Nearly half of Los Angeles’ homeless budget wasn’t spent: Report

Nearly half of Los Angeles, California’s $1.3 billion homelessness budget for fiscal year 2023-2024 wasn’t spent, according to the city Controller’s report.

Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia discovered that only $599 million had been spent, with an additional $195 million marked to be spent, and $512,690,810 million not marked for anything, according to the report. Recently, Los Angeles residents seem poised to approve Measure A, which would add a .5% county-level sales tax, with revenues going towards homeless programs, according to the unofficial election results count.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has made tackling the city’s homelessness epidemic a top issue in her administration. In 2024, there are over 45,000 homeless people in Los Angeles, according to the controller’s report.

“While the Controller is saying there’s too much money being spent one day, and not enough being spent the next, Mayor Bass has been executing a prudent and comprehensive strategy that brought down homelessness overall for the first time in years and reduced street homelessness by 10%,” Deputy Mayor of Communications and Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl told the L.A. Times. “Even before taking office, she warned that the city’s antiquated systems would get in the way, but while others ponder reports about the decades-long problems, she has been leading the charge to fix the issues head-on.”

California overall also has issues accounting for homelessness budgets, with the state’s Interagency Council on Homelessness being unable to account for the $24 billion the state has spent in 2023 according to the state auditor in April.

As of 2024, there are 186,000 homeless people in California, an 8% increase from 2022, according to CalMatters in September.

However, Los Angeles is doing better than previous years on homelessness, as 2024 was the first time in six years that the amount of homeless in Los Angeles decreased, according to a June press release from Bass’ office.

Los Angeles has also continued to suffer from high crime levels, with violent crime rising 12% and property crime rising 15% from 2021 to 2023, according to Cal Matters. However, a vast majority of Los Angeles County residents voted to pass Proposition 36, which increases penalties for certain theft and drug crimes.

Bass’ and Mejia’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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