Trump Administration Pulls Funding From L.A. Homeless Agency Citing Fraud, Waste

The Department of Housing and Urban Development says it is suspending funding to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the lead agency for homelessness response in the Los Angeles region after an investigation uncovered serious deficiencies.HUD’s inspector general says the housing authority repeatedly made false statements and took “irresponsible actions” that resulted in misuse or waste of taxpayer dollars. Among the findings the department cited was the failure to document when individuals exited traditional motel housing, leaving the feds to guess whether it was paying for empty hotel rooms. Homeless Services also failed to verify the existence of nearly 2,300 housing sites for which it is responsible.The Los Angeles Continuum of Care, led by the authority, has received nearly $1 billion in taxpayer funds over the last five years — more federal homelessness funding than any other jurisdiction. HUD says despite that funding, Los Angeles remains “the epicenter of the nation’s drug-fueled homelessness crisis.” “Taxpayers will no longer bankroll an organization that puts its own self-interests ahead of the Americans it was created to serve,” Housing Secretary Scott Turner said in a release.The Homeless Services Authority was created more than three decades ago as an independently managed agency jointly overseen by Los Angeles County and the city after a lawsuit accused the county of failing to comply with a state requirement to provide homeless services.The troubled agency has been besieged with criticism for years over its history of poor record-keeping and fraud concerns. Even though a county tax increase flooded the agency with funding, the homeless crisis has only grown in Los Angeles with an estimated 75,000 homeless people in the city. The issue became the centerpiece of an ultimately unsuccessful insurgent campaign by Spencer Pratt in his run to unseat Karen Bass as mayor. The agency is accused of funneling money to more than 100 nonprofit partner agencies without proper oversight. The executive director of one such South Los Angeles charity, Abundant Blessings, was arrested in January on a federal complaint alleging he swindled $23 million in funding from the homeless services agency over a period of years. Federal prosecutors say Alexander Soffer spent homeless funds to purchase a $7 million house, a $125,000 Range Rover, and private school tuition for his children.“While the City of Los Angeles and LAHSA paid for safe shelter and three nutritious meals a day, residents got little more than ramen and canned beans. Meanwhile, Soofer allegedly diverted public money for personal luxuries, including a $7 million Westwood home, private school tuition, luxury travel, and a property in Greece,” the first assistant U.S. attorney for California’s central district, Bill Essayli, said Thursday.“The betrayal of public trust at the expense of L.A.’s most vulnerable is shameful and illegal,” he added.Last year, an audit found the authority’s chief executive officer, Va Lecia Adams Kellum, signed a $2.1 million contract with a homeless group that employed her husband.“Instead of providing a roof and care for the homeless, Los Angeles has used these funds to line the pockets of left-wing NGOs. Such a disgrace ends today, White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud’s vice chairman, Andrew Ferguson, said.“This appears to be a blatant attempt to pull yet more resources from Los Angeles, a city they have targeted time and again, when it is clear that LAHSA has either corrected or is in the process of correcting nearly all of the issues raised,” Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s director of communications, Ahmad Chapman, said in a statement to CalMatters.Los Angeles County pulled funding for the agency last year to move to a new system under the control of the county’s board of supervisors. The new system is set to begin operations next month. Ms. Adams Kellum resigned days after the agency pulled its funding.The authority, in April, announced it was eliminating 414 positions because of funding cuts. All funding for the agency may dry up next month when the City of Los Angele decides what, if any, funding it will provide.

Trump Administration Pulls Funding From L.A. Homeless Agency Citing Fraud, Waste

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