San Diego is taking several steps in the right direction to remedy the homelessness crisis in the city but needs a realistic funding plan and a comprehensive outreach strategy for success, a performance audit found.
The Office of the City Auditor made 12 recommendations on how to ease the crisis, seven of which the city agreed to while the other five were partially accepted. All findings will be presented Wednesday morning to the City Council’s Audit Committee.
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Among the measures America’s Finest City was commended on was the expansion of the safe parking program, its bridge shelters and its 10-year strategic plan on how to address homelessness. That plan was adopted in October 2019, but the audit finds the city needs to take additional steps to ensure that funding, staffing and performance monitoring are sufficient.
Outreach practices are not being fully used to connect homeless individuals to shelters and services, according to the audit. It also found that the city needs better monitoring and reporting on its progress to ensure accountability, transparency and effectiveness.
Chairman Scott Sherman will urge the county to take the lead on comprehensive outreach, which the audit states can be improved with more workers, improved coordination and the use of data.
Once the full report is presented to officials, they will discuss which steps they will take to move forward.
