“Not Tracked.” “Not Readily Available.” “TBD.” Those phrases appear repeatedly in a new assessment of dozens of homelessness programs overseen by the county of San Diego that found officials aren’t tracking key information about crucial services. The “Enterprise-wide Homelessness Assessment” further pointed out that some initiatives measured success in different ways, making their effectiveness difficult to evaluate, while others lacked clear goals. “Rolling out services to meet the needs of an increasing number of unhoused persons has been the priority,” the report said, “with tracking the work and establishing data tracking systems as a secondary priority.” The resulting patchwork of programs and funding makes it tough to distribute aid. “Many people experiencing or on the brink of homelessness are uncertain how to navigate and connect to available resources,” analysts wrote, while “staff overseeing programs repeatedly reported challenges related to the lack of case management tools to support their work.” The county Board of Supervisors commissioned the study late last year, and officials hired Deloitte Consulting LLP in May to conduct the analysis. The report is dated November 2024, but does not yet appear to have been presented at a public meeting. A copy was shared with The San Diego Union-Tribune by board Chair Nora Vargas’ office. “The findings underscored the need for emergency and temporary housing, better data collection, stronger performance metrics, and deeper collaboration,” Vargas said in a statement. “I’m committed to acting on these findings.” When analysts looked at the county’s 46 homelessness programs, one issue quickly jumped out: They were funded through 28 separate pots of money that came from multiple levels of government as well as private donors, many of which had differing requirements for how the work should be documented. To make matters worse, 18 programs depend at least in part on money that may soon run out. The constant threat of closure then makes it hard to both plan long term and build trust within a community, the report said. Other cases involved the opposite problem: Available funds weren’t being spent. The program Home Start, for example, which helps people on probation find housing, only used a little more than half of its approximately $800,000 budget last fiscal year, according to the report’s appendices. It was by no means alone. Tamera Kohler, CEO of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, noted that complicated spending rules and tight timelines from funders often made it difficult for organizations to use all the funding they had. “We do leave money on the table,” she said in an interview. Analysts recommended that the county find more stable sources of funding, create a unified tracking system for how the money is spent and expand services in unincorporated areas, among other suggestions. Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe promised to boost transparency. “We cannot afford to throw money into programs with minimal to no results,” she said in a statement. The report did have good news. Vouchers that help cover rent had better success at keeping people housed than similar efforts in other parts of the country, although San Diego’s program was notably more expensive, likely because of the region’s high costs of living, analysts wrote. The county has also helped fund nearly 200 permanent supportive housing units over the past five years and has another 630-plus in the pipeline. The assessment additionally put price tags on important services. Clearing a single cubic yard of debris at an encampment could cost anywhere from $189 to more than $2,000, depending on how much outreach accompanied the sweep, the report said. The contract with Deloitte cost $102,064, according to county spokesperson Tammy Glenn.