LA Supes consider defunding failed homeless services agency
It’s like DOGE has come to deep-blue LA County. LA Supes will vote in April on redirecting the vast majority of funding for the deeply troubled Homeless Service Authority. The exceptional LAist reports.
If they approve the proposal, the county would take direct control of overseeing more than $300 million taxpayer dollars it sends to the agency each year.
The decision to schedule the vote comes after a pair of scathing audits found a systemic lack of accountability by the homelessness agency.
“To end the madness of the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, we must streamline and consolidate our services and resources, and be driven by measurable outcomes,” Horvath said in a statement announcing the motion.
If the proposal is approved by at least three supervisors, county staff would be ordered to start the process of shifting the money over to the county “as soon as possible,” with a deadline to finish by July 1, 2026, according to the motion.
For many years, supervisors have outsourced management of a large share of the county’s taxpayer spending on homeless services and housing to LAHSA. Much of that money comes from voter-approved sales tax revenue that began with Measure H in 2017 and was increased when Measure A passed in November.
If approved, the motion would redirect the vast majority of those funds. They would instead be directly managed and supervised by the county under a new department that would merge the county’s two main offices that manage homeless services.
The new department would be directed to follow “best practices” for contract oversight, according to the motion. That includes recommendations in a November county audit report on LAHSA.
The county audit released in November found LAHSA failed to adequately monitor service providers to make sure they’re complying with the terms of their funding, with half of LAHSA’s planned reviews failing to monitor whether a provider was providing the required services. The audit also found that in some cases, LAHSA gave taxpayer funds meant for other purposes to providers who weren’t supposed to receive the money.
Then, a highly critical audit of LAHSA’s handling of city funding was released last week, generating widespread public criticism of the agency. That audit, conducted by the consulting firm Alvarez and Marsal and supervised by U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, found that it’s nearly impossible to accurately track homelessness spending by LAHSA because the agency has failed to collect accurate data on its vendors and hold them accountable.
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