Long Beach’s Homeless Services Bureau is gearing up for its first-ever performance audit, which will be conducted by City Auditor Laura Doud, the City announced Wednesday, July 26. The audit is expected to be completed by early 2024, according to Doud.
The audit will not explore the inner workings of the Homeless Services Bureau, but rather the contracts between the city’s Homeless Services Bureau and three specific service providers.
Long Beach’s Homeless Services Bureau operates under the city’s Health and Human Services Department and awards contracts with nonprofit and community organizations to offer a wide range of services.
The purpose of the performance audit is to “ensure best practices are being implemented as homeless services are being expanded,” Doud said in a statement from the City.
The audit will evaluate the contracting process between the City and its service providers as well as explore “whether service providers are fulfilling the requirements outlined in their agreements,” according to a statement from the City.
In 2022, Long Beach spent more than $18 million through contracts with independent service providers, according to a statement released by the City.
Over the past three years, Long Beach’s Homeless Services Bureau’s budget has increased from $10 million to nearly $50 million, according to an April 24 memo from the City. Staffing in the department has increased from 25 employees to 90 when fully staffed.
Paul Duncan has been the manager of the Homeless Services Bureau for two years.
Doud told the Signal Tribune in an email that the three service provider contracts being audited include those that offer “permanent supportive housing, intensive case management, and rapid rehousing.”
The City Auditor’s office did not want to disclose which service providers will be audited specifically. Communications Director Meghan King said that the audit has no associated cost since it falls within the normal scope of duties for the office, though it’s the first audit within the Homeless Services Bureau, Doud said.
The 2023 homeless Point in Time Count found 3,447 people experiencing homelessness in Long Beach, more than half of whom became homeless in 2022.
Long Beach declared a local state of emergency due to the rising number of people experiencing homelessness within the city on Jan. 10. The state of emergency removes certain bureaucratic processes that the City normally has to follow in order to approve funding, contracts and other services.
At a Feb. 7 City Council meeting, Long Beach allocated $13 million in one-time funds from 2022 budget toward the emergency.
Doud told the Signal Tribune in an email that all three service providers being audited “were already engaged” through contracts with the City prior to the local emergency declaration.
Long Beach currently has at least 19 ongoing contracts with homeless service providers, five of which received funding from the Mayor’s Homeless Fund in the last two years, according to the City’s website.
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