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Commission asks staff for grant-by-grant homelessness funding summary and forms subcommittee to advise council
Summary
The Budget and Finance Commission reviewed existing documents about homelessness spending, directed staff to deliver a simple grant revenue-and-expenditure spreadsheet (capital vs. operating), and appointed a three-person subcommittee to draft a letter to City Council requesting higher-priority direction and better consolidated accounting.
The Budget and Finance Commission continued a previously opened item on Feb. 13 to review city spending and funding related to homelessness. Staff provided a set of documents—including a multi-department spreadsheet from fiscal 2022-23 and recent council reports—but commissioners said the materials did not yet answer the core question: how much is the city currently and annually spending on homelessness from general fund and grant sources.
Stephanie Mayer of the Finance Department told the commission the packet was intended to be a starting point and explained the challenge: departments track grant and program funds independently, while some departments do not have accounting set up to tag every staff time entry specifically to a homelessness cost center. Mayer said the city can report grant receipts and program spending by grant (capital and operating) relatively easily, but producing a fully consolidated, program-based cost accounting number that captures indirect labor and overhead would require additional staff time and direction from council.
Commissioners pressed for an actionable first step. Several members suggested starting with basic, verifiable figures: (1) a grant-by-grant list of amounts received in the most recent fiscal years, and (2) for each grant, a short line showing whether it funded capital or operating expenditures and how the funds were spent. Stephanie agreed to provide a simple spreadsheet showing each homelessness-related grant, the amount received and how it was expended (capital vs. operating), and to attach a public commenter's detailed breakdown that was submitted electronically.
The commission also decided to send a request to the City Council asking for direction and to make homelessness-cost tracking a higher priority for the budget process. Commissioners formed a three-member subcommittee to draft that letter: Commissioner Jesse, Commissioner Shervin and Chair Allen. Commissioner Jesse moved the motion; the commission approved the motion.
The commission directed staff to leave the homelessness item on future agendas and to supply the requested grant revenue/expenditure spreadsheet before the next meeting. The subcommittee said it would draft a short letter to the council conveying the commission's request to (a) receive consolidated grant receipts and spending broken into capital and operating, and (b) consider directing staff to build a program-based accounting or reporting approach if council wants an ongoing consolidated homelessness cost figure.
