The Brief

A new audit finds that a Los Angeles homeless services agency with an $875-million annual budget has routinely paid service providers late, failed to track whether contracts were followed and, in some cases, gave taxpayer funds meant for other purposes to providers who weren’t supposed to receive the money.

The findings released Tuesday night by the L.A. County Auditor-Controller’s office highlight long-standing issues at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and raise new questions about how the agency is spending large pools of public money.

L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who requested the audit earlier this year, said she now plans to introduce a motion to create a new county department responsible for homelessness response.

"The audit findings make clear the structure we have for service delivery is not working. We need greater accountability and bold action," Horvath said. "The public is frustrated and there is no time to waste in delivering meaningful results.”

It's not yet clear what the proposal would mean for L.A. County's relationship with LAHSA, an agency established in 1993 and jointly overseen by the city and county of L.A. The agency currently administers funding from the county, the city, the state of California and the federal government. This year, the county contributed $348 million to LAHSA's budget.

How LAHSA is responding

LAHSA officials disputed a number of the audit's findings, and maintained that some problems were unique to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The spending practices captured during the COVID-19 years of this audit should be viewed as an essential investment that contributed to achieving critical public health and service delivery outcomes," wrote Va Lecia Adams Kellum, LAHSA's CEO, in response to the audit.

After LAist's story was published, Adams Kellum sent an internal email to LAHSA staff citing LAist reporting and calling Horvath's proposal "alarming and confusing."

"At this time, I, along with LAHSA leadership, are [sic] working diligently to ascertain clarity on this proposal," Adams Kellum went on to say in the email obtained by LAist and confirmed by LAHSA spokesperson Paul Rubenstein. "In the meantime, please know that we are not treating this situation lightly. Our employees take top priority. The work that you all do matters — you save lives, plain and simple."

Among the 10 issues identified as top priorities, the auditors wrote that LAHSA had misused funds by taking money from one government funder “to pay for services provided under another government funder’s contract/grant.”

“LAHSA must discontinue this practice to ensure financial resources and operations for other programs are not inappropriately (and negatively) impacted,” the audit stated.

LAHSA has repeatedly found itself in the spotlight over public frustration with rising homelessness in recent years despite billions of dollars in new voter-approved funding.

Adams Kellum, who took over as LAHSA’s CEO in March 2023, told reporters in a news conference last Wednesday ahead of the audit’s release that some of the years covered by the report predate her tenure. She said LAHSA has already worked to address issues, and has rolled out new online dashboards to better track the agency’s performance.

“It is critically important that we are measuring our work and doing everything that we say we're doing,” Adams Kellum said. “We want to be able to show what's working. And in any report card, you also see what's not working — what improvements are needed.”

What else did the audit find?

Billions of dollars in new funding has been spent in recent years to address the region’s homelessness crisis, but the number of people experiencing homelessness across L.A. County has risen 37% since 2017. The latest count showed that about 75,000 people across the county are unhoused on any given night.

The Auditor-Controller’s office undertook an in-depth financial review of LAHSA with the goal of giving taxpayers and elected leaders a closer look at how homelessness funding is being spent to get people off the streets, connected with service programs and placed into shelters and apartments.

Among the audit’s findings:

• LAHSA hasn’t always paid service providers on time, even when funds were available. The auditors found that in a sampling between July 2023 and May 2024, LAHSA paid five out of 13 subcontractors late.
• The agency in some cases paid providers using the wrong funding source. For example, auditors found that one L.A. County subcontractor was paid 14 days before LAHSA received county funding intended to cover that cost. LAHSA confirmed to the auditors that they used another unrelated funding source.
• LAHSA does an inadequate job of monitoring contracts to make sure providers are complying with the terms of their funding. The auditors found that about half (51%) of LAHSA’s planned contract reviews did not include methods for monitoring a provider’s compliance with service delivery requirements.
• LAHSA did not establish agreements with service providers to require them to repay nearly $51 million in advances that the agency provided in 2017 using county taxpayer dollars. By July 2024, only $2.5 million of that money had been paid back.
• The auditors discovered an additional $15 million in outstanding cash advances to other providers — some dating back to 2016 — that still haven’t been paid back. Some providers with unpaid advances no longer contract with LAHSA.

