The Brief

Nearly six months into their labor union dispute against Southern California Kaiser Permanente, eight mental health care workers banded together last week in an organized five-day hunger strike to highlight their cause.

“Kaiser’s trying to starve us out, that’s clear — so, give them what they want,” said Adriana Webb, a member of the National Union of Healthcare Workers who chose to subsist solely on water and electrolytes from Monday morning through Friday evening. “I feel hungry for equity. I feel hungry for change. How is this any different?”

Now engaged in the longest mental health strike in U.S. history, the Southern California workers have been seeking a new union contract that would include:

• more mandated time between therapy sessions for patient follow up
• restoration of pension benefits that were removed from new employee contracts in 2015
• cost-of-living wage adjustments

After a long list of Democratic members of the state Assembly and Senate wrote Kaiser in December urging it to accept the union’s “reasonable contract proposals” — and after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Feb. 6 written request for both sides “to prioritize the common good that have allowed Californians to rise above our difficulties and resolve our differences” — state Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly and former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg have agreed to mediate.

Kaiser executives threw their hands up and walked out of mediation talks on March 11 when the union continued pressing its three major contract issues. Today bargaining talks are scheduled to resume.

Steinberg mediated a similar open-ended strike for Northern California Kaiser mental health care workers in 2022, which lasted 10 weeks and resulted in Kaiser meeting most of the union’s demands.

“We know Kaiser can provide all these things if they wanted to,” said Webb, a medical social worker in the infectious disease unit who stood on the picket line in front of Kaiser’s Los Angeles Medical Center on Sunset Boulevard. “They already provide it to our Northern California counterparts, and all we’re asking for is the same thing. Kaiser still can’t explain why we deserve less or our patients deserve less.”

In a written response to CalMatters questions, Kaiser Permanente spokesperson Terry Kanakri discussed Kaiser’s overall commitment to work with more than 40 unions that represent 80% of its employees.

“Every one of the 80 contracts is different, and each reflects the differences in operational needs, local market economics and wages, professional classifications of the employees in each local, and a host of other factors,” said Kanakri.

“Our goal is and has always been to reach an agreement that makes Kaiser Permanente the best place to give and receive care. We have made — and repeatedly improved — our proposals during bargaining in an effort to reach an agreement. However, in nearly nine months of bargaining, NUHW has made very little movement on the key bargaining issues.”

Although not aware of any specific details of the 2022 NorCal strike or the current SoCal strikes, University of Southern California professor of healthcare finances and economics Glenn Melnick gave his overview on today’s health care labor climate.

“Northern California has the highest wage index in the country,” he said. “I think it’s 20 points higher than L.A. — maybe 25%. So there’s economic reasons why there’s differences. An economist would say, ‘Mental health care worker, you want these benefits? Move to San Francisco.’

“And many employers are cutting back pension benefits these days. Ten or 15 years ago, pension benefits were much more generous across the board. Kaiser could easily afford to give them these benefits and not think twice, but it’s bigger than just these workers. It’s the ripple effect, right?”

Melnick also speculated that health care workers’ negotiating power has waned as the COVID pandemic, which drove demand for their services, has somewhat subsided.

From April 8 through 12, the hunger strikers spent eight-hour days alongside their picketing fellow union members and each night together fasting at a West Hollywood church. Sleeping in a community space barely big enough for eight air mattresses huddled beside the piano against a back wall, they shared a bathroom and took turns showering in a motel room next door.

Medically cleared beforehand, they received daily wellness checks from volunteer union nurses.

“Right now, I feel like I could go another month,” said Zhane Sandoval, propped up on an elbow from their mattress on the morning of April 11, day four of the hunger strike. “So test me, Kaiser!

“Kaiser says that it’s a union employer, but all we’re seeing is union busting. All we’re seeing is separation, trying to divide. But their efforts just lead us to unite.”

Union organizer Rachel Forgash, who stayed overnight with the hunger strikers at the church, expressed frustration over the protracted standoff.

“Kaiser has exceeded all of our expectations in their unwillingness to bargain in good faith and drag this out as long as possible,” she said. “In Southern California, they’re about to start bargaining with the Alliance, which is a huge group of unions at Kaiser, and I think they’re afraid that — when we win — it’s going to set a precedent for other unions to fight just as hard.”

Aida Valvidia, a psychiatric social worker at Kaiser’s Sylmar facility, and Melissa Chavez, a medical social worker at Riverside, both started working for Kaiser before the 2015 contract negotiations reached a settlement, so they each have pension benefits that 70% of their fellow mental health care union members do not. Yet both chose to participate in the hunger strike.

“For the people who don’t have pensions, I think it’s unfair,” said Valvidia. “Why do I have a pension and you don’t? Because you started later? That makes no sense to me. We’re equals.”

