Nearly half of L.A.'s record homelessness budget went unspent: city controller

NEW YORK, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Nearly half of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' record 1.3 billion U.S. dollars homelessness budget for fiscal 2023-24 went unspent, The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.

Kenneth Mejia, the city controller of Los Angeles, the most populous city in the western U.S. state of California, found that only 599 million dollars had actually been spent, and an additional 195 million dollars was encumbered, leaving at least 513 million dollars unspent, said the report.

Mejia blamed "a sluggish, inefficient approach" for the underspending, listing lack of staff and resources, programs spread over multiple city departments and council offices, obsolete technology and absence of real-time data as contributing factors.

According to Mejia, the city spent or encumbered only about 30 percent of its 262 million dollars in grants from the state Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program and 58 percent of its 267 million dollars budget for Bass' Inside Safe encampment reduction program.

The city also spent or encumbered less than half of the 150 million dollars it received from Measure ULA, the so-called "mansion tax" on real estate sales of 5.15 million dollars or more, and also failed to spend 30 million dollars from other federal, state and local grants and 16 million dollars for substance use disorder treatment beds, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the City Administrative Office questioned some of Mejia's findings. It said 100 million dollars of the "unspent" Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention funds included multiyear grants not intended to be spent in one budget year.