LAHSA officials were given a chance in the audit to respond to the findings. They disagreed fully or partially with most of the points above, but agreed that payments to providers were often late. For the findings they agreed with, they laid out timelines for fixing the problems.

Why is this all coming out now? 

The audit was initiated by a motion earlier this year from L.A. County Supervisors Horvath and Kathryn Barger.

Barger on Wednesday said she was "deeply disturbed by what this LAHSA audit reveals."

"It’s clear to me that management practices need to dramatically improve at LAHSA," she said in a statement. "I’m also disappointed that LHASA's management team responded by pushing back on some of the audit’s conclusions instead of taking full ownership of its findings and charting a new and improved path forward."

The audit follows a separate analysis by the L.A. City Controller’s Office released on Thursday that found the city of L.A. did not spend at least $513 million in public funds that were budgeted to help with the homeless crisis during fiscal year 2024. The office said a lack of staff and old technology contributed to the spending problems.

Concerns about LAHSA’s performance stretch back years, with some elected leaders suggesting the city should consider withdrawing from the agency. A federal judge overseeing a major homelessness case in L.A. has recently chided LAHSA officials for failing to provide timely data on spending and outcomes for a separate, ongoing audit commissioned by the court.

The judge has ordered officials from LAHSA, the city and the county into court Thursday morning to justify why they’re behind schedule in providing auditors with needed information.

Is any progress being made? 

The payment delays identified in the audit have long been familiar to service providers who say they often wait months for reimbursement. Outreach workers who help unhoused people typically earn low wages, often struggling to pay their own rent. Lengthy payment disruptions can put their jobs at risk.

Back in 2018, the Auditor-Controller’s office found that LAHSA was failing to pay service providers on time. By 2021, the office reported that LAHSA had only partially fixed the problem.

Agency leaders said during the news conference last week that LAHSA has paid about 80% of contracts on time over the past two years.

LAHSA leaders added that their staffers are now checking in with providers on a monthly basis and gauging their performance through more frequent “desk audits.”

Janine Trejo, LAHSA’s chief financial officer, said, “We go out and we conduct a monitoring of the service providers, their facilities, their expenses and a sampling of their documents.”

As for the $51 million in advances from 2017, Rachel Johnson — LAHSA’s chief of staff — said that money was meant to buoy service providers through 2027.

“This allowed the providers to really expand rapidly into the work, as was required by the funding,” Johnson said. Agency officials told auditors their agreement with the county did not require the creation of formal repayment agreements with providers for those advances.

What will be different moving forward? 

L.A. County voters just approved a big boost in the funding that LAHSA manages. Starting in April, Measure A will increase sales taxes in the county by a quarter-cent for every dollar spent, with most of that money going to homelessness services overseen by LAHSA.

Adams Kellum said Measure A already includes new accountability requirements — such as five-year progress reports — that follow the audit’s recommendations.

“We're in alignment,” she said. “I'm encouraged that these are things we have been working on over the last year and a half.”

However, the audit could increase scrutiny of LAHSA from L.A. County supervisors and city council members who’ve repeatedly said they feel like the agency is a black box. After being told last year that L.A. taxpayer funds could have been spent on motel room shelters that weren’t actually occupied, Councilmember Bob Blumenfield discussed halting city dollars to the agency due to extensive data problems. Blumenfield chairs the council’s budget committee.

Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said at the time, “Get me off this merry-go-round from hell.”

Read the full audit

Ah geez: You're here because you're wondering if you should get back with your ex, aren't you?

Don't be ashamed: Almost half of people end up getting back with a past flame at some point.

But: Is it a good idea? Like, for reals? We turned that question over to listeners of AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news show, and got some mixed responses.

Listener thoughts:

• The heart wants what it wants, but sometimes chemistry alone isn't enough for a second chance to work out.
• Familiarity can be comforting but also masks real issues.
• On-again, off-again relationships don't just impact you — they impact others' perception of you.
• Sometimes trying again can give you the closure you didn't know you needed.