Chavez and her husband have been on strike together since Oct. 21. “Kaiser members deserve equity and access to timely quality care,” she said. “Workers are experiencing high caseloads, inadequate and unsafe staffing, lack of time, lack of tools.”

The hunger strike week started with iconic labor leader and activist Dolores Huerta visiting the picketers on April 8, two days before her 95th birthday. “I know that you’re not just doing this on your own behalf,” said Huerta, surrounded by cheering union members in their red union T-shirts. “You’re actually doing this on behalf of all the patients at Kaiser that are not getting the mental health services that they deserve.”

The union cites a recent 88-page report from the state Department of Managed Health Care, which notes that Kaiser’s failures to remedy 19 of the 20 violations in 2022 led to $200 million in state fines. The union has also filed its own complaints alleging Kaiser mismanages patient triage and appointment scheduling, by hiring unlicensed clerical staff and using algorithmic programming.

“Despite the persistent efforts of NUHW to mislead the public, the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) has not identified new deficiencies in our mental health care,” said Kanakri’s statement. It went on to say that Kaiser met with the state department “last week in our first quarterly review and demonstrated the extraordinary progress we have made on all the deficiencies outlined in the Corrective Action Work Plan.”

“We’re in disbelief,” said hunger striker Nick Nunez, a therapist in Kaiser’s Virtual Medical Center, which lends support to any patients in need across Southern California. “They take out ads in the paper saying everything’s fine — that they’re providing adequate care to their patients and everything is top-notch. It’s so bizarre and unbelievable.”

Andrew Kane worked as an associate clinical social worker at the Los Angeles Medical Center he now pickets and fasted at. “It’s a little odd, a little surreal,” he said, noting that he happened to see a patient in the world outside of Kaiser. “Fortunately — or unfortunately — he didn’t notice me, so we didn’t have to have that interaction.”

Kane started in June 2024, so he’s been on strike longer than he’s received a Kaiser salary.

As the strike persisted without end in sight since October, many workers have returned to Kaiser due to financial concerns. But some communicate the problems they see internally while back at work.

“They’re actually the ones documenting all the things going wrong,” said hunger striker Kassaundra Gutierrez-Thompson, a psychiatric social worker in Kaiser’s ADAPT virtual online treatment program. “We have DMHC investigators talking to a lot of our returned back staff. Unfortunately, a lot of our managers are combatting them.

“And so, a lot of our members are kind of scared, having to advocate for our patients.They’re fighting a different kind of battle inside.”

Rage Against the Machine guitarist and political labor activist Tom Morello joined the Kaiser picketers on April 9 to perform a short acoustic set, and U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove and state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo visited the strikers April 11.

Hours later, they broke their fast with religious leaders passing around a ceremonial bread loaf.
“We can’t just be treated like numbers,” said hunger striker Ana Vargas Garcia, who also saw members remotely through the ADAPT program. “Patients can’t be treated like numbers. There’s real lives behind everyone that we see, behind every worker at Kaiser. That’s a big part of why we’re doing this.”

Visits to the emergency room spike when it gets really hot, according to public health data. But for many years one of the populations most affected by extreme heat — the unhoused — have been left out of that data.

Now, we know this: Californians experiencing homelessness are 38% more likely to visit the emergency room because of extreme heat, despite accounting for less than half a percentage point of the total population.

That’s according to a new analysis by Tracking California, a program that collects and analyzes data on health hazards across the state.

“We always knew that unhoused individuals were at much higher risk on extreme heat days, and now there is that empirical evidence,” said Shubhayu Saha, executive director of Tracking California.

Their report found that unhoused people were also 11% more likely to visit the hospital for heart and respiratory illness on high heat days, which may reflect how heat can exacerbate preexisting conditions like heart disease, or coincide with air pollution like smog that gets worse during hot days, Saha said.

The solutions, however, are not simple and require addressing entrenched societal problems — a lack of affordable housing, high electricity bills that can force people to keep their A/C off even if they have it, and unequal access to shade and green space outdoors.

Addressing the acute need

Meanwhile, local shelters and doctors have been responding to acute needs.

In the San Bernardino Valley, Dr. Rodney Borger has recently treated unhoused patients for burns, from laying on hot pavement, and severe dehydration.

On Skid Row in L.A., UCLA physician Mary Marfisee has treated more and more patients with severe dehydration, heat rashes and heat exhaustion. Among the chronically unhoused, she said, addiction and mental health issues can also interact with heat in dangerous ways.

Dr. Mary Marfisee conducts a brief breathing check on a woman on Los Angeles' Skid Row last year.

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Zaydee Sanchez

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For NPR

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“The medications for mental illness can affect the hypothalamus, and that's your set point for temperature regulation,” Marfisee said. “Mental illness itself can lead to those temperature regulation difficulties, so they think they're cold, when they're really not.”

