The city auditor recommends the housing department improve its grant monitoring process by updating its oversight procedures and having consistent target goals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt poorly reflects on the city internally and how they work with the providers,\u201d Todd Langton, founder of nonprofit Agape Silicon Valley, told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cThere\u2019s lack of coordination, there\u2019s lack of accountability, lack of processes and too much emphasis on volume versus outcome.The report card is a D+ at best.\u201d<\/p>\n City Auditor Joe Rios reviewed four agreements with homeless support nonprofits totaling $14 million, but only cited three examples. PATH did not meet targets for referrals to housing and the number of people it\u00a0conducted outreach<\/a>\u00a0with, citing a lack of workers. LifeMoves did not meet case management goals at the Santa Teresa\u00a0safe parking site<\/a>, which the nonprofit said was due to hiring issues. HomeFirst failed to meet its goals at the\u00a0Bernal<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Rue Ferrari<\/a>\u00a0tiny home sites, including not providing life skills workshops to residents for multiple quarters. It cited having a limited amount of staff as the reason.<\/p>\n These homeless service providers are among the\u00a0top 10 contractors<\/a>\u00a0within Santa Clara County.<\/p>\n Hindered housing assessments<\/p>\n The audit shows housing department workers did not conduct site visits during the term of the grants, limiting an accurate assessment of the service provider\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should note that though Housing grant analysts documented service provider shortcomings in quarterly reports, none were placed on corrective action plans,\u201d the audit reads. \u201cThe service providers\u2019 work was generally assessed as adequate despite these performance issues. In one instance, the work was assessed as \u2018inadequate,\u2019 but a corrective action plan was not required.\u201d<\/p>\n Housing department spokesperson Sarah Fields said oversight is critical to the success of the city\u2019s work in reducing homelessness. But scarcity in outreach workers, limited affordable housing and other issues makes the work more difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cA lack of readily available professional staff time, housing and services all create challenges here,\u201d Fields told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cContinuing work with nonprofit service providers to serve San Jose, while also bringing more services internal to be performed by city staff, will increase accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n To improve grant monitoring procedures, the housing department said it will provide annual training for workers to identify performance gaps and reinforce requirements to take notes during site visits. It plans to implement this by June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n In addition, the city\u2019s overemphasis on targeting outreach to\u00a0large encampments<\/a>,\u00a0creeks<\/a>\u00a0and high priority areas have left homeless people outside the targeted sites without support, according to the audit.<\/p>\n At the time the audit was conducted, San Jose only had 30 outreach workers to serve the city\u2019s 5,500 unsheltered homeless population, a ratio of 180 homeless individuals per outreach worker.<\/p>\n Housing hot spots<\/p>\n Because of the large number of unsheltered homeless people, San Jose created a targeted outreach and engagement program to concentrate outreach efforts on a handful of\u00a0hot spot areas<\/a>. When an\u00a0encampment sweep<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0RV tow<\/a>\u00a0occurred that didn\u2019t fall within outreach range, workers rarely made contact with homeless individuals.<\/p>\n People residing in hot spots often received offers of housing first, whereas those outside of these areas \u2014 who followed the rules and kept their encampments clean \u2014 were ignored.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are missed opportunities to engage with unhoused residents and may undermine trust in the city,\u201d the audit said. \u201cAdditionally, (the targeted outreach program) \u2026 may create unintended incentives for unhoused individuals to move into these areas to access housing referrals and supportive services, whereas the city is actively trying to reduce the impacts of homelessness in these locations.\u201d<\/p>\n The audit shows the housing department did not request outreach workers make contact with these areas prior to a sweep. When the City Auditor\u2019s Office examined outreach cases submitted by Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services, it found outreach requests were closed without being assigned, or there was no action taken on the request for months.<\/p>\n \u201cLimited geographies for targeted outreach within San Jose reflect our finite resources and areas of greatest need,\u201d Fields said. \u201cHowever, as a city dedicated to further alignment and coordination, the audit results will assist the housing department, in partnership with the departments of transportation and parks, recreation and neighborhood services, in achieving better coordination in service to the entire city.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0latest homeless census<\/a>\u00a0conducted in January reported 6,503 homeless residents, of which 3,950 people were living on the streets. More people are falling into homelessness for the\u00a0first time<\/a>, and chronic homelessness across Santa Clara County has\u00a0increased 114%<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state\u2019s 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,\u201d<\/p>\n Councilmember Bien Doan<\/p>\n San Jose\u2019s audit follows on the heels of a\u00a02024 state audit<\/a>\u00a0which gave the city seven recommendations to improve how it tracks expenses and measures effectiveness for its homeless services. The city has met two of those goals and is behind on five. San Jose missed the September 2024 deadline to implement all recommendations.<\/p>\n The two recommendations fully implemented include asking the city to set more robust annual goals that are now provided in the\u00a0Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report<\/a>, which combines information from multiple city departments to provide a comprehensive overview of homelessness. The other is better monitoring of temporary housing utilization through the city\u2019s new\u00a0homeless data dashboard<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 2024 state audit also looked at the city homelessness spending from 2020 to 2023. San Jose spent more than $302 million on homeless supportive services, about $120 million of which came from the state and federal governments. That money went toward numerous temporary housing projects, such as\u00a0$125.5 million from the state<\/a>\u00a0through Project Homekey for temporary and permanent housing. But the city could not identify all of its expenditures.<\/p>\n Councilmember Bien Doan, whose District 7 include large swaths of homeless residents, said conducting a city audit was necessary to know exactly where tax dollars are going, especially when its hard to see progress in places like the Tully Community Ballfields. Doan pushed for a city audit after the state\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state\u2019s 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,\u201d Doan told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Contact Joyce Chu at\u00a0joyce@sanjosespotlight.com\u00a0or @joyce_speaks on X.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LNM-20250616-SJSPOTLIGHTLOGO-01.jpg\")
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Eight lived-in vehicles parked on Rose and Lyndale Avenue in East San Jose. File photo.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_9910-1024x768.jpg\")
San Jose swept hundreds of homeless people out of its largest encampment, located in Columbus Park, earlier this year. File photo.<\/p>\n