Audit: California should track homeless spending, set policy

California has spent $13 billion in the last three years to tackle a massive homelessness problem likely to worsen with the pandemic, yet its approach is so fragmented and incomplete as to hinder efforts at getting people into stable housing,

May 21, 2020, rectangles designed to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus by encouraging social distancing line a city-sanctioned homeless encampment at San Francisco’s Civic Center. California has spent $13 billion in the last three years to tackle a massive homelessness problem likely to worsen with the pandemic, yet its approach is so disjointed and incomplete as to hinder efforts at getting people into stable housing, the state auditor said in a report released Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)