Listen: To the full AirTalk segment above to hear advice from relationship expert Lauren Salaun, and how one man's desert rendezvous with an ex left him stranded in SoCal.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

MacArthur Park will host two more Fall Friday Nights this month, with a Glow Party on Friday and a free outdoor movie night next week as the city continues its community programming at the park.

The free events are open to the public from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and include free food, games, entertainment, activities and community resources.

Friday’s Glow Party will include a DJ, glow sticks, dancing and interactive games.

The Sept. 25 movie night will feature a screening of “The Super Mario Galaxy” on a large outdoor screen.

The two events are the final Fall Friday Nights scheduled at MacArthur Park this year. The series has been held at the park since 2024 and brings together city departments, neighborhood organizations and service providers.

Fall Friday Nights was created in 2015 as an extension of the city’s Summer Night Lights program.

Families and residents gather at MacArthur Park during Fall Friday Nights on Sept. 4, 2026.

(

Courtesy of Central City Neighborhood Partners

)

Eduardo Rodriguez, executive director of Central City Neighborhood Partners, said Fall Friday Nights grew from a partnership between the city, Mayor Karen Bass, CCNP and other community groups to create “more consistent, positive, family-centered activity at MacArthur Park.”

CCNP began activating the park this summer through its “Meet Me at MacArthur Park” initiative, which Rodriguez said showed that families wanted more welcoming events and accessible resources.

“The strong community response demonstrated that families want welcoming events, accessible resources, and reasons to return to the park,” Rodriguez said.

About a thousand people attended each of the first two Fall Friday Nights this year, Rodriguez said, for an estimated 2,000 people combined.

The Friday events are also part of a longer-term plan for the park.

Rodriguez said CCNP, through its “Meet Me at MacArthur Park” initiative, plans to establish a recurring presence at the park two days a week. CCNP will provide FamilySource services, youth and family programs, workforce and education resources, financial empowerment, wellness services, food assistance and other community support.

“Our goal is to turn individual events into long-term relationships with families and create consistent, visible, and positive activity at MacArthur Park,” he said.

For Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, the Friday events are part of a broader effort in MacArthur Park that includes clean teams, street medicine teams, overdose response and infrastructure improvements. 

Hernandez said residents are beginning to notice changes at the park, but argued that they came after years of work.

“This has been years of investment, of time, of money that me and my team have put into MacArthur Park and into Westlake from the moment I got into office,” she said on social media. 

Hernandez has also described that work as part of a broader approach to public safety that extends beyond law enforcement.

“The public safety ecosystem is not just law enforcement,” she said, pointing to street medicine teams and mobile overdose response teams working in the park.

The Los Angeles Police Department and federal agents have spent much of the summer carrying out a multi-phase operation targeting drug activity in and around MacArthur Park, while the city says it remains on track to install a perimeter fence this fall.

Fall Friday Nights “targets communities that may need a little extra care once the school year starts,” according to Bass’ office. 

Free clothing will also be distributed. CCNP will provide free transportation from its Westlake office, Tenth Street Elementary School and Virgil Middle School. Residents can call CCNP at (213) 482-8618 for transportation information.

Last year, Fall Friday Nights brought more than 3,000 people to MacArthur Park over four Friday nights, according to the city. The programming included arts and crafts, futsal, meals and other activities, while unhoused residents could also access medical care and other services.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that he is directing state agencies to develop artificial intelligence safety recommendations, some of which were part of a bill he vetoed two years ago.

His change of tune on those measures, including requiring AI developers to include a “kill switch” to shut off certain programs in emergencies, comes in response to growing public alarm over the fast-developing technology’s potential “catastrophic” harms such as AI creating a bioweapon or bringing down the power grid.

Newsom is seeking recommendations from the Government Operations Agency and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services by Nov. 16, meaning they could form the basis of a special legislative session on the issue. He floated the possibility of calling one in Politico on Thursday.

