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LA City Council votes to address homelessness data problems
The downtown L.A. skyline at dusk as seen from Skid Row.
(
Ethan Ward
/
LAist
)
The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to address inconsistent and fragmented data issues within the city’s homeless services system.
The vote directs the city’s chief legislative analyst to find data silos and databases that may have a connection to homelessness but aren’t included in the Homeless Management Information System — a regional database service providers use to track people experiencing homelessness.
City officials will also report back on which programs could be linked to the database and shared with the county, as well as which city agencies should be responsible for managing those efforts. No deadline was set for the report back.
The council approved the motion 14 to 0, with Councilmember Adrin Nazarian absent.
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LAHSA also has failed multiple external audits in recent years, which have found the agency has neglected to properly track spending meant to shelter and house people. -
The city reported a 3.7% increase in Long Beach’s homeless population in spite of its investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in shelter beds and programs. -
Recent rulings have struck down requirements in L.A. and Pasadena for landlords to pay thousands of dollars to tenants who couldn’t afford large rent hikes.
The backstory
Accurate data has been a sore spot for the city of L.A. and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the region’s top homelessness agency.
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The city has struggled to track its progress addressing homelessness due to ongoing issues. A recent independent audit, commissioned by a federal judge, found that city officials have made it impossible to accurately track spending in part due to a lack of uniform data standards at LAHSA, which is overseen by the city and county. LAist has also found and reported on major errors in city data.
The City Council motion that council members voted on described the problems as the city losing a “vital ability” to improve services and maximize what it’s paying for.
The motion, authored by Councilmember Nithya Raman, stated that collecting and analyzing data from across city departments helps make sure resources and services are directed to the Angelenos who need them most.
“[D]epartments really do need to talk to each other if we're gonna make sure our money does what it's supposed to be doing,” Raman said during a Housing and Homelessness Committee meeting last week.
What’s next
The federal judge who commissioned the audit is considering handing control of L.A. city homelessness spending to a court-appointed receiver. A days-long hearing is set to start next Tuesday to gather evidence on whether the city has breached its obligations to create more shelter.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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