The Brief

A federal judge is ordering the city of Los Angeles to prove that it provided more than 2,600 rental subsidies for unhoused people, evidence that L.A. is complying with long-standing agreements to create more shelter.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter made the order at the end of a hearing held to determine whether the city is fulfilling its legal obligations in a lawsuit with the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a downtown business group that sued the city.

Los Angeles is required to create 6,000 new beds for unhoused people under a 2020 deal known as the Roadmap agreement. The city has been counting rental subsidies in compliance reports submitted to the court.

But Carter said in an amended order issued Thursday that he had “serious concerns about the accuracy” of the numbers. He required city representatives to provide evidence about the rental subsidies by next week.

The judge is expected to make a decision by the end of the month on whether L.A. has breached its legal obligations, as laid out in the agreements, and if control of the city’s homelessness spending should be handed to a third party.

Why it matters now

Several witnesses, including the city administrative officer and deputy mayor for Homelessness and Community Health, testified during the federal court hearing, which lasted more than a week in downtown L.A.

Part of the evidence focused on what are known as time-limited subsidies, which are a means to get unhoused people into apartments and other rental units on the private market, typically for up to two years.

The regional Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA, has said the subsidies support people experiencing homelessness by helping them access permanent housing quickly.

According to his order, Carter is concerned about 2,679 of these subsidies, which court-appointed assessors testified they could not verify because of missing addresses and other information.

Skid Row community

Among the witnesses who testified during the hearing were members of the Skid Row community, including those who were previously unhoused.

Don Garza, who has lived in Skid Row for 26 years, said people are languishing on the streets while they wait for housing.

“They didn't have to die,” he said, his voice breaking with emotion. “There's enough money for the shelters, there's enough money to do all of it. We don't have to fight for one or the other, there's plenty.”

“Where did the money go?” he continued. “Why are these people dying on our streets? Why are they dying?”

Suzette Shaw, a Skid Row resident and advocate, came to court nearly every day of the hearing to listen and observe. She told LAist she was triggered by some of the testimony, including when Carter thanked the city’s new lawyers for visiting Skid Row.

“ It should be mandated that any city, county employee, especially attorneys that are involved in this homeless sector, that you have to come into a community called Skid Row,” she said. “ And you need to work …  side by side with us.”

What’s next

The city is required to provide specific information on each rental subsidy by next Wednesday, including the addresses and whether someone at each address is living there.

All of that information will be filed under seal, meaning it won’t be disclosed publicly, according to the court order.

Starting Monday, the attorneys in the case will submit written arguments to the judge. Their arguments are expected to focus on whether the city breached its obligations and whether control of L.A.’s homelessness spending should be transferred to a third party.

Carter is expected to make a decision by the end of June.

The mostly cloudy skies today are courtesy of a low-pressure system that brings a 30 to 50% chance of showers to the region. It will be dry today, but we can't rule out a slight chance of showers tonight.

Today's temperatures will be cooler, with highs mostly in the mid- to upper 60s for the beaches and coastal communities. The valleys will see temperatures between 68 to 73 degrees and up to 74 degrees over in the Inland Empire.

High temperatures in the Coachella Valley will reach 70 to 75 degrees. Meanwhile, in the Antelope Valley, temperatures there will remain between 58 to 66 degrees.

The National Weather Service says any showers will be light to moderate come Thursday into Friday morning.

Next month, Los Angeles Unified School District leaders will vote on layoffs at central offices and school sites as part of a plan to save $1.4 billion over the next two years.

The district’s fiscal stabilization plan outlines three categories where layoffs are likely: central office ($150 million), unfunded positions ($60 million) and the Student Equity Needs Index, or “SENI,” ($99 million), which supports schools with higher-need students. District staff said the exact number and types of positions will be provided to the board in the coming weeks.

 “It is not a forgone conclusion that people will lose jobs,” said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. For example, he said staff may be reassigned to vacant positions or given the opportunity to transfer to another school.

How did we get here

LAUSD is spending more money than it brings in. There are more than 40% fewer students compared to the early 2000s and the district has not closed schools or significantly reduced staff as costs have increased. LAUSD hired more staff to support students during the pandemic, but the federal relief dollars that initially funded those positions are gone.

For the past two years, the district has relied on diminishing reserves to backfill a multi-billion-dollar deficit. Most recently, the district pulled $496 million from its reserve.

 “Every available reserve of the district is being used to either offset reductions that otherwise would've happened or to pay for cost increases that we're expecting over the coming years,” said chief financial officer Saman Bravo-Karimi.

Several still-unknown factors will shape LAUSD’s spending plan, including the outcome of stalled contract negotiations with the district’s teachers union, the final state budget and changes to federal education funding.

