Report: Insufficient data central to Oakland, Calif.’s homelessness shortcomings

Over a period of three consecutive years beginning in 2018, Oakland, Calif.’s housing program, which is managed by third-party service providers, served a total of 8,683 participants via contracts worth $69 million—sometimes successfully, sometimes not so successfully.

An audit published this month at the behest of Oakland’s City Council found the city has had “mixed results” in placing people receiving services into permanent housing, and in enrolling those who are homeless into income and health benefit programs, which is “a proven first step in increasing a participants’ ability to improve life circumstances and housing stability,” wrote City Auditor Courtney Ruby in a statement attached to the 135-page report.

A central shortcoming found to be behind the results was that administrators don’t have enough information to make decisions. Hampering the city’s ability to respond to challenges, the audit reports, is limited access to timely, accurate and complete data, and the city’s inability “to use this data to adequately evaluate its own performance and the performance of the service providers contracted to provide direct homelessness services,” Ruby said. “This was compounded by the fact that the city’s contract monitoring activities were incomplete, inadequately documented, and did not sufficiently address service delivery concerns.”

The audit report is notable given the increase in rates of homelessness cities across the United States have seen over the last few years.

Between 2015 and 2022, observed homelessness increased 131 percent and 141 percent in Oakland and surrounding Alameda County, respectively. And since 2019, “homelessness has grown by nearly 25%—from 4,071 to 5,055—and the answers in this audit show that Oakland’s investments and programs are not achieving strong enough results to address this crisis, nor is the City Administration doing the very basic management of data analysis and contract compliance,” said Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas in a statement about the findings. 

In calculating the number of unhoused people in the region, the report notes an important asterisk: “A leading cause for women experiencing homelessness is gender-based violence. Many women tend to remain hidden due to the high risk of violence and abuse while experiencing homelessness and will consequently be undercounted.” Likewise, children and transition-aged youth are also often undercounted.

“With this baseline information. Oakland must create stronger programs and services with management systems for accountability and results so that we can develop an impactful strategic plan to address the homelessness crisis,” Fortunato Bas said. “Our unsheltered neighbors deserve services that lead to dignity and permanent housing, and our tax payers deserve accountability and results from our investments.”

The audit notably highlights that homelessness in Oakland disproportionately affects African Americans: “Specifically, even though African Americans accounted for 21 percent of Oakland’s population in the 2020 Census, they accounted for 70 to 59 percent of the homeless population based on the 2019 and 2022 (counts),” the report says.

Among 30 recommendations outlined by auditors, the report recommends the city develop goals for the its homelessness service, and report regularly on activities and results related to that plan. Other recommendations include training in data collection and report publication, determining whether programs are maintaining 90 percent occupancy and developing strategies by analyzing trends in bed utilization rates, accessing real-time data to ‘check in’ on operations, or continuously monitoring operations and making changes if they’re needed.