Yolanda Breland,  the senior director of community engagement at the Los Angeles Mission, has noticed the increase in homelessness, and more challenges related to the heat.

“ It's too hot for them to be in their tents or under any type of shelter because that just retains the heat,” she said.

Breland also said this week they’ve seen a big increase in people coming to the mission’s lobby and courtyard, where they can access air conditioning, cold water, showers, misters and shade.

ER visits for heat in general on the rise

It’s not just the unhoused — people with housing account for the vast majority of heat-related visits to the ER.

According to publicly available data, emergency room visits have been steadily rising with the heat in July and August across much of Southern California.

In L.A. County, most of the cases involve adults over 65 and people in the hottest areas, said Dr. Nichole Quick,  chief science officer at the county’s Public Health Department.

In Riverside County, meanwhile, the most affected group showing up in the data are men between 18 and 44.

“In the Coachella Valley especially, we have large farm worker populations,” said Dr. Shunling Tsang, the county’s deputy public health officer.

Emergency room visits have been steadily rising during the hotter months, according to L.A. County's public health data dashboard.

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Courtesy L.A. County Department of Public Health

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Having more detailed data can help improve public health responses, since every community is different, said Dr. David Eisenman, who developed ZIP code level data of excess ER visits due to heat from 2008 to 2018.

And as human-caused climate change drives up average temperatures and worsens heat waves, that work will only become more urgent.

In Riverside County, middle-aged men in the Coachella Valley are most impacted by heat illness, likely reflecting the experience of farmworkers.

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Courtesy Riverside University Health System

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“That way city officials, public health departments, emergency planners, also parks and recreation people can make informed decisions about where they want to prioritize putting their resources,” he said.

Still, such data remains limited — community health centers and other clinics that primarily serve low-income households are not part of that public health data, Saha said.

“Just being able to track what is happening in a range of different health facilities,” he said, “would really give us a much better picture of who is at risk and what we can do for them.”

Top L.A. homeless service executives approved at least $3.5 million in taxpayer contracts to a nonprofit even after their agency’s compliance team flagged the group as high-risk for failing to do its job, according to an LAist review of public records.

The contract approvals by the L.A. Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA, took place over several months in 2024, records show. The group’s leader, Alex Soofer, was charged with fraud earlier this year. Prosecutors allege he illegally pocketed at least $10 million in homelessness funds that flowed through LAHSA to his now-defunct nonprofit, Abundant Blessings, and his for-profit company, Abundant Blessings From Above.

Prosecutors allege he used a fake board and a shell construction company to siphon taxpayer money from LAHSA into buying a $7 million Westwood house, a $125,000 Range Rover, private school tuition, private jet travel and luxury resort stays. Soofer has pleaded not guilty. When LAist reached him by phone, he declined to comment for this story, citing the ongoing case. He agreed to pay LAHSA $1.25 million, without admitting wrongdoing.

LAHSA is a joint city-county agency, overseen by a 10-person governing commission that is half appointed by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and half appointed by each of the five county supervisors. Bass appointed herself to the commission in fall 2023 after winning an election where she promised voters that solving homelessness would be her top priority. She is the only elected official on the commission.

A headshot of Alex Soofer posted by federal prosecutors on the social media site X.

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First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli via X

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The records show that in 2024, LAHSA's leadership at the time kept steering taxpayer dollars to Soofer's group well after major red flags emerged. The agency continued awarding new six- and seven-figure contracts even after it formally designated the nonprofit as delinquent and "High-Risk." They also show auditors found LAHSA broke federal law by taking eight months to alert federal funders after obtaining credible evidence of possible crimes.

LAist obtained the documents through public records requests this year that produced more than 7,000 pages of records.

Among what LAist found in the records:

• Nonprofits paid by LAHSA are required to update a central database after sheltering or housing people. Records show LAHSA continued to pay out contracts to Abundant Blessings for more than a year despite the group having “no enrolled participants to provide rental assistance to.”

• In fall 2023, LAHSA approved and paid about $117,000 to Abundant Blessings for alleged renovation expenses that were not allowed in its contracts, according to later findings by LAHSA. Invoices for those bills paid by LAHSA show the money was going through the group to Franklin Lincoln Construction. Franklin Lincoln Construction’s only associated person — per its business registration available online at the time — was the nonprofit’s leader, Soofer. Prosecutors allege Franklin Lincoln Construction’s bank account was a key vehicle Soofer used to siphon millions in homelessness dollars from LAHSA into his own pockets.

By spring 2024, a warning was flagged high-up at LAHSA, according to records and a senior official at the time.

Even after that, millions of dollars in new contracts continued to be awarded to the group.

