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City Auditor releases latest audit on Homeless Response Team

Screenshot from City Auditor's newsletter

City Auditor Jenny Wong recently released her team's latest audit on the Homeless Response Team:

Our audit “Homeless Response Team: Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Procedures and Better Track Outcomes” found that while Berkeley achieved a 45 percent reduction in unsheltered homelessness between February 2022 and January 2024, the Homeless Response Team (HRT) experienced challenges in their role as an outreach and enforcement team. These included resource limitations and gaps in their coordination and reporting efforts—including paused coordination meetings, limited access to shared information systems and incomplete outcome tracking and reporting—that presented opportunities for improvement.

 

The audit found that the HRT worked within a complex system with city and regional resource constraints. According to Berkeley shelter data and one homeless count during the audit period, there were 844 people experiencing homelessness compared to only 320 shelter beds.