The California State Auditor published a report showing that $24 billion of spending on homelessness could not be tracked.
Posted by The Dan Bongino Show, Checked
- Sources
- 2 contradict4 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 60%
The Dan Bongino ShowOct 16, 2026
The California State Auditor's April 2024 report found the state spent about $24 billion on homelessness over five years without consistently tracking spending or outcomes, so the core report and figure are supported. However, 'could not be tracked at all' overstates the findings, since the audit describes incomplete and inconsistent tracking rather than no tracking of the money.
A detail. The sources confirm the gist; the verdict faults a detail such as a date, number or wording.
What was said
… There's no question about it. I mean, I've really been focusing on it this week because the money is being spent. And I mean, let's just look at some of the numbers. I mean, these are numbers that are out there from objective sources. You've got the State Auditor of California published a report showing that $24 billion of spending on homelessness just couldn't be tracked at all. The city of Los Angeles, there was a lawsuit filed by business owners in the downtown area. They had an equivalent number of $2 billion, just to the city of LA, not even LA County, just enormous amounts of money. Remember that we spend the most of any state. …
The Dan Bongino Show · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. The 'at all' qualifier is contradicted by reporting that the state did track some spending: the Senate summary says the state tracked funding through its 2023 assessment covering fiscal years 2018–19 through 2020–21, and KTVU notes data centralization began only in mid-2023.[2][3]
Supports. The State Auditor's report, released April 9, 2024, found California spent $24 billion on homelessness over five years but did not consistently track whether that spending improved outcomes.[1][4][5]
Supports. CalMatters reported that the state had no current information on the ongoing costs and results of its homelessness programs, since the coordinating council analyzed no spending past 2021, and that 'it turns out, no one knows.'[6]
Context. The audit's central problems were inconsistent tracking of outcomes and effectiveness, with some program data unreliable or missing, rather than a total absence of records for the full $24 billion.[5][6][7]
Sources
7 sources: 1 fact-checker, 1 primary, 3 not rated, 2 tier 2
- 1How effective are California's homelessness programs? Audit finds state hasn't been keeping trackapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2Audit Reveals Critical Flaws in California's Homelessness ...sr19.senate.ca.gov · primary source · cited for: contradicts
- 3California hasn't been tracking homeless programs' effectiveness ...ktvu.com · not rated · cited for: contradicts
- 4Audit finds California spent $24B on homelessness in 5 years ...cbsnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 5How effective are California's homelessness programs? Audit finds state hasn't kept track wellpbs.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports, context
- 6California fails to track its homelessness spending or results, a new audit sayscalmatters.org · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 7California's $20 Billion Effort to Combat Homelessness Fails to Curb ...kqed.org · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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