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