A protracted-delayed report meant to scrutinize greater than $200 million in taxpayer-funded homeless housing lacked fundamental info when it was lastly unveiled Wednesday — as a high Los Angeles Metropolis Council member appeared stumped and unprepared.
Council member Nithya Raman, who heads the Housing and Homelessness Committee, nonchalantly flipped by a duplicate of the report that was two years within the making and requested workers fundamental questions.
Raman, a Democrat and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, bizarrely mentioned she couldn’t discover the information that was your complete level of the report — what number of homeless housing models are occupied and what number of are empty.
She briefly questioned Metropolis Administrative Officer Matthew W. Szabo on why the numbers weren’t within the incomplete report after which the $243,000-a-year politician urged the committee “come again subsequent month.”
Councilwoman Traci Park, who requested the report two years in the past, mentioned she pushed for an accounting evaluation of what number of lodge rooms and housing models bought by the town have been really getting used. The hoped-for accountability got here when she seen a former Ramada in her district sat vacant lengthy after the town bought it in this system.
“Taxpayers are rightly pissed off that their authorities is spending billions with meager outcomes,” Park advised The Publish. “That’s why two years in the past, I launched a movement asking for accountability on the Metropolis’s Undertaking Homekey websites, together with the Ramada Inn within the coronary heart of my district.”
“Particularly on this second,” Park mentioned, “we’d like to verify each greenback the town spends on homelessness is getting individuals off the road and into beds Angelenos already paid for.”
Park was sparked by the town’s buy of the previous Ramada Venice motel in December 2020, underneath then-Councilmember Mike Bonin. The Ramada briefly operated as interim housing earlier than being cleared out in October 2022 for conversion into 32 models of everlasting housing by operator PATH.
Years later, the constructing stays offline.
Park filed a proper movement demanding the town clarify why — citing financing delays, regulatory hurdles, and the absence of a transparent building or occupancy timeline.
The movement additionally ordered a citywide accounting of Undertaking Homekey 1, 2, and three websites, together with what number of models stay offline, why they’re delayed, and what steps the town plans to take to interrupt the logjam.
The town administrative officer — chargeable for monitoring spending and efficiency — was ordered to provide the report. However when the evaluation lastly got here up Wednesday, the report was nonetheless incomplete and committee members appeared unprepared or disinterested.
The shortage of preparedness prolonged past the chair.
Freshman DSA Councilwoman Ysabel J. Jurado publicly questioned why she couldn’t find paperwork that have been already hooked up to the agenda on one other necessary matter about how a lot the town was spending on homeless applications.
Szabo, the town administrative officer, was compelled to stroll her by the paperwork in the course of the assembly — paperwork The Publish additionally had reviewed previous to Wednesday’s listening to.
On the middle of Park’s movement sits the Venice Ramada Inn — a poster little one for Undertaking Homekey dysfunction.
Raman and Jurado didn’t reply to requests for remark.
