From JustTheNews.com…
This week’s Golden Horseshoe is awarded to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for failing to disburse hundreds of millions of dollars in federal COVID relief funds earmarked for the homeless in time to help the “vulnerable population for which it was intended,” according to a scathing report compiled by the state’s auditor.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s state housing department received $316 million from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) through the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) program, but “as of early August 2021, the federal government reported that the State had spent only $2 million of the $316 million it was allocated — less than 1 percent,” according to the California state auditor’s report.
Homelessness has been surging in California in recent years, and the homeless are especially vulnerable to COVID-19, the report emphasizes.
“As of January 2020, more than 161,000 Californians were homeless, a 16 percent increase since 2007, and the COVID‑19 pandemic poses a particular set of health risks for this vulnerable population,” according to the report.