The ‘High-Risk’ warning — and then approval of millions more dollars

The warning was direct. On May 6, 2024, LAHSA’s top two compliance officials issued a “delinquency notice” to Soofer declaring Abundant Blessings to be “High-Risk” and citing "significant concerns.”

The nonprofit, they wrote, had failed to follow key requirements on four contracts that were examined, including billing and getting paid the previous year despite not reporting that they had served anyone.

The delinquency concerns were flagged up the chain at the time to Janine Trejo, LAHSA’s chief financial officer who oversaw compliance and contracting, according to Amy Williams, who co-authored the delinquency notice as LAHSA’s director of compliance at the time.

Janine Trejo, LAHSA's former chief financial officer, speaks at a LAHSA Commission meeting on April 25, 2025.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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A few weeks later, Trejo was CC’ed on a staff recommendation from the administration of LAHSA’s then-CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum for LAHSA’s governing commission to authorize more than $2 million in contract renewals to Abundant Blessings, using county funds, for the next fiscal year as part of a larger set of approvals. The recommendation did not note the known concerns.

The contract renewals came up for a vote at the LAHSA Commission meeting on May 24, 2024 — a couple of weeks after the “High-Risk” letter was sent to Soofer. Trejo was among the executives who spoke to commissioners when it was up for approval.

A commissioner asked how LAHSA is providing oversight to ensure people received the services that the agency was paying for.

“ What we've heard, in at least one case, is that people aren't getting the services that on paper they are told — and we are told — they are supposed to be getting,” said county supervisor and then-LAHSA Commissioner Lindsey Horvath. She was referring to complaints about a different nonprofit where the husband of the agency’s CEO at the time, Adams Kellum, worked as an executive.

A LAHSA staffer, sitting next to Trejo, responded by reassuring commissioners that LAHSA monitors how providers are performing.

The concerns about Abundant Blessings were not noted by Trejo or anyone else during the discussion, according to the meeting video.

In response to the staff’s recommendation, the commissioners voted to authorize Adams Kellum to finalize the $2.6 million in contract renewals to Abundant Blessings.

Va Lecia Adams Kellum, former CEO of LAHSA, speaks during a press conference on Monday, July 14, 2025, in Los Angeles.

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Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag

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Los Angeles Times

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Asked about how LAHSA handled red flags surrounding Soofer, Williams said the delinquency concerns were not treated by her superiors “with the gravitas that it needed.”

Williams added that Trejo “was not very well-seasoned” when Adams Kellum placed her in LAHSA’s top finance job. Trejo “got thrust into this position as the CFO” with much more responsibility than her previous position, Williams added.

Trejo and Adams Kellum have not responded to requests for comment. Spokespeople for LAHSA have not answered whether Adams Kellum or LAHSA’s governing commissioners were told at the time of the delinquency concerns with Abundant Blessings, before they acted to award the group millions in additional contracts. Bass’ office told LAist she and her staff were not aware at the time.

Williams also said it was unclear why Abundant Blessings got new work out of the roughly 100 service providers LAHSA was working with at the time. Abundant Blessings was “never seen as a stellar agency, like the top agencies that really get the work done,” she said.

“[Soofer] got by us with a few things, and I think he got really emboldened and started trying to do even more,” she added.

An LAist review of LAHSA records shows Trejo, LAHSA’s chief financial officer at the time, did not describe herself as having the education or experience listed in LAHSA’s qualifications for the job. The job description called for a “bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, management, with an MBA and/or CPA” and minimum class units in accounting. Trejo’s resume and cover letter list no such education, saying she has a bachelor’s in cultural anthropology.

Trejo remained LAHSA’s chief financial officer until she left the agency late last month after being on leave for much of this year. LAHSA spokespeople declined to comment on why she was on leave. LAHSA human resources records, obtained by LAist, through a public records request, show multiple employees, including at least one subordinate, complained about how Trejo was treating them. It’s not clear whether the complaints or investigation are related to Trejo’s leave.

An outside review commissioned by LAHSA, conducted this spring and dated this month, found its finance and payment processes continued to be “fragmented” and rife with “breakdowns” that have made it time-consuming for LAHSA itself to even know how much it’s paid individual vendors.

Trejo was selected as CFO, where she oversaw LAHSA’s compliance team, by Adams Kellum. She was promoted after Adams Kellum fired LAHSA’s prior CFO, whom LAHSA later agreed to pay $450,000 to settle claims that included allegations Adams Kellum was hiring under-qualified friends into high level roles.

Bass’ office also directed new funds after ‘High-Risk’ letter

The May 2024 LAHSA Commission vote wasn’t the only granting of new dollars to the group after the letter raised red flags.

