{"id":2620750,"date":"2026-06-29T07:47:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-new-grand-jury-report-shows-how-the-california-model-is-failing\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T07:51:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:51:49","slug":"a-new-grand-jury-report-shows-how-the-california-model-is-failing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-new-grand-jury-report-shows-how-the-california-model-is-failing\/","title":{"rendered":"A Grand Jury Report Shows How The California Model Is Failing"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fa-new-grand-jury-report-shows-how-the-california-model-is-failing%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2620750&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A recent report from San Francisco\u2019s civil grand jury criticizes the city&#8217;s $700 million annual spending on homelessness, highlighting that despite the significant budget, many programs and nonprofit agencies are ineffective and lack adequate oversight. The city allocates nearly $500 million annually through a network of nonprofit organizations too serve an estimated 8,000 individuals on a typical night,though broader counts suggest up to 27,000 people may be affected over time.This high expenditure results in over $87,000 spent per person based on the point-in-time count.<\/p>\n<p>The report points out systemic issues, including weak oversight of these nonprofit service providers, inadequate monitoring of on-the-ground activities, and poor accountability. It cites examples such as the death of eric McCain, whose death in supportive housing underscored the risks and failures within the system-roughly 25% of overdose deaths occur in supportive housing facilities housing only 1.5% of the population. Additionally, the report emphasizes the increasing severity of health, mental illness, and addiction among the homeless population due to prolonged homelessness.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the report criticizes the growth of NGOs like Urban Alchemy, which has rapidly expanded and become financially significant, making it challenging to scale back or replace these organizations without major disruptions. This dependence creates a &#8220;too big to fail&#8221; dynamic, trapping the city in a cycle of dependency on an increasingly vital but fragile nonprofit infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>the grand jury warns that San Francisco\u2019s approach is inefficient and unsustainable, with enormous sums spent for limited results, contrasting sharply with other cities like Indianapolis that achieve comparable or better outcomes with much smaller budgets. The report underscores the urgent need for better oversight,accountability,and effective strategies to address homelessness more successfully.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Shocking no one, a grim new <a href=\"https:\/\/media.api.sf.gov\/documents\/2026_CGJ_Rpt_At_Scale_At_Risk_-_Upgrading_Data_and_Oversight_to_Improve_Homele_woZ0ksh.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> from San Francisco\u2019s civil <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-indictment-watch-on-hold-as-jack-smith-grand-jury-returns-no-charges-thursday\/\" title=\"Trump indictment watch paused as Jack Smith ... concludes without charges on Thursday.\">grand jury concludes<\/a> that insanely expensive local spending on homelessness is being wasted on failed programs and ineffective nonprofit groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSan Francisco spends roughly $700 million annually on homelessness, and its Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (\u2018HSH\u2019) administers nearly $500 million on nonprofit contracts to deliver services each year, yet this system has gaps that jeopardize safety, accountability, and results,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sf.gov\/2026-point-in-time-count-preliminary-results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">most recent count<\/a> from the city puts San Francisco\u2019s homeless population in the neighborhood of 8,000 people on a typical night, though that number is much lower than the estimate of people who are homeless at some point during the year and eligible for city homeless services. A 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/media.api.sf.gov\/documents\/2025_Homelessness_Needs_Assessment_Final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">city report<\/a> draws the distinction between numbers like this:<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>Screenshot       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You can do the math either way: $700 million to support about 8,000 people who are homeless on any given night, or $700 million to support a varying population that slips in and out of homelessness and adds up to about 27,000 people. It\u2019s a <em>lot <\/em>of money either way, but it\u2019s a little over $87,000 per person if you take the point-in-time count of around 8,000. (Recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qmNJtyisybQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">news reports<\/a> on the city\u2019s claims that its homeless count just hit the lowest level in fifteen years are mostly a word game about \u201cunsheltered\u201d homelessness.)<\/p>\n<p>Taking the higher number, the grand jury finds the heart of the problem by identifying the service model: \u201cHSH was created in 2016 to bring unity and simplified accountability to the City\u2019s homelessness programs, and it now serves roughly 27,000 people per year with a nearly 100% outsourced model through a network of nonprofit service providers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The money is public, but the service providers are private non-profit corporations. A local government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on the homeless through a giant network of NGOs, and no one is really watching them. As the grand jury describes the city\u2019s homelessness agency, underselling the point, \u201cits functional oversight is weak.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Government accountants do \u201cdesk audits,\u201d seeing if the numbers on reports add up, but far less attention falls on the things that happen on the streets and in the shelters. \u201cHistorically, the City\u2019s oversight mechanisms emphasized fiscal compliance and fell short on programmatic measures,\u201d the grand jury says.