City Controller Ron Galperin recently discussed his audit of HHH since it was voted on in 2016 to fund supportive housing. You may check out this informative Town Hall at your convenience now: HHH Town Hall Replay
It’s about an hour, well spent to understand our current situation.
Also you may step through his presentation at your own speed here:
Meeting the Moment: An Action Plan to Advance Prop. HHH
or find his Action Plan to Advance Prop HHH on the Controller website.
The Controller starts his remarks noting that we saw that over a four year period homelessness was up 40% to about 60,000 people today; 70% are Black and Latino. He notes a variety of issues that have contributed to the problem and asks if we are getting what we need for what we are investing. He pointed to the story of Million Dollar Murray, a homeless man who received a million dollars in services and still died on the streets.
There have been five projects completed with 18 more due to complete by the end of next June. Most have amazing costs per unit.
The shocking statistics: A total of $362 million of the 1.2 billion has been issued and less than half of it has been spent. Which is obvious when you look at our streets.
The vast majority of projects have not broken ground and are awaiting layers of funding. There is not a sufficient sense of urgency. It is time to reevaluate the most expensive and look at other options including: Adaptive reuse, micro use, dormitory style, organized parking & encampment areas, pre fab and making it easier to create ADUs, for example.
After the presentation, the Town Hall continued with half an hour of Q & A.