San Jose Homeless Services Failing to Deliver Results, audit Finds
A new city audit reveals San Jose’s considerable investment in homeless outreach – exceeding $302 million since 2020 – has been hampered by a focus on volume over demonstrable outcomes and a critical lack of accountability for nonprofit partners.The October audit points to systemic issues in grant monitoring, performance tracking, and coordination, raising concerns about the effective use of taxpayer dollars to address the growing crisis.
The audit, released in October, found that several nonprofits receiving city funding did not meet pre-defined performance targets or adhere to reporting requirements. Critically, the city’s Housing Department did not enforce corrective action plans when shortcomings were identified. These findings align with a broader 2024 state audit that highlighted San Jose’s inability to fully account for its homeless spending and effectively measure the impact of its programs.
“It poorly reflects on the city internally and how they work with the providers,” said Todd Langton, founder of nonprofit Agape Silicon Valley. “There’s lack of coordination, there’s lack of accountability, lack of processes and too much emphasis on volume versus outcome. The report card is a D+ at best.”
The city auditor’s review of four agreements with homeless support nonprofits, totaling $14 million, revealed specific instances of underperformance. PATH, a key service provider, fell short of targets for housing referrals and outreach engagement, citing staffing shortages. LifeMoves struggled to meet case management goals at the Santa Teresa safe parking site, attributing the issues to hiring difficulties. HomeFirst failed to deliver promised life skills workshops to residents at the Bernal Garden safe parking site.
The city’s previous approach to outreach focused on designated “hot spot” areas. This approach inadvertently left individuals experiencing homelessness outside these zones without support. At the time of the audit, San Jose had onyl 30 outreach workers serving a population of 5,500 unsheltered individuals – a ratio of 180 people per worker.
This targeted approach created unintended consequences, with individuals possibly relocating to hot spot areas to access services, even as the city attempted to mitigate the impact of homelessness in those locations. The audit found that outreach workers were rarely dispatched to areas impacted by encampment sweeps or RV removals that fell outside the designated outreach zones.
“These are missed opportunities to engage with unhoused residents and may undermine trust in the city,” the audit stated. Moreover, the audit revealed instances where outreach requests submitted by Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services were closed without assignment or left unaddressed for months.
The city’s latest homeless census, conducted in january, reported 6,503 homeless residents, with 3,950 living on the streets.The number of individuals experiencing homelessness for the first time is rising, and chronic homelessness across Santa Clara County has increased by 114%.
The city audit followed a 2024 state audit that issued seven recommendations for improving expense tracking and effectiveness measurement. San Jose has fully implemented two of those recommendations – establishing more robust annual goals outlined in the Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report and improving monitoring of temporary housing utilization through a new homeless data dashboard. However, the city missed the September 2024 deadline to implement the remaining five recommendations.
The state audit also examined spending from 2020 to 2023, revealing that San Jose allocated over $302 million to homeless supportive services, with approximately $120 million coming from state and federal sources. This included $125.5 million from the state through Project Homekey for temporary and permanent housing solutions, but the city could not fully account for all expenditures.
Councilmember Bien Doan, whose district encompasses a meaningful homeless population, emphasized the necessity of the city audit to ensure transparency in the allocation of public funds. “The state’s findings were broad, offering a snapshot of inefficiencies statewide, but they did not provide the level of detail necessary for San Jose to take corrective action,” Doan explained. “A city-specific audit allows us to dig deeper into our own programs, contracts and internal structures to uncover exactly how funds are being used, who is receiving them, and whether those expenditures align with our legal and policy obligations. When hundreds of millions of dollars are in question,the city has an obligation to demand transparency and ensure that every dollar truly supports effective solutions for homelessness in san jose.”