Weigh in on LAUSD’s planned layoffs

The Board is scheduled to vote on the layoffs at its Feb. 10 meeting and impacted staff will be notified by March 15, as required by California law.

A court hearing for Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price got underway Tuesday, with a focus on allegations Price was married to another woman when he collected city health insurance benefits for his wife — which prosecutors say amounted to embezzlement of city funds.

In addition to facing five counts of grand theft by embezzlement of public funds, Price faces four counts of conflict of interest related to votes he took on projects connected to his wife’s business and three counts of perjury by declaration related to allegations he failed to disclose financial interests related to his wife’s business.

Price has pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles County Superior Court. At the end of the preliminary hearing, which is expected to run several days, a judge will be asked to determine whether there’s enough evidence for the case to go to trial.

If convicted on all charges, he faces up to 11 years behind bars.

On Tuesday, prosecutors called an analyst with the city’s Personnel Department to testify and presented him with documents that showed Price placed his current wife Del Richardson on his city-issued healthcare plan from 2013 to 2017, before they were legally married.

Deputy District Attorney Casey Higgins then showed the analyst a 1981 marriage certificate showing Price’s marriage to Suzette Price. The analyst said his office never saw the certificate.

“We most likely would have asked questions,” said Paul Makowski, chief benefits analyst with the city’s Personnel Department.

Prosecutors say Price bilked the city out of tens of thousands of dollars in health benefits for Richardson.

Price has said he thought he was divorced from his wife when he signed Richardson up for the benefit. He and Suzette Price had been separated since 2002. His attorney Michael Schafler noted Price never sought benefits for both women at the same time.

Prosecutors say the conflict of interest and perjury charges relate to Price failing to recuse himself from votes on projects that benefited his wife’s business, which provides relocation services and community engagement on big projects.

For example, the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles paid Richardson & Associates more than $600,000 over two years from 2019 to 2020. During that same time, Price voted to support a $35 million federal grant and a state grant application for $252 million for the agency, according to prosecutors.

In addition, LA Metro paid Richardson & Associates about $219,000 over two years from 2020 to 2021. Prosecutors say during that time, Price introduced and voted for a motion to award $30 million to Metro.

Price’s staff allegedly alerted Price about both transactions as potential conflicts of interest, according to prosecutors.

The preliminary hearing is expected to last six days.

Los Angeles officials gathered Tuesday for a media event to launch the county’s newest department. The new entity faces a daunting mandate: solve the region’s deeply entrenched homelessness crisis.

The new L.A. County Homeless Services and Housing department takes the mantle from the embattled regional L.A. Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA, which until now has overseen the funding and administration of homeless services across a county where more than 72,000 people experience homelessness on any given night.

County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said transferring responsibilities from LAHSA — a joint powers authority created in 1993 by the city and county of L.A. — to one centralized agency will reduce finger-pointing.

“For a long time, it is LAHSA blames the county, the county blames the city, the city blames LAHSA — we all blame each other,” Barger said. “Accountability now ends with the [Board of Supervisors]. ... The buck is going to stop with us.”

Department launches as volunteers count LA’s unhoused 

The launch coincided with the first day of the region’s homeless count, which is still being overseen by LAHSA. Last year, the county decided to pull hundreds of millions of dollars from LAHSA and entrust that annual funding to the new county department.

The decision came shortly after a series of audits uncovered spending and oversight problems at the agency. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said she hoped reducing LAHSA’s responsibilities would help the agency better execute its core duties, such as the annual homeless count.

“Now that the focus and scope of what they're doing has been narrowed, hopefully that's where they've been focusing their time, effort and energy,” Horvath said.

Sarah Mahin (center) speaks about the launch of the new county homelessness department she will direct. Standing behind her are L.A. County Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Lindsey Horvath.

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David Wagner/LAist

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Revenue for the new department comes from Measure A, the half-cent sales tax voters opted to double from the previous quarter-cent tax in November 2024.

Why sales taxes are up, but overall revenue is down

Despite the increased sales tax revenue, officials say overall funding is down because of federal and state funding losses, plus allocations of sales tax revenue to a separate entity, the L.A. County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency.

The county’s new homelessness department has a $635 million draft spending plan. It comes with proposed cuts of more than 25% to homeless services.

“Cuts are painful for everyone, but we are making thoughtful and responsible decisions,” said Sarah Mahin, the new county department’s director. “We are prioritizing the most vulnerable people and the programs that we know work. And we're actively working with our partners to secure other funding and solutions to fill gaps.”

One program that will see cuts is Pathway Home, which clears encampments and offers residents spots in interim housing. Mahin said spending on the motels that serve as that interim housing will go down, dropping the number of annual encampment clearances involving motels from 30 to 10.