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(Transcript of the excerpt on California’s homeless crisis and the missing tax dollars funds for the homeless sent to counties and cities:)
Joanne Tan 58:10
Tani Cantil-Sakauye 58:24
Well, I’ll start with the last question. We do know that the LAO, the Legis Analyst Office, did a report on two cities, that is San Diego and San Jose this year to determine how the billion or so in affordable housing money was spent, and the LAO came away in the report saying, we don’t know, and we don’t know because, in part, there is no accountability. You gave over a billion dollars was provided to different entities to help with the homeless crisis or the unhoused crisis, and they didn’t keep records, and they didn’t account for their success, and they didn’t match up whether it met with their goals. That is just unacceptable.
It is unacceptable that no one can account for the billions of dollars or billion dollars that was spent taxpayer money on trying to fix a true humanitarian crisis in California. And what we do know is that California’s unhoused population has grown, and we see it now, not only in urban areas, but rural areas. Most disturbing to me about the unhoused population on the streets is that we know that they are older people. They’re people in their 50s, there are people who once had a home, once had a mortgage, once had rent, and then something happened that put them out on the streets that was brittle, and unplanned, and unprepared for, and they’ve been in the streets, and yet, at one point they were able in California to make ends meet. And then they’re turned out onto the street, and they’re aging.
And again, as we’ve heard, and I, we, and different studies bear this out, if people didn’t have a mental illness when they were turned out onto the street, they’d have one soon thereafter. And there are reports out there that say the only way you treat mental health is first by finding a shelter, a stable shelter, where they, that person can receive medical services, and it can’t be in a tent on a sidewalk.
So we need to be accountable before any more funding is released, and we need to see concrete evidence of positive change before any more funds are released, and the governor’s Prop One that just recently and barely passed, might be a step in the right direction. It’s taking, as you know, in part, some of the resources that were given to county levels, resources for unhoused, now providing some of it for the state, and it’s going to provide housing and services, not only for drug but also mentally ill.
And I’m… Jury’s out. I don’t know what to make of that. I don’t think transferring responsibility from one government entity to another is what makes the difference. What makes a difference is accountability, and getting people to report back how that money is being used, and what progress is being made, and if none is made, then it means trying something different that can be positive.
Joanne Tan 1:01:28
Tani Cantil-Sakauye 1:01:33
Oh, absolutely, there’s a mechanism. They could build it into the grant itself. We’ll give you a $250,000 and you report quarterly, telling us what you spent it on, telling us what your what your goal is, how you’re going to use it, what you spent it on, and what was achieved, and why or why not was that achieved? We all account. Everybody accounts. You know, it’s a matter of being responsible.
Joanne Tan 1:01:55
Yeah, why wasn’t that done?
Tani Cantil-Sakauye 1:01:57
I don’t know.
© Joanne Z. Tan All rights reserved.
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