Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin on Feb. 23 released “The Problems and Progress of Prop. HHH,” his third review of the city of Los Angeles’ performance of the voter-approved $1.2 billion bond program aimed at reducing homelessness by creating up to 10,000 units of housing, along with interim shelters and storage facilities.

Since HHH passed more than five years ago, homelessness has jumped by more than 45% in Los Angeles and thousands of people have died on the streets, including an average of five per day in the pandemic’s early months, Galperin said.

He said he investigated HHH in 2019 and 2020 and recommended reallocating funds to lower-cost projects, cutting red tape and increasing investment in timely interim housing solutions.

In his current report, Galperin found that costs continue to rise, delays continue to mount and HHH is still unable to meet the demands of the homelessness crisis. He called on city leaders to implement his recommendations to improve HHH and use them to inform any homeless housing programs considered by voters in the future.

“Although Los Angeles has made some progress with Proposition HHH, it hasn’t been enough,” Galperin said. “The costs are too high, and the pace is too slow to address the tragedy on our streets.”

HHH projects are taking between three and six years to complete, Galperin said. At the current pace, 54% of all units will not open for another two to four years. Even when every HHH unit is built, tens of thousands of Angelenos will still lack housing, he said.

Galperin said Prop. HHH will produce 8,091 total housing units across 125 projects. Currently,  1,142 units (14%) are ready for occupancy, 4,347 units (54%) are in construction and 2,602 units (32%) are in pre-development.

HHH costs have reached staggering heights, the controller said. For projects in construction, the average per-unit cost jumped to almost $600,000 in 2021 – up from $530,000 in 2020. He said 14% of units in construction cost more than $700,000 per unit.

One project in pre-development is estimated to cost $837,000 per unit, nearly $100,000 per-unit more than the most expensive project in 2020, Galperin added.

The city has begun implementing two of four major changes recommended by Galperin in previous reports. His recommendation to build interim housing and facilities using HHH funds and his recommendation to evaluate the city’s ability to change course on expensive or stalled projects before finalizing HHH loans have not been adopted.

Along with the report, Galperin created interactive maps showing the cost and status of the city’s 125 HHH projects.

To view the map, visit lacontroller.org/problems-and-progress-of-prop-hhh.