Amount of Homelessness Spending in CA Should Not Be Measure of Success

California spends billions on homelessness prevention without governance infrastructure to determine whether programs work. A mother facing eviction in Sacramento County called 211 and the county Department of Human Assistance for two months, but each system referred her to the other and neither could explain what help was available or who controlled the process. Human services work administering CalFresh, CalWORKs, and Medi-Cal shows safety-net operations in silos, leaving people in crisis stuck between agencies. A UC San Francisco study found many unhoused adults were long-term leaseholders evicted, and eviction increases the probability of homelessness by more than 300%. California lacks a coordinated system to interrupt the pathway into homelessness before families lose housing, and funding continued without measurable outcome reporting tied to continued investment.

"For two months, she called 211 and the county's Department of Human Assistance looking for answers. Each system referred her to the other. Back and forth, week after week, neither could tell her what assistance was actually available or who owned the process."

"Agencies operate in silos, each assuming the other has the answer. Meanwhile, the person in crisis remains stuck in the middle. That mother I tried to help was not "falling through the cracks." The cracks were built into the system itself."

"A UC San Francisco study found that a third of California's unhoused adults were long term leaseholders who had been evicted, many for the first time. An eviction order increases the probability of homelessness by more than 300%."

"California funded multiple rounds of homelessness prevention programs without requiring measurable outcome reporting tied to continued investment. When it comes to project management, no responsible organization would continue approving phase after phase of funding without evidence that prior phases produced results."

Read at San Jose Inside