California lawmakers, Newsom administration continue to clash over homelessness spending data

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

California lawmakers and the governor agreed to provide cities and counties with another $1 billion to address homelessness this year but appear to still disagree on how the money should be tracked moving forward.

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill this week that would have required his administration to do a yearly evaluation of the state’s Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, also known as HHAP. For the last five years, the state has provided the funds to the state’s 13 largest cities and all 58 counties to help with the homelessness response. The proposal for the annual review passed the state legislature unanimously and without any opposition from outside organizations.

“I think it would have been a great thing to have an evaluation on whether or not it’s successful from a state agency, so when it was vetoed, I was definitely disappointed,” Republican Assemblyman Joe Patterson told KCRA 3 in an interview on Thursday.

The veto marked the latest point of contention between lawmakers and the governor when it comes to tracking the results of the state’s homelessness spending. A state audit earlier this year showed the administration did not properly track the effectiveness of the billions it had spent on the problem. The governor has mostly blamed local governments for the issue and, as a result, has placed new reporting requirements around their use of the money.

San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman Phil Ting grilled the administration in May after officials showed up to a budget hearing without any data on the effectiveness of the HHAP program.

“I’m very concerned,” Ting told KCRA 3 when asked about Newsom’s veto. “We’ve obviously invested a significant amount of money into homelessness and housing.”

The administration eventually released some of the data Ting demanded in May’s hearing. As of June 6, the state has made a dashboard publicly available to show how the first four rounds of HHAP funding have been used. Specific data on how many people have been moved into permanent housing from HHAP projects is only available for the year 2023.

A separate state dashboard shows a breakdown of the funds, showing that of the $2.4 billion awarded from the four rounds of funding, about half of that has been spent.

“It’s taking a long time for the money to get to where it needs to be, which is in the hands of the people who are building the housing or servicing the homeless,” Ting said. “Voters are clearly concerned. They haven’t seen enough progress.”

“When you’ve basically lit $24 billion on fire, I think maybe spending another $100,000 or so just to make sure the reporting is accurate. I think my measure would have been complimentary to what the state is already doing and what the legislature put in the budget,” Patterson said.

Annie Carney, deputy secretary of external affairs for California’s Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, noted several changes were made to the HHAP program through the state’s budget process this year. She said that includes moving grantees to a monthly reporting schedule, a greater focus on documented homelessness reduction strategies, housing element compliance requirements, as well as additional oversight and compliance repercussions.

It’s unlikely the legislature will use its veto override power on the governor’s decision. The last time the legislature overrode a governor’s veto was in 1979.

California lawmakers return to Sacramento on Aug. 5 for the final month of the legislative session. Lawmakers from both parties said there should be follow up on the HHAP program before session ends.

 

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