Website from LA Controller's Office tracks city spending on homelessness

Los Angeles is working to update its website where the public can view the city’s spending on homeless services, including Mayor Karen Bass’ signature Inside Safe program.

The updates were prompted by a request from a federal judge who for years has urged the city and county of L.A. to maintain websites that detail homelessness spending for accountability and transparency reasons, according to court documents.

Both have failed to keep those sites updated.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter reiterated the request in a June ruling that found L.A. officials failed in multiple ways to follow a settlement agreement to create more shelter for unhoused people.

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The ruling was the result of a long-running lawsuit filed by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group of downtown business and property owners who sued the city and county in 2020 for failing to adequately address the local homelessness crisis.

L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia was ordered to appear in court Tuesday to share his office’s progress on the website, which earned compliments from the judge.

“This is the first website — that the court is aware of — that seems to be starting to function on the public’s behalf,” Carter said during the hearing.

However, Mejia noted that the Controller’s Office has been “hitting some hurdles” maintaining the website, including delays with data and extensive manual work.

About the website

The website breaks down information about service providers working with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, otherwise known as LAHSA, including dates and invoice details.

It’s designed so people can “dig in for yourself” and “see what the city is spending its money on,” Mejia said.

You can see the controller’s site here.

The Controller’s Office has a two-person team working on the website, Mejia said.

The pair is tasked with sorting through thousands of pages of invoices and contracts from LAHSA to redact any sensitive data before they’re posted publicly.

Some of the controller’s staff, including Director of Homelessness Ashley Bennett, told the court that the website requires extensive and time-consuming work from the team, all of which needs to be done manually.

Staff said the Controller’s Office has also faced up to nine-month delays in getting data and documents from LAHSA, which the judge said worries him.

What’s ahead

One reason for making the information on the website widely available is to gain public trust, the judge said. He noted that a months-long delay could undermine that.

Carter urged the Controller’s Office to speed up the process and get the website updated to as close to real time as possible. But he noted that’s outside the court’s jurisdiction.

Mejia told the judge that his office needs help and "cooperation from the outside” to update the site more quickly. That likely means more cooperation from LAHSA, the controller said.

Mejia is expected to provide another update on the site to the judge on Nov. 12.