A $1.2 billion program is earmarked for new housing to accommodate Los Angeles’ sprawling homeless population. It’s moving too slowly, and costs are soaring, according to an audit as KTLA reports.
Let’s not forget that Governor Newsom invited all the homeless to come to live in Commiefornia. So, the state is overwhelmed with homeless.
About 1,200 units have been completed since voters approved the spending in 2016. But the audit issued by city Controller Ron Galperin finds it “totally inadequate”.
In recent years, homeless encampments have spread into virtually every neighborhood, while the population has climbed to an estimated 41,000 people. Many are drug-addicted or mentally ill, and violence is commonplace.
The program “is still unable to meet the demands of the homelessness crisis,” Galperin said in a letter accompanying the 31-page report. The pace of development is sluggish, he said, while the cost of each unit continues to rise — in some cases to “staggering heights.”
The units are only studios or one-bedroom apartments and still cost over $700K to as much as $837K.
The pandemic is blamed to some degree but this has been going on since 2016 and the costs were always ridiculous. In 2020, each home cost $600K to $700K. The plan began in 2016 but by 2019, ZERO homes were built.
GARCETTI THINKS IT’S GOING SWIMMINGLY
Far-Left Mayor Garcetti doesn’t see it. He says the program “is producing more units than promised, at a lower cost than expected,” Garcetti wrote. “There are already 1,200 units online providing critical housing and services. And HHH will deliver over 10,300 units of supportive and affordable housing by 2026.”
When Garcetti took office in 2013, the city was spending about $10 million treating homelessness. The budget he signed last year included about $1 billion.
BAD IDEOLOGY
Homelessness keeps getting worse because of their open borders policies, their free-wheeling drug policies, the lack of appropriate treatment in facilities and we don’t mean giving them crack pipes and letting them light up, and the unwillingness for these progressives to follow the law.
San Francisco’s progressive mayor, London Breed, last month declared a state of emergency in the city’s Tenderloin district after becoming fed up with the homelessness and open drug-peddling there.
In LA, the audit said the HHH project includes 8,091 housing units — most with connected services for mental health and substance abuse treatment — spread across 125 projects. About 4,200 are in construction. Other funds outside the HHH program are being used for another 2,369 units.
The audit signaled that a fresh approach – and billions more in spending — would be needed in the future.
Progressives can’t learn from their mistakes because ideology comes first.
I thought the free crack pipe story was debunked. pic.twitter.com/gJRy6ENlcr
— Big Fish (@BigFish3000) February 23, 2022
Subscribe to the Daily Newsletter
wpDiscuz
