Audit Suggests L.A. Spend More on Shelters With Homeless Housing Costs Potentially Exceeding $600K a Unit

Construction continues on Flor 401 Lofts at 401 E. Seventh St. in downtown Los Angeles in this undated photo. (Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

by: Los Angeles Times

Posted: Oct 7, 2019 / 08:20 PM PDT

Updated: Oct 7, 2019 / 08:20 PM PDT

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With the costs of building housing on the rise, Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin is recommending that some projects be reevaluated to see if their budgets can be cut to use less of the city’s $1.2-billion homeless housing bond.

In an audit that will be released Tuesday, Galperin found that more than 1,000 units of housing approved for funding through Proposition HHH could top $600,000 apiece.

“The median cost of building many of these units approaches — and in many cases, exceeds — the median sale price of a condominium in the City of Los Angeles and of a single-family home in Los Angeles County,” according to the audit, an early copy of which was obtained by The Times.

The audit said the city should evaluate whether it can revise homeless housing projects that have such “outlier” costs and instead use innovations such as shared housing, modular construction and simplified financing. Any savings should then be shifted to fund shelters, bridge housing, hygiene centers and other service facilities to address more immediate needs of the city’s homeless population, he said.

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