Mejia said in a news release. “We wanted to identify how the City can improve the rehousing system and increase the likelihood that unhoused people are able to secure a stable, safe, and permanent place to live.”
While the programs the city offers are crucial and there is room for improvement, Mejia said the most important solution to homelessness remains expanding the supply of permanent housing.
“Our audit provides information and near-term solutions in addition to, and not in place of, building more permanent housing,” he said.
His office also advocated for local legislation to make it easier for those who have obtained housing vouchers or subsidies to secure permanent housing, including preventing landlords from requiring credit checks for those who utilize those programs.
For the complete results of the audit, as well as other recommendations made by the City Controller’s Office, click here.
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