On June 7, 2024 — a month after the “High-Risk” letter — the mayor’s office instructed the city to fund a new LAHSA contract with Abundant Blessings for Bass’ main homelessness program, Inside Safe — a program Adams Kellum had designed at the mayor’s request.

Adams Kellum’s signature finalized that contract later in June for about $250,000, for about a month and a half of security, food and other services at two motels in the city.

A spokesperson for Bass said the mayor and her office were “absolutely not” aware of any potential misconduct by Abundant Blessings at the time they directed the funding. The letter directing the funding was signed by Bass’ chief homelessness official at the time, Lourdes Castro Ramirez. Castro Ramirez told LAist she was “not aware of any concerns” regarding Abundant Blessings at the time.

Asked if LAHSA leadership should have told the mayor’s staff, Bass’ office replied: “Yes. And to reiterate, the Mayor does not tolerate fraud or corruption in any form.”

It’s unclear what expectations, if any, the mayor had previously set for Adams Kellum or LAHSA to notify her office about known concerns with vendors being considered for additional funding. Bass’ office has not responded to a follow-up question about this.

Bass’ office chose Abundant Blessings from a list of previously-approved, competitively-chosen service providers “that LAHSA had indicated had the capacity,” said Ahmad Chapman, a spokesperson for the current LAHSA administration headed by Interim CEO Gita O’Neill.

As for why LAHSA told the mayor’s office that Abundant Blessings had capacity to take on more Inside Safe sites — despite the red flags — Chapman said in a statement: “At the time, LAHSA's structure hindered internal communications regarding Abundant Blessings, leading to an errant contract recommendation.”

“LAHSA has since undergone several structural changes,” said the written response, issued last month. Those changes, according to the statement, include “consolidating key departments and implementing protocols to ensure any high-risk provider is flagged agency-wide and to key funders to reduce the threat to public funds.”

The taxpayer money Bass’ office directed in June 2024 was supposed to help people living at two motels in El Sereno and Boyle Heights, records show. The contract required Abundant Blessings to provide 24/7 security, twice-daily welfare checks and three daily meals, among other services.

That month, the nonprofit fed instant ramen to people staying at the two Inside Safe motels, a violation of the contract, according to the federal criminal complaint against Soofer. During that same month, prosecutors say he “and his family spent more than $100,000 on what appears to be personal expenses, including more than $47,000 in luxury home purchases,” $15,000 each at luxury retailers Hermes and Chanel and $4,500 “for a four-night stay at the Wynn Las Vegas.”

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A screenshot of the federal criminal complaint showing retail website photos of the $1,400 sandals they allege Alex Soofer and his wife bought with tax dollars.

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Criminal complaint from the U.S. Attorney's office

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Food quality at Inside Safe sites was previously flagged as a concern by advocates. A little over a year earlier, a group called Inside Starving held a news conference urging the mayor to address what they alleged was inadequate food.

In July 2025, just over a year after directing further funds to Abundant Blessings, Adams Kellum stepped down as LAHSA CEO to public praise from Bass, who celebrated Adams Kellum’s leadership. Adams Kellum announced her plans to resign several months earlier, in the wake of county leaders deciding to pull out all county service dollars from LAHSA because of oversight concerns.

“Thank you so much Mayor Bass! It has been the honor of my life to serve under your leadership,” Adams Kellum wrote to Bass in April 2025, days after announcing her plans to step down.

Yet more red flags, and then more contracts

More red flags emerged the month after Bass’ office directed the Inside Safe contract.

In mid-July 2024, L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia’s office notified LAHSA it was launching a fraud investigation into Abundant Blessings, after a site visit found the group was serving almost entirely instant ramen noodles at the two Inside Safe motels.

LAHSA also received a demand that month from an apartment complex owner who said Abundant Blessings had failed to pay them about half a year of rent for 10 people, according to later written findings by LAHSA, which say the allegations were verified.

And on July 30, 2024, LAHSA emailed Abundant Blessings a report laying out further "significant" concerns from their compliance review looking back well over a year. Those concerns included a “misallocation” of about $700,000. And for the entire 2023 calendar year on a contract, the report says, "there were no enrolled participants to provide financial assistance to, but throughout that period, [Abundant Blessings] continued to bill for costs."

Adams Kellum was CC’ed on the email flagging those concerns.

New commitments of public money kept getting approved.

In the first half of August 2024, LAHSA finalized five contracts and renewals with Abundant Blessings, totaling more than $3 million, according to a list LAist obtained from LAHSA through a public records request. Adams Kellum’s signature executed the four agreements that have been disclosed so far by LAHSA. LAist has an outstanding request for the fifth.

Among the contract finalizations was one on Aug. 15, 2024, that increased the Inside Safe contract with Abundant Blessings by about $770,000, to extend it for three months. The contract records show Adams Kellum’s signature finalizing it and Trejo’s signature under the words “Approved Generally by.”

