Reclaiming accountability
SF starts to corral out-of-control non profit spending. Will SJ follow suit?
SF finally gets serious about managing non profits
San Francisco will seek new contracts for all of its homelessness services over the next several years in a bid to boost accountability and results for the hundreds of millions of dollars it spends annually to address the crisis.
The effort, announced Monday, will shift the contracts to an outcomes-driven model that will incorporate performance metrics into how it allocates city funding.
Critics have long argued that San Francisco spends generously on helping homeless people but still has poor results, with long shelter waitlists, troubled supportive housing projects and insufficient support for those struggling with mental illness or addiction, for example.
--SF Chronicle
As mayor, Liccardo expressed worries about local non profits' lack of accountability
“I’ve been concerned/frustrated over the last several years that we don’t seem to have good performance/outcome metrics to hold our non-profit providers accountable.
"I don’t doubt that there are nonprofits that are underperforming if we’re not really clearly assessing them, and I hear anecdotal information suggesting that some organizations are simply mailing it in, and assuming that their longstanding relationships with the city will enable them to keep their contracts and secure renewals.”
--Sam Liccardo, from 2022 email
State audit busts SJ's mismanagement of non profits
The recent State audit of San Jose's Housing Department shows that San Jose failed to adequately track $300 million in homelessness spending. The 115-page report, details the SJHD's utter failure over the past decade to address homelessness.
Cities like SJ increasingly rely on “non-profits” to deliver city services, including housing, mental health etc. But the spending and performance of outsourced service providers are not transparent. City programs themselves are ultimately responsible to the taxpayer through public records requests but non-profits are not held to the same standard despite receiving substantial financial support.
Non-profits play by different rules and are not subject to the same oversight, staff protections, community outreach and audit rules that normally apply to city services.
--Irene Smith, United Housing Alliance (2024)
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