For some time now, we’ve heard numerous reports about the serious homeless problem in California.

Some critics say the issue has become worse than anyone thinks, and the mainstream media isn’t capturing the entire scope of the crisis.

Now, a new report apparently includes one very serious flaw—and 2 elected officials are calling it out.

The state conducted a recent survey of the homeless population, and found that there were nearly 70k homeless in Los Angeles County, up 4.1% from 2020.

But perhaps most eye-opening was a stat that didn’t ring true to many citizens.

As a result, two city councilmen are calling for an audit of the counting, because it doesn’t seem possible that the number in question is “zero.”

Via The Daily Wire:

…the count appeared to suffer from irregularities, including a dramatic drop from 509 homeless people to zero in the Venice Beach area, an area known for its homeless problem.

Even if the homeless count dropped in Venice Beach, it seems highly unlikely that it dropped to zero.

LAHSA communications director Ahmad Chapman admitted that they’d received reports of “user and technological errors.”

He blamed “a lack of training and poor internet connectivity,” then added that despite the errors, they’re “confident in the accuracy of this year’s homeless count.”

Chapman didn’t directly address the count of zero for Venice Beach.

This is why L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez introduced a pair of motions, demanding audits of both this year’s count and last year’s count.

Councilman Bob Blumenfield also wants to investigate the numbers:

I go out in our community for homeless outreach at least once a month, and my staff is on the streets every day.

The increase of people who are unsheltered per the LAHSA Count does not reflect the reality that we see.

More transparency over this process would be incredibly welcomed because we are simply not getting answers that add up.

Additionally, some of L.A.’s 15 council districts saw a significant increase in homeless.

This is another example of a potentially flawed report that might create more distrust among citizens, so it’ll be interesting to see how the audit goes.

Key Takeaways:

• A new homeless report showed there were “zero” homeless in the Venice Beach area.
• Two city councilmen are requesting an audit of this year’s survey and previous years.
• The report also showed that the homeless population jumped in other parts of L.A. County.

Source: The Daily Wire