Brickbat: Who's Counting?

An estimated 171,000 Californians are homeless, making up about 30 percent of all homeless people in the U.S. The state spent $24 billion in fiscal years 2018–2023 on 30 different programs for the homeless. But a state auditor's report found the agency responsible for coordinating the effort to reduce homelessness stopped tracking the programs' spending and their impact in 2021. The audit also looked at spending on the homeless in San Diego and San Jose and found officials in those cities also failed to adequately track spending, as well.

Comments

[MWAocdoc]

Also no one in California government knows or cares whether the spending is working to reduce "homelessness" or help the homeless people.

[B G]

In the one-party "progressive" system that's been running CA for over a decade now, appropriation of government spending is the measuring stick for the success or failure of any project. There's no need in what passes for the minds of the voters to follow up on anything after that point because once Lord Newsome declares the amount that will be spent, the problem is assumed to be solved. The voters in the state who don't think in that manner are so few and far between that we'd have a difficult time figuring out a meeting place to organize, and would be just as likely to meet up in Las Vegas instead of anywhere around L.A. if there were to be a gathering.

The real reason why it was announced that the HSR would only run from Bakersfield to Fresno and not connect to L.A. or SF is because doing that would lead to at least 45% of all voters in the major cities (who elect both the Governor and the supermajority of the legislatures) to assume that the train must actually be built and operating and the reason they're not seeing it is that they'd never deign to go to either of those towns or travel through the Central valley along Hwy 99 rather than I-5, so they'd never notice that there is no train, and probably will never figure out that there likely never will be one. The (originally) privately funded HSR route from OC to Vegas which began construction last week is already scheduled to open before the projected "completion" date of the CalTrans boondoggle which was originally approved by voters almost 18 years ago and which received $Billions as one of the "shovel ready" infrastructure projects funded by Obama's "stimulus package" in 2009, those $Billions were spent in 2010, but didn't produce any measurable progress toward making the crazy train happen.

[Commenter_XY]

The wonders of leftist policy. Utter insanity. They voted for it.
Let's do some quick math: 24B/171K/5yrs = $28,000/yr

This is a perfect illustration why leftist policies are complete failures. Leftists invariably choose the most inefficient allocation of taxpayer money to address social problems, like homelessness.

CA has pissed away 24B dollars and accomplished nothing.

[rbike]

Umm, they did make California a destinat6 for the homeless. I have heard monthly welfare payments of $600/month just for existing. Probably much more. We non-Californians should thank them for being a great destination for the homeless who would otherwise be panhandling on street corners in the Midwest.

[Minadin]

You get more of what you subsidize. This has been well known for a long time. California has been subsidizing homelessness.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Well, then presumably my city should start buying hobos bus tickets to LA.

[Minadin]

Mine did.

[B G]

Weather did the bulk of the work making CA a destination for the homeless. "sanctuary" policies in cities like Santa Monica and Venice didn't help any, but between the deliberately created housing shortage (which the people who caused it ironically were citing as the principal reason for the high levels of homelessness) and pressure from the public in major cities for law enforcement to be prohibited from doing a large portion of their job, including election of DA's whose go-to move is to essentially legalize crime (in the form of announcing a moratorium on enforcement of any and all misdemeanor charges), and the complete dissociation from reality of the State-level elected officials, it's little wonder that CA is now a state in which tent camping is limited almost exclusively to the city centers and is virtually prohibited in most back-country and publicly managed forest land.

As far as $600/month, that's less than the local gangs will shake down the "unhoused neighbors" for, but might be enough to get one's RV "residence" out of impound on the off chance that the local authorities decide to actually enforce overnight parking bans as they finally did in the Ballona wetlands.

[Brandybuck]

> CA has pissed away 24B dollars and accomplished nothing.

Don't forget, this is a state that whines it doesn't have enough money for basic infrastructure, like repairing the roads. Granted, 99% of the budget is non-discretionary spending, but with a fucking supermajority in the legislature, the Democrats can't certain start cutting spending to make room for essentials like infrastructure if they really wanted to.

But this is the state that is home to Hollywood, so any sort of realism is forbidden. Sigh.

[B G]

When it comes to pissing away money in CA, if it doesn't reach 12-figures, it's not going to make the news.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Because it was the auditing that was causing the programs to fail.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

The lack of tracking struck me as "It's fucking hopeless and no one cares, so why bother."

[Randy Sax]

"How could you not support this School/Homeless/(generic "good" cause) spending bill?"

It's a waste of money.

"you have no heart"

No, it's literally a waste of money. It doesn't go to homeless people or students, it goes to bureaucrats.

[Longtobefree]

But it goes to democrat bureaucrats; that's a good thing.

[mad.casual]

Yeah. If piling up huge sums of other people's money and setting fire to it doesn't get your blood pumping, you're an evil, heartless capitalist.

[Brandybuck]

The homelessness problem in San Jose and surrounding communities is terrible. And it's mostly new. Dating from immediately before Trump took office, leading many Leftists to blame Trump for it. But it's not Trump, or any elected Federal official. The problem is the state and the county and the city.

Right now I don't have a problem in my immediate neighborhood. But my old neighborhood in downtown Mountain View (google, tech hub, etc) is inundated. Permanent homeless encampment at the Safeway grocery store. It's fucking nuts.

But my brother has it much worse. Permanent homeless encampment in his 100% residential neighborhood! It's solid tents and trash from his driveway to the next street. And the cops and city don't give a shit. Well, they pretend they do. They dumped some huge boulders in the street to stop the tents, but the tents are now in between the boulders. It's so fucking stupid. His property value has halved.

But I'm not safe, I see homeless encampments starting to creep in to my location. Only a couple of blocks away. I think I'm safer because I'm not in walking distance to any prime panhandling spot. But it's only a matter of time.

The city, county, and state response to homelessness has essentially been one of "we need more money, and it's all your fault because you didn't vote to approve a property tax hike you ingrates". (Thank gawd for Prop 13!).

[Medulla Oblongata]

One reason I live out in BFE on 40 acres, and if some trespassers disappeared, no one would say much. "No officer, I was just digging a drainage ditch..."

[Rick James]

Schrödinger's Audit.

[Dillinger]

Doc, it hurts when I do this. Stop doing it.

[mad.casual]

Too sane for CA, if only based on pricing.

[Dillinger]

on. the. floor. when that aired ... we still use it.

[IceTrey]

The problem is the 9th circuit that made it illegal for the cities to move people off public property if they don't have some place to put them so every bum in America moved there.

[Jerry B.]

The program has been a success. All the graft was paid on time and in full, with only the budgeted minimum actually spent on the homeless.