Billions of dollars spent on services for homeless people in Los Angeles are unaccounted for, after a court-ordered audit conducted by Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector Services of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA).
The Westside Current reported:
The court-ordered assessment, conducted by Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector Services (A&M) and submitted to U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, examined three key city-funded programs—Inside Safe, the Roadmap Program, and the Alliance Settlement Program—between June 2020 and June 2024.
The report identified approximately $2.3 billion in funding related to these initiatives but found that the total amount spent on services and housing placements could not be fully accounted for due to fragmented data systems, inconsistent financial reporting, and poor coordination between LAHSA, the City of Los Angeles, and the County of Los Angeles.
A&M’s audit painted a picture of a fractured and inefficient system that failed to properly manage taxpayer funds or track the effectiveness of homelessness programs.
The audit found that accounting was so poor at LAHSA that it is impossible to know how much was actually spent on homeless services, or whether any services were actually provided in exchange for the money. Nearly half of homeless people who were assisted by LAHSA actually remained homeless, while only 22% found permanent housing.
There have been other reports of financial irregularity at LAHSA. LAist reported recently that LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum gave a $2.1 million contract to a nonprofit group that employs her husband as a senior official.
LAHSA is partially funded by sales taxes. As Breitbart News noted, voters approved Measure A in November to raise sales taxes a quarter of a percent for homeless services. But L.A. County Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Kathryn Barger — both of whom have also been handling the recent L.A. fires — suggested the county should take over from LAHSA.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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