Nearly a quarter of city-funded shelter beds for unhoused people in LA went unused, audit finds

An average of one in four city-funded shelter beds for people experiencing homelessness went unused, costing Los Angeles taxpayers about $218 million over five years, according to a new audit from the city controller’s office.

The audit, released Tuesday, outlines other issues with data quality, interim housing/shelter bed occupancy rates, and inadequate program management from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA).

Additionally, fewer than a fifth of people who entered interim housing were able to secure permanent housing, which the audit said is “woefully inadequate.” And more than half of people leaving interim housing returned to homelessness or unknown destinations, which the controller’s office said often means returning to the streets.

It analyzed city-funded interim housing programs, including A Bridge Home, tiny home villages, and crisis shelters from fiscal years 2019 to 2023.

Ashley Bennett, the director of homelessness who led the controller’s audit, told LAist it’s not that people don’t want to use the beds — nearly a third of those who expressed interest weren’t able to secure one.

“There's a lot of findings that we were very concerned with,” she said. “And it just really speaks to the amount of work that needs to be done on reforming the interim housing system, and all the work that needs to be done on really focusing on getting people into that permanent housing that they so desperately need and deserve.”

It's unreasonably complicated to access a shelter resource, Bennett said, and officials need to be looking at ways to remove some of the barriers people face.

The audit makes more than a dozen recommendations, including calling on LAHSA to revamp its monitoring program so it can identify underperforming homeless services providers. It also recommends performance-based incentives for service providers, adopting permanent housing metrics that aren’t dependent on shelter occupancy rates, and a formal reservation policy for city offices.

LAHSA said in a statement that many of the findings are being addressed.

“We came here to change things for the better, and I appreciate that the issues the Controller identified largely align with system improvements we have been implementing since my arrival,” Va Lecia Adams Kellum, LAHSA CEO, said in a statement.

According to the agency, those include real-time occupancy tracking and a monthly monitoring system for service provider oversight.

Zach Seidl, the deputy mayor of communications for L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ office, said in a statement that the issues raised in the audit are serious.

“Which is why when the Mayor and her team identified them two years ago, we took urgent action that has now resulted in yesterday's announcement that permanent housing move-ins have doubled compared to the year before she was sworn in and thousands more have entered interim housing than the year before,” Seidl said in a statement. “This is why the Mayor ran for office — to fix a system we know is broken.”