Mayor Karen Bass
By TIM CAMPBELL
At the March 27 hearing before federal Judge David O. Carter, Mayor Bass, after she made her last minute appearance before the court, said she agreed with parts of the audit, but then tried to minimize the findings of the devastating by stating, “But it needs to be focused on the people and what their needs are, and not on the administration.”
“But it needs to be focused on the people and what their needs are, and not on the administration.” Karen Bass
It was an obvious attempt to falsely separate the findings from an assessment by the audit firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) from the impact poorly-run homelessness programs have on the unhoused community. It was as if she said, “Yes, there has been gross financial mismanagement, and yes there is no performance measurement, and we really don’t know how many people we serve, but by gum we’re out there helping every day.”
If that were true, it would be the first time in recorded history poor leadership has resulted in successful outcomes.
The A&M Report Was About People
In fact, A&M’s report was very much about people—the people who need help the most and never received it. It’s not about abstract numbers, arcane management techniques or the technical aspects of contract management. Let’s consider some of the real-world consequences of the City’s and LAHSA’s mismanagement.
Key Findings from the A&M Report:
- Duplicated Services and Data Confusion
“Individuals experiencing homelessness could be served by more than one outreach subprogram, which may have complicated data collection, led to possible duplication of efforts, created confusion among the unsheltered community, and diminished transparency regarding the allocation of resources.” — Page 106
Mayor Bass, when you claim the City and LAHSA have served thousands, you neglect to mention many of them may be the same person counted multiple times due to this disjointed system you support.
- Unclear Capacity and Scope
“The number of beds or service slots specified in service provider contracts was not clearly or consistently defined… This lack of clarity made it difficult to confirm that the contracted services aligned with intended goals and obligations.” — Page 106
Mayor Bass, when you brag about the increased number of shelter beds, make sure those beds actually exist and there are people in them. Your own City Controller found that an average of 20 percent of shelter beds go unused every night because of poor data practices.
- Failure to Meet Basic Standards
“A&M observed that other service providers fell short of meeting key requirements. For example, one service provider supplied only two meals per day instead of the three meals specified in the contract, while another site lacked amnesty lockers, despite this requirement being a facility standard.” — Page 108
Mayor Bass, before you pretend you care about people, maybe you should ensure they’re getting three meals a day in the shelters the City pays for.
- Case Management Failures
In the same paragraph, A&M found, “Additionally, through onsite fieldwork, A&M identified noncompliant ratio[s] of case managers to support clients, which resulted in variability in the quality and consistency of case management services, as well as the associated caseloads. This variability impacted the quality of services provided.” — Page 108
Mayor Bass, before you act concerned about “people”, perhaps you should ensure those people are receiving the services they need to move from shelters to housing.
- Ineffective Outcomes
“FY 2023-24 sampled sites reported a median permanent housing exit rate of approximately 22.0%, whereas 47.8% of exits resulted in a return to homelessness.” — Page 121
Mayor Bass, before you try to create a false division between management and performance, look at your own programs and admit they’re not working compared to the massive expenditures of Inside Safe and other initiatives have incurred. When the number of people who fall back into homelessness is more than double the number housed, don’t act like you care about people on the street.
- Eligibility Confusion and Delays
Regarding poor contract management, the report stated, “…the criteria and eligibility for placement may have been subject to varying interpretations influenced by evolving circumstances and trends, potentially resulting in confusion among stakeholders, including service providers. This uncertainty increased the risk of inequitable, inefficient allocation of resources, and may have delayed the timely provision of shelter and housing for those in need.” — Page 106
Mayor Bass, before you claim you care about unsheltered people living on the streets, maybe you should ask yourself why you support a structure that delays and denies them the services they need to get off the streets.
I could add many more examples of how poor “administration” results in inefficient and ineffective services, or no services at all, but the entire 161-page report is a searing indictment of the system Mayor Bass is trying to defend.
And that doesn’t even address other reports and studies. To use just one example, what did Mayor Bass say about more than 1,200 Project Homekey units left vacant months or years after being purchased?? Hint: her reaction was quite similar to her statement to a reporter who asked her what she had to say to fire victims as she returned from Ghana—stone-faced silence. If Mayor Bass really cared about “the people”, she would have been the first to stand before the court and advocate for fundamental reforms. Instead, she tried to use rhetorical tricks and overworked cliches about “linking arms” to defend the indefensible.
Indeed, it was clear from her uninformed statements that she hadn’t bothered to read A&M’s report despite its release three weeks before the hearing. In fact, she ignored Judge Carter’s request to appear on March 27, until he told one of her aides to find her and tell her to show up. When she finally appeared, she fell back on a habitual tactic: deflect, avoid personal responsibility, and deny the crisis that is staring her and four million Angelenos in the face very day.
Thanks for this excellent response to non-answers from Mayor Karen Bass. She should withdraw her candidacy for reelection & save herself from further embarrassment.