On Saturday Assemblyman Josh Hoover of Folsom announced the passage of Assembly Bill 2903 out of the Legislature, which would require state-run homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH). It would also require ICH to develop procedures for collecting the data and reporting it to the public. The bill now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk after clearing the Senate and Assembly with unanimous bipartisan support.
“The State Auditor has made it clear what needs to change in our state’s approach to homelessness,” Assemblyman Hoover said in a news release from his office Tuesday morning. “Improving accountability over the dollars we are spending is the first step toward real reform. Spending billions of taxpayer dollars only to make the crisis worse is the definition of failure. I urge Governor Newsom to sign this bill and set California on a better path forward.”
AB 2903 implements the recommendation of the California State Auditor following the results of a recent audit requested by Assemblyman Hoover, which found that the state has failed to systemically track homelessness spending and is not adequately positioned to collect data and assess outcomes.
According to the Auditor’s report, California has spent nearly $24 billion taxpayer dollars since 2018 to solve our homelessness crisis. During that same period the state’s overall homeless populationincreased by 32 percent and half of the nation’s unsheltered homeless now live in California.
Josh Hoover represents Assembly District 7, which includes the cities of Citrus Heights, Folsom, and Rancho Cordova and the unincorporated communities of Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Foothill Farms, Gold River, Mather, McClellan Park, North Highlands, Orangevale, and Rosemont.