Failure to promptly report credible evidence of possible crimes, per auditors

By Aug. 23, 2024, LAHSA had obtained credible evidence of possible federal crimes, auditors later found. Federal law requires LAHSA to “promptly” report that to its funders at the federal housing agency HUD and its watchdog arm, the HUD Office of Inspector General (OIG), auditors wrote. But LAHSA failed to do so, the audit found.

The disclosure was “not made until approximately eight months after LAHSA first obtained credible evidence of the suspected violations,” the audit states. The disclosure was made on April 25, 2025, per the audit.

"LAHSA did not have formal policies and procedures in place to guide the timing and process for making [the] mandatory disclosures” required by law, the auditors wrote.

LAHSA’s management wrote that they did not disagree with the findings.

In October 2024, LAHSA canceled its contracts with Abundant Blessings. It was well over a year after the group started billing on a contract despite having no one enrolled to be served, according to LAHSA’s findings. LAHSA made $1.5 million in direct payments to the group after sending the “High-Risk” delinquency letter to Soofer. About $771,000 of that was paid after the date auditors say LAHSA obtained credible evidence of possible crimes, records show.

LAHSA also approved an additional $447,000 in payments to Soofer’s for-profit company — Abundant Blessings From Above — as a subcontractor from late August 2024 to January 2025, all after the date auditors say LAHSA obtained credible evidence of possible crimes, according to LAHSA records.

Altogether, LAHSA paid $5 million to Soofer’s nonprofit through direct contracts starting in 2023, according to LAHSA data and prosecutors. His for-profit company received more than $17 million in additional LAHSA funds as a subcontractor of another nonprofit, Special Service for Groups, starting years earlier in 2018, according to prosecutors.

LAHSA took much longer to review compliance than other agencies

Other agencies say they review homeless service providers’ performance much more frequently.

Denver officials check homeless service providers’ performance data daily — including occupancy of shelter beds, according to information shared at an L.A. summit last month.

L.A. County’s homeless services director, Sarah Mahin, said that on a daily basis, the county sends to their providers a data snapshot that flags where performance metrics are not being met. Starting last month, her county department has taken over the hundreds of millions of dollars the county had been sending to LAHSA each year. City dollars have remained at LAHSA under city budgets proposed by Bass and approved by the City Council.

This June, federal officials announced they were suspending all federal dollars to LAHSA, citing Abundant Blessings as one of a number of failings by the agency. A judge recently paused the federal suspension, saying LAHSA “may be dysfunctional," but that federal officials had “abruptly” pulled the rug from under providers who serve thousands of people.

In response to the federal suspension, Bass’ office said she had previously directed the city to evaluate how to move away from LAHSA.

“Mayor Bass, too, has grave concerns about LAHSA and zero tolerance for mismanagement and negligence, which is why she previously directed the City to evaluate how to move away from the agency,” the mayor’s office said in its June 11 statement reacting to the federal suspension.

A spokesperson for Bass told LAist the mayor’s directive was to the city’s housing department and other city departments, “to develop options to transition away from LAHSA.”

LAist followed up with the housing department’s press office for more information. A spokesperson for the housing department declined to confirm whether the mayor gave such a directive at all. And in response to a public records request, the department told LAist it has no record of such a directive.

Bass’ office hasn’t responded to follow-up requests for comment on whether the mayor did in fact make the directive her office had claimed.

A settlement deal

In response to a demand from LAHSA, records show Soofer and LAHSA agreed last November that he and his nonprofit would pay the agency $1.25 million,in exchange for LAHSA giving up the ability to seek more money from him or Abundant Blessings. The agreement says both Soofer and LAHSA “deny any fault.”

The agreement includes a non-disparagement clause that says LAHSA shall not “make any statements—oral, written, or electronic—that disparage” Soofer or Abundant Blessings, and vice versa.

The signature line for O’Neill — LAHSA’s interim CEO — does not show a signature, while the electronic signature history says she signed it.

“LAHSA’s agreement with Abundant Blessings assured that $1.2 million in documented disallowed costs were repaid,” said Chapman, the LAHSA spokesperson. “LAHSA remains committed to assisting in any ongoing law enforcement investigations.”

Reactions from other elected officials

Several elected officials said LAist’s findings about LAHSA’s handling of Abundant Blessings show the need for a major overhaul of oversight.

“LAHSA needs deep reform of its compliance and finance functions. Its leadership must make that reform a priority — and deliver it,” said county Supervisor Kathryn Barger.

“I have no idea why LAHSA continued sending funds to this organization months after staff raised these serious red flags,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn.

