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Los Angeles City Hall looms over a nearby homeless encampment. | Photo courtesy of Ron Reiring/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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A Los Angeles City committee Thursday expressed its continued frustration with the lack of data related to its efforts to address homelessness — with some members saying they are considering halting further funds to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority until they get access to that information.
In its fifth report to the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Karen Bass’ office, LAHSA representatives and the chief administrative officer provided details on homelessness spending as well as data on the mayor’s Inside Safe initiative.
Matt Szabo, city administrative officer, informed the panel that LAHSA developed a data module within the Homeless Management Information System, or HMIS, to track key metrics of the mayor’s Inside Safe initiative, an effort to bring unhoused Angelenos inside to motels and address encampments.
The data also covers a number of individuals who, through Inside Safe, are currently permanently housed and those currently in interim housing, those who exited the program and those who are being served from the streets.
“My office and the mayor’s office continue to work with LAHSA and service providers to receive leveraged funding information which will be included in future reports,” Szabo said. “I know this has been something that this committee has asked for each time before … we are still working on that information.”
Councilwoman Nithya Raman, chair of the housing committee, noted the report “increased in length, but hasn’t changed significantly.”
Councilman Bob Blumenfield, a member of the committee, thanked the mayor’s efforts to obtain data from LAHSA while also keeping track of the same data.
“There’s much more improvement to data collecting on the front end, but there’s a lot more work to do in terms of the exit data, not only for Inside Safe participants but for those in the tiny home program .”
Officials said while they continue to make improvements in their data collecting, there are gaps in the exit data.
Blumenfield said that presented a “big problem,” as the city may be paying for rooms without anybody being in there.
“That’s horrifying, so we could be paying for weeks with for an empty room when somebody left two weeks earlier, and we could be using that room to house someone,” he added.
Mercedes Marques, the mayor’s chief of housing and homelessness solutions, noted that collecting exit data is a requirement, but it has not been completely followed through, citing capacity issues with service providers. Marquez said the mayor’s office would need to provide training to address that issue.
Marquez reassured the committee that the mayor’s office is “constantly” verifying invoices and checking in with service providers.
“I wouldn’t tell you that it is never true that an extra day is paid for, but it is not usual because we check every invoice before it goes the CAO,” Marquez said.
Blumenfield said this issue with receiving data from LAHSA is “frustrating to say the least,” adding the city provided the agency an extra $4.9 million out of the budget last year, and another $1 million to pay for HMIS enhancements. Yet, city officials have not received all the data they have requested to access.
LAHSA officials told the board that they never denied them access, but rather there’s a process they must follow. The HMIS is overseen by the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, which provides counsel to LAHSA.
“I just want to be clear that the CoC Board has operational authority over the HMIS,” said Emily Vaughn Henry, deputy chief information officer for LAHSA.
Henry said they are in the process of updating the agency’s HMIS “all access policy,” which would need to be approved by the Continuum of Care board. It’s taking time because it also impacts the cities of Glendale, Pasadena and Long Beach as they’re partners as well.
“I appreciate that, but I just want to put it out there — I’m at the end of my rope on this,” Blumenfield said. “I want to stop any dollars going to LAHSA until we have access to this data.”
He added, “I don’t have a mechanism to do that quite yet, but that’s literally where I’m going.”
Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez echoed her colleague, adding that “there’s a fundamental problem with getting some very basic information.” She said the issue is costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
The mayor and City Council approved an initial $50 million in December 2022 for Inside Safe. The report from Szabo, city administrative officer, showed that as of July 14, the city expended approximately $18 million of the $50 million from the Homelessness Emergency Account, or HEA.
City officials expected $32 million to be obligated through June 30, which is the end date for the 2022-23 fiscal year.
In May, the Council approved the mayor’s budget for the 2023-24 budget, which allocated $250 million for Inside Safe. The council approved an initial $67.5 million to be expended by the mayor and the remaining $184.3 million to be released as the funds are expended.
As of July 14, no money has been expended from the $250 million, according to the report.
As part of the plan, the mayor’s office would need to provide biweekly progress reports starting July 1. The compromise would allow the council to halt the replenishment of the Inside Safe account.
The committee unanimously approved the report. It will also be discussed by the council’s Budget, Finance and Innovation Committee before heading to full Council at a future date.
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