Committee presses CAO for a complete homelessness spending picture as Alliance deadline approaches

The Housing and Homelessness Committee met Jan. 14 to press the City Administrative Officer’s office for a consolidated accounting of the city’s homelessness spending and to review progress on the Alliance settlement.

Committee chair opened by saying council members need a single, readable inventory of homelessness programs, the funding streams that pay for them (HAP, Homekey, Measure A, La Casa, general fund and others) and the annual costs associated with each program so the council can exercise oversight.

Kendra Leo of the CAO’s office told the committee the homelessness funding report is in progress but requires coordination across departments and LAHSA; staff have had difficulty obtaining actual-cost data from departments. Ed Gibson (CAO staff) said the team is prioritizing data reconciliation and converting disparate PDFs and spreadsheets into a usable, line‑by‑line format.

Why it matters: Members said the report must precede any transfer of unappropriated balance (UB) funds because those dollars are used to pay service providers and delays in contracting can cause payment problems. Chair and multiple members emphasized the report will also inform the council’s effort to find 10–15% in budget savings for the coming fiscal cycle.

On the Alliance settlement, committee members flagged a continuing budget gap. The chair referenced previously reported gap estimates ranging from about $23 million to $87 million; CAO staff said program cost assumptions (including subsidy rates) and project timelines have shifted, which has increased forecasted needs. CAO staff and counsel said some projects in the Alliance pipeline are at risk of delay; one set of three permanent supportive housing projects totaling about 317 units was called out as potentially not open by the June 2027 compliance date.

CAO office staff described a near‑term strategy that relies in part on time‑limited subsidies (TLS) to close the final 2,000‑unit slot shortfall. Matt Szabo of the CAO’s team said the city has several potential non‑general‑fund sources to deploy, including the Measure A local solutions dollars (approximately $39 million potentially eligible this year, with $16 million already set aside), Homekey and state HAP funds; the CAO recommended maximizing those rental‑support funds to reduce general‑fund exposure.

Members asked how attorney’s fees and outside counsel costs tied to Alliance litigation will be handled; the CAO said those are general‑fund obligations and are being discussed in budget committee and full council conversations, and that some legal‑strategy discussions may be appropriate for closed session.

Outcome and next steps: The committee noted and filed the CAO Alliance report (Item 2) by a recorded 4‑0 vote and took no final action on the CAO homelessness funding report (Item 1) pending the consolidated data. Members asked staff to prioritize producing an accessible spreadsheet or data file and to return to the committee as soon as possible so UB transfers and other budget decisions can be made with full information.