<\/p>\n<p><em>Programmatic measures:<\/em> How much of the stuff they\u2019re supposed to do that they actually do.<\/p>\n<p>To understand what that means in practice, consider the death of Eric McCain. An alcoholic with a history of homelessness, McCain was receiving shelter in a city-funded, nonprofit-operated supportive housing facility that required contractors to regularly check on vulnerable clients who were supposed to be transitioning out of homelessness and addiction. But when firefighters found McCain\u2019s body inside his apartment, it was already in a state of significant decomposition. Records showed that staff at the facility had last checked on him twelve days earlier.<\/p>\n<p>As a local news story <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/bayarea\/article\/jazzie-collins-apartments-homerise-21953058.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">would report<\/a>, the operator of the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >supportive housing facility received<\/a> a \u201ccorrective action letter\u201d from city officials over the death, warning the nonprofit to check on its clients.<\/p>\n<p>McCain\u2019s death was something close to the local normal. In fact, the grand jury charges, permanent supportive housing facilities are the place addicts go to die. \u201cRoughly 25% of drug overdose deaths in San Francisco occur in PSH sites \u2014 which house only 1.5% of the city\u2019s population.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That high risk of death in supportive housing facilities is happening in the face of another problem with homelessness, a crisis inside a crisis: What the grand jury identifies as \u201cincreasing levels of acuity among the homelessness population.\u201d Prolonged homelessness is leading to higher rates of physical and mental illness, and to higher rates of addiction. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, finding a structural trap, a section of the grand jury report appears under this heading: \u201cRise of Homeless Nonprofits: \u2018Too Big to Fail\u2019 Now?\u201d That section examines the growth of individual NGOs and their growing share of public funding. Here\u2019s the grand jury\u2019s observations about a single NGO, Urban Alchemy:<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>Screenshot       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A nonprofit that was founded in 2018 had no city revenue in 2019, then saw explosive revenue growth as the city pushed more and more responsibility to a new organization.<\/p>\n<p>Urban Alchemy <a href=\"https:\/\/urban-alchemy.us\/about-us\/\">tells the same story<\/a> about itself: \u201cBeginning in San Francisco and Los Angeles providing street cleaning, public restroom monitoring and activating public spaces, today we have grown into a thriving social enterprise with over 1,300 Practitioners (staff) and operations in California, Oregon, Texas, and Alabama.\u201d They\u2019re a growth business, and they mean to be.<\/p>\n<p>What that rapid growth means, the grand jury warns, is that the city has become dependent on its increasingly important homeless service NGOs. To shut them down would be to suddenly have a giant dependent population but no one to deal with them. \u201cThe scale, scope, and operational footprint of these multifaceted nonprofits increasingly make them difficult to replace in the short term without significant disruption to services,\u201d the grand jury concludes.<\/p>\n<p>Homelessness grows, the homeless decline into increasing dysfunction, the NGO-focused system that keeps growing to address the crisis increasingly can\u2019t address it, but that system also can\u2019t be replaced.<\/p>\n<p>The population of San Francisco is a little over 800,000 people. With a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/montana-governor-orders-state-support-in-manhunt-for-bar-shooter\/\" title=\"Montana governor orders state support in manhunt for bar shooter\">consolidated city-county government<\/a>, it spends <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kqed.org\/news\/12089007\/san-francisco-finalizes-17-billion-budget-restores-millions-in-proposed-cuts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$17 billion a year<\/a>. Another consolidated city-county government, Indianapolis, has a slightly larger population, around 900,000 people. It spends <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfyi.org\/wfyi-news\/2025-10-07\/indianapolis-approves-2026-budget-councilors-said-it-was-the-best-they-could-do-in-a-bad-situation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$1.7 billion a year<\/a>. Yes, there\u2019s a decimal point in the middle of that second number.<\/p>\n<p>The blue model is a bonfire: for lives, for value, for money. It doesn\u2019t work, but it spends a fortune to fail. And America can\u2019t allow itself to become California.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Chris Bray is a senior correspondent at The Federalist and a former infantry sergeant in the U.S. Army. He has a history PhD from the University of California Los Angeles, not that it did him any good. He also posts on Substack, at &#8220;Tell Me How This Ends,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/chrisbray.substack.com\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SF homelessness spending largely wasted on failed programs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":2620751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/sf-homeless-problem.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[4045,33010,55208,44500,42396],"class_list":["post-2620750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-california","tag-criminal-justice","tag-grand-jury","tag-public-accountability","tag-state-policy"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/sf-homeless-problem.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2620750"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2620754,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620750\/revisions\/2620754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2620751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2620750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2620750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2620750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}