“It sounds like the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing,” she added. “It is decisions like this that have undermined the public’s trust in LAHSA and why my colleagues and I made the decision to pull the County’s funding.”

Citing concerns about oversight failings at LAHSA, county supervisors decided in spring 2025 to pull the county’s homeless service dollars out of LAHSA and instead have the county oversee it directly.

Supervisor Holly Mitchell told LAist that the Abundant Blessings case “serves as an example of the need for LAHSA and all entities involved to continue strengthening oversight in its contracting.”

L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman chaired the council’s homelessness committee for the last several years, where she supported continued city funding of LAHSA. She shifted this spring to calling for the city to transition out of LAHSA after she started running for mayor against Bass, her former ally.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, left, talks with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass at Hazeltine Park in Sherman Oaks in 2024.

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Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag

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Los Angeles Times

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Raman said LAist’s findings underscore why it’s important for the city to also transition away from LAHSA.

“Public trust depends on rigorous oversight, timely disclosure of problems, and clear accountability when taxpayer dollars are at risk, and these allegations underscore why the status quo at LAHSA was unsustainable,” Raman said.

“We need systems that surface problems immediately, protect public funds, and ensure that organizations failing to meet their obligations are no longer entrusted with scarce homelessness resources.”

A pattern of broader problems at LAHSA

In addition to the review finalized this month that found ongoing problems with LAHSA’s finance and payment processes, an outside audit found that LAHSA had a “significant” problem with inaccurate financial statements for the fiscal year ending June 2025.

Last month, LAist reported that LAHSA had gone years without completing any internal audits, which are widely considered essential for protecting taxpayer dollars, since they flag risky practices.

It’s a problem that was flagged years ago by a 2024 county audit, which faulted LAHSA for failing to complete internal audits. That raises the risk of fraud, the county auditors wrote.

Additional reviews in 2023 and 2025 found that LAHSA had a broader problem of not ensuring service providers logged their services into the same central database where Abundant Blessings wasn’t entering anyone as being served under certain contracts. The 2025 review, overseen by a federal judge, found that the broader reporting problem “may have stemmed from insufficient communication and lack of clarity surrounding reporting requirements and deadlines.”

What’s next?

Another ongoing audit, expected to wrap in the coming weeks, is reviewing whether top LAHSA officials followed proper procedures when signing and delegating contracts. It began after LAist reported that Adams Kellum’s signature finalized a $2.1 million contract with her husband’s employer.

That reporting prompted the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate whether Adams Kellum violated conflict-of-interest laws. Her signature as LAHSA’s CEO at the time also finalized a contract with a nonprofit she had led until two months before the signature. State law bars officials from involvement in contracting with entities that recently paid them $500 or more, or their spouses $1,000 or more.

This week, Stephanie Graves — a Bass appointee who now chairs the LAHSA Commission — proposed removing the commission’s audit committee chair, Justin Szlasa, who has pushed for LAHSA to improve its practices and complete its internal audits. Szlasa — an appointee of county Supervisor Barger — would be replaced by a Bass appointee. No explanation for replacing Szlasa is provided in the written recommendation, which is up for approval by the commission on Friday.

Graves has not answered a voicemail and text message from LAist asking why she wants to remove Szlasa. She responded with a text saying, “It’s the chair prerogative.”

As for Soofer, early this year, federal and county prosecutors announced the criminal charges against him. The amount he’s accused of diverting is enough to house about 200 families for two years under a city-funded rental subsidy program through LAHSA, which cost about $24,000 per year per household.

Soofer is currently out on bail. His travel has been restricted by the court, and he has obtained the court’s permission to sell a building that LAHSA found he wrongfully charged taxpayers to renovate.

His trial is scheduled to start Nov. 10.

Federal lawmakers representing the Los Angeles region warned that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games could be a congestion nightmare if the federal government doesn’t fulfill a request for billions of dollars for transportation projects.

Rep. Laura Friedman said Wednesday the lack of financial assistance could increase traffic, result in fewer buses and worsen public transit reliability during the Games.

“That will be a terrible result, not just for Los Angeles, but for the whole nation,” Friedman said.

Friedman convened a panel in West Hollywood, where she and some of her Democratic colleagues in Congress questioned regional transportation officials about L.A.'s readiness to seamlessly move the millions of visitors expected for the fast-approaching Games.

What emerged was agreement among the lawmakers that time is running out to secure funds for transit plans from a so-far uncooperative federal government.

“ Our local partners can't do this alone,” said Rep. Judy Chu. “Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games is an opportunity for the entire country, and Los Angeles should have a strong federal partner help us prepare.”

A panel of five U.S. Congressmembers asked local transportation officials about the region's readiness for the 2028 Games.

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The office of U.S. Rep. Laura Friedman

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What’s the federal funding ask?

