2023-102.2 Homelessness in California
San José and San Diego Must Do More to Plan and Evaluate Their Efforts to Reduce Homelessness
Published: April 9, 2024Report Number: 2023-102.2
Audit Recommendations Disclosure
When an audit is completed and a report is issued, auditees must provide the State Auditor with information regarding their progress in implementing recommendations from our reports at three intervals from the release of the report: 60 days, six months, and one year. Additionally, Senate Bill 1452 (Chapter 452, Statutes of 2006), requires auditees who have not implemented recommendations after one year, to report to us and to the Legislature why they have not implemented them or to state when they intend to implement them. Below, is a listing of each recommendation the State Auditor made in the report referenced and a link to the most recent response from the auditee addressing their progress in implementing the recommendation and the State Auditor’s assessment of auditee’s response based on our review of the supporting documentation.
Recommendations to City of San José
Recommendation 1
To ensure the effectiveness of its actions to prevent and end homelessness, San José should, by September 2024, finalize the annual goals in its city implementation plan on homelessness. The city should then follow its planned schedule for updating its implementation plan goals and for publicly reporting each fall on its progress toward meeting each goal.
Status
Not fully implemented
Date of implementation
10/31/24
60-Day Agency Response
This recommendation is underway. Due to timing factors, this report will be provided to City Council in October 2024.
Recommendation 2
To promote transparency, accountability, and effective decision‑making, San José should, by September 2024, publicly report in a single location, such as a spending plan, all of the federal and state funding it receives, as well as the local funding it allocates for reducing homelessness, including Measure E funding. It should also regularly monitor the amount of its unspent funding to ensure that it complies with any future spending deadlines and can adequately explain to the public the anticipated timing of its future spending.
Status
pending
Recommendation 3
To ensure that it effectively and transparently spends its funding to prevent and end homelessness, San José should do the following:
- Ensure that when it renews or enters into new agreements with service providers, it establishes clearly defined performance measures.
- Require that beginning by September 2024, staff at least annually document an overall performance review and assessment of the effectiveness of each service provider based on the performance measures in the agreement and other expectations that San José has set.
Status
pending
Recommendation 4
To better assist people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, San José should, by September 2024, develop performance measures to evaluate the effects of the city’s public health and safety programs related to unsheltered homelessness listed in Table 6. An example of such a performance measure is a reduction in the number of public health incidents occurring at encampments. San José should publicly report on the effects of its actions in its annual homelessness report.
Status
pending
Recommendation 5
To ensure that it equitably provides homelessness services to all demographics, San José should immediately begin requesting monthly citywide demographic data from the county of Santa Clara to determine which demographic groups are overrepresented among people who are experiencing homelessness and which groups are underserved by specific program types. San José should take actions as needed to address demographic disparities, such as performing additional outreach or other appropriate actions to meet the needs of underserved groups.
Status
Not fully implemented
Date of implementation
8/31/24
60-Day Agency Response
This work is in process. We will begin requesting a monthly data draw from the County of Santa Clara on August 1, 2024, and will use the Housing Department’s Racial Equity Impact Team will coordinate with the Homelessness Response and Policy Divisions on actions, policies, and programming deliverables to address any disparities uncovered in our data to improve outcomes for historically impacted communities.
Recommendation 6
By September 2024, San José should develop goals for contributing to the building of permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness that align with its implementation plan for meeting the goals of its CoC’s action plan. By the same date, the city should also formally adopt a policy for identifying and approving suitable locations for interim housing. In addition, it should develop plans for meeting its goal of having one interim housing facility in each city council district, likely by pursuing the construction of interim housing at the additional locations it has already identified.
Status
Not fully implemented
Date of implementation
Ongoing- pending approved city budget allocation
60-Day Agency Response
This is in process. As a part of the mission and implementation of the City of San José’s Housing Element Plan, as adopted by the Mayor and City Council, and the City’s Implementation Plan of the Community Plan to End Homelessness, the Housing Department has developed and implemented production plans annually. Through its various policies and programs, the City of San José continues to support the development of various new permanent supportive housing and rehabilitation of housing for extremely low-, very low- and low-income individuals and families as further memorialized in the City’s upcoming Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Operating and Capital Budget. In addition, the City of San José will continue to examine opportunities to geographically invest in emergency interim housing solutions throughout San José, in alignment with its stated goals.
Recommendation 7
San José should immediately begin monitoring the utilization data from its interim housing facilities and ensure that the data are complete and accurate. The city should take necessary action to remedy any issues it identifies.
Status
pending
Recommendations to City of San Diego
Recommendation 8
To promote transparency, accountability, and effective decision‑making, San Diego should, by September 2024, publicly report in a single location, such as a spending plan, all of the federal and state funding it receives and the local funding it allocates for reducing homelessness. It should also regularly monitor the amount of its unspent funding to ensure that it complies with any future spending deadlines and can adequately explain to the public the anticipated timing of its future spending.
Status
pending
Recommendation 9
To ensure that it effectively and transparently spends its funding to prevent and end homelessness, the city should do the following:
- Ensure that when it renews or enters into new agreements with service providers, it establishes clearly defined performance measures.
- Require that beginning by September 2024, staff at least annually document an overall performance review and assessment of the effectiveness of each service provider based on the performance measures in the agreement and other expectations that San Diego has set.
Status
Not fully implemented
Date of implementation
01/2025
60-Day Agency Response
This recommendation is in progress. HSSD is reviewing and assessing outcome measures that would be appropriate for agreements with service providers. Outcome data for fiscal year 2024 will be utilized to inform outcome measures for fiscal year 2025 and will collaborate with the San Diego Housing Commission to ensure measures that can be tracked are incorporated into each agreement.
Annual performance reviews and assessments are currently in progress. In fiscal year 2023, HSSD added new positions with the specific function of performance monitoring. These positions have been filled and formal documentation efforts for tracking operator performance are already underway. Additionally, one additional vacant position is in the process of being filled which will oversee data and analysis of performance more broadly across programs in the system. The new position will be responsible for tracking program data on a monthly basis, analyzing trends, and providing recommendations on how to improve program activities and outcomes, as necessary. It is anticipated this position will be filled by fall of 2024.
Recommendation 10
To better assist people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, San Diego should, by September 2024, develop performance measures to evaluate the effects of the city’s public health and safety programs related to unsheltered homelessness listed in Table 7. An example of such a performance measure is a reduction in the number of public health incidents occurring at encampments. San Diego should publicly report on the effects of its actions.
Status
pending
Recommendation 11
By September 2024, San Diego should develop plans for siting and building the permanent housing it has identified that it needs for people experiencing homelessness. The plans should specify the amount of funding necessary to build the housing, as well as possible funding sources.
Status
Not fully implemented
Date of implementation
2025
60-Day Agency Response
This recommendation is in progress. The City agrees that plans for siting and building permanent housing should be created, and staff are working on an Affordable Home Development Master Plan. However, due to resource constraints, the timeline for the completion of this work is projected to be in 2025 instead of by September 2024. Please note that this work may not be completed until 2026 due to delays in state funding that had previously been anticipated through the REAP 2.0 grant program. When completed, the Master Plan will provide a comprehensive plan to utilize City-owned property to develop homes for people of all incomes in all communities that are best served by transit and amenities. The Master Plan will reduce development costs and expedite housing construction on public land.
Additionally, the Master Plan will identify potential shelter sites to address the urgent need for increased shelter capacity for people experiencing homelessness. This Master Plan will expand upon the work and analysis completed in the City’s existing Comprehensive Shelter Strategy, published in June of 2023, which provided an analysis of existing sheltering options and the type and quantity of shelter beds needed in our region.