L.A. Metro has asked the federal government for a total of $2 billion. Half of that money would be used to temporarily acquire, operate and store nearly 1,750 additional buses — the centerpiece of the region’s Olympics transportation plan.

The remainder of the federal funding ask, if granted, would be used for pedestrian improvements and designing a network of roads for Games vehicles, among other uses.

What’s the status of the ask?

L.A. Metro’s Board and California Democrats have repeatedly appealed to the federal government to provide dollars for the region’s "transit-first" Games, including trying to get the Trump administration to add the money to its annual budget request.

The budget request did not include any mention of L.A. Metro.

This summer, lawmakers included $875 million for Olympics-related transportation needs in a spending bill that still needs to move through the appropriations process.

“ We shouldn't have to wait this dang long begging for this money that we deserve,” said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, who told LAist she has been cajoling her Republican colleagues to try to get some of the funds.

A White House official disputed the idea that the Trump administration wasn't doing enough to secure dollars for Olympics transit, in response an email response to LAist. The official wrote that the White House has been meeting with L.A. officials and lawmakers to discuss Olympics funding and those talks were in the early stages.

Jennifer Vides, the chief customer experience officer for Metro, said Wednesday that the agency is still working out how it would use the $875 million if it's approved, but the temporary Olympics bus system was the top priority.

Metro officials said at a January Metro Board meeting that the agency would need a chunk of funding available by this summer to find and prepare the real estate where those additional buses would be staged. When asked if Metro had a new timeline, Vides said the agency is “continuing to work with its partners to generate the funding that we need.”

Big questions remain

In addition to questions over the feasibility of Metro’s bus plan, the lawmakers questioned how security perimeters would impact access to the scattered Olympic venues in Southern California.

Rep. Ted Lieu said that if other forms of transportation get fans closer to the venues than public transit, then there wouldn’t be an incentive to take Metro buses.

“Then you're just gonna have more traffic," Lieu said.

Chief Bill Scott, who oversees Metro’s Department of Public Safety, said the goal is to limit the walking time from transit drop-off locations to the venues to 10 to 15 minutes.

The panel raised another major issue still to be determined: where rideshare companies and automated vehicles will be permitted to pick up and drop off fans during the summer Games.

Laura Rubio-Cornejo, the general manager of L.A. City’s Department of Transportation, said the city designated certain areas for rideshare drivers during the World Cup.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

There are still more than two months to go until the Nov. 3 election, and Inglewood’s stadiums and a billboard company have already dumped more than $3.4 million into ballot measure campaigns.

One campaign committee burned through more than $2.1 million of stadium money in the first six months of the year, according to campaign filings. A rival billboard-backed committee poured almost $1.3 million into its own campaign.

Inglewood locals are set to vote in the Nov. 3 election on a trio of ballot measures that would hike taxes on large event tickets, restrict commercial ads on public roads and provide nearly $400 million in property tax bonds to the school system. 

The stadium tax and commercial ad initiatives are framed around the needs of locals, and each could have real effects on city revenue streams and how Inglewood engages with stadium visitors.

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But campaign filings released by the city in response to a public records request show nearly all the funds for two competing campaigns have come from Hollywood Park, the Kia Forum and billboard company WOW Media. 

The expensive battle between WOW and the stadiums, who have video billboards of their own, essentially boils down to an advertising turf war, according to Ron Camhi, an attorney who works in commercial real estate and digital advertising.

“This is really a fight over scarce assets and access to millions of consumers attending some of the highest profile sports and entertainment events in the world,” Camhi said. 

Neither campaign responded to an interview request.

The ballot measures are partly the overflow of a year-long court fight over WOW’s growing fleet of video billboards and twisting kiosks. WOW scored a big win over the stadiums in that case earlier this summer.

Here’s a breakdown of the more than $3.4 million spent

Hollywood Park and the Kia Forum funded nearly all of a campaign committee called Neighbors for Beautiful Inglewood. Kevani, Inc., which operates a large billboard outside the Kia Forum, also pitched in $10,000 into the committee, documents say. 

The committee spent more than $2.1 million campaigning for the advertising measure in the first six months of the year, according to campaign finance documents.

The committee had more than $1.7 million left in its account as of June 30, according to the filings.

Check out the full campaign finance filing below.

460 – Neighbors for Beautiful Inglewood (Amendment) 4.26 – 6.26 (1)Download
WOW Media’s campaign committee, Inglewood Residents for Stadium Accountability, spent more than $1.3 million in the same six-month period to fight the advertising restrictions and promote the stadium tax increase.

At the end of June, the WOW-funded committee had just over $400,000 left in its account, according to filing documents. 

Check out the full campaign finance filing below.

460 – Inglewood Residents for Stadium Accountability 4.26-6.26 (1)Download