Newsom has sought in recent weeks to respond to several incidents in which AI agents from leading developers OpenAI and Anthropic broke away from testing environments, gained access to the open internet and carried out cyberattacks on other websites and companies. Earlier this month, a researcher set off a panic when he resigned from Anthropic while warning the technology could “kill all humans;” the researcher’s former colleagues were quick to agree.

The hackings have captivated the public and seem to confirm AI researchers’ fears that the fast-developing technology is improving its own capabilities beyond human control. Several industry leaders last week endorsed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call for a slowdown in development.

Newsom’s Friday executive order directs the state agencies to recommend changes in state law to implement an external evaluation requirement, as well as requirements that AI companies’ safety frameworks required under the newest law be independently verified. He’s also seeking recommendations on how to require a kill switch, and how to expand the safety incidents companies must report to include “a range of loss-of-control incidents” such as the recent reported hackings.

Regulation is unlikely from the federal government; President Donald Trump remains all-in on speeding up AI development in the face of competition from China and said the calls for a slowdown are a “conspiracy.”

Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential contender, said Friday in a press release that should “alarm every American.”

“We’re going to speed up our work on substantial and responsible AI oversight before it's too late,” he said.

California under Newsom has enacted several first-in-the-nation laws to curb the potentially existential risks of AI. In 2025 he signed Senate Bill 53, which requires large AI model developers to publish frameworks on how they manage safety incidents and assess catastrophic risk — defined as incidents involving 50 or more deaths, chemical or biological weapons or more than $1 billion of theft or damage. They also must report critical safety incidents to the state. Illinois and New York have similar laws.

But the measure was a compromise — a requirement for transparency rather than regulatory control — after Newsom in 2024 vetoed Senate Bill 1047.

Both bills were authored by Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, whose San Francisco district is home to the most prominent AI companies.

The vetoed measure would have required the largest AI developers to receive safety auditing from third-party, external monitors, develop a kill switch and be subject to clearer legal liability if their technology causes harm. The measure divided Silicon Valley and received fierce opposition from several, but not all, of the largest AI developers.

Newsom wrote then in a veto letter that while he agreed with the need to require safety protocols, the bill could restrict AI development at large companies “at the potential expense of curtailing the very innovation that fuels advancement in favor of the public good.”

“I agree with the author — we cannot afford to wait for a major catastrophe to occur before taking action to protect the public,” he added.

Since then, more in the industry have embraced third-party evaluations. This year, Newsom signed two laws to verify and set standards for those external monitors. But the new laws did not require companies to use them.

In a recent call for a slowdown in AI development that was endorsed by several other industry leaders, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei also called for third-party monitoring; both that company and OpenAI say they will commit to the practice.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a series of measures that halt the rebuilding of the burned Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights and that steer funding toward fire recovery efforts.

In a unanimous vote, the City Council barred the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) from issuing any rebuild permits until after the Los Angeles Fire Department completes its investigation.

The council also directed the Department of City Planning, the city attorney and the LADBS to present an interim control ordinance prohibiting permits or certificates of occupancy for large cold-storage warehousing and distribution near residential neighborhoods and sensitive areas like parks, schools, day care centers and libraries in Boyle Heights. 

The ordinance, if approved, would be in effect for 45 days, with an option to extend by 10 months and 15 days. It could be extended by an additional year, or until the “appropriate land use regulatory controls have been prepared,” according to a city staff report. 

“This Lineage fire exposed the cost of systems that have concentrated industrial risk in working-class communities of color for generations,” said Councilmember Ysabel Jurado during the council meeting. 

“A facility should not be able to request a like-for-like rebuild while the fire investigation remains active and the surrounding community is still living with the consequences,” she added. 

Jurado pushed forward the measures, noting that “recovery doesn’t finish when the site is cleaned up.”

“Our responsibility is also to demand accountability and strengthen protections so residents do not experience a disaster like this again,” she said. 

Jurado said the measures will ensure Boyle Heights residents “aren’t left to navigate recovery alone or bear the financial burden of an emergency they did not create.”

The council also directed city staff to explore the feasibility of establishing a fund of up to $10 million to support the affected Lineage community. 

It also called for the reallocation of up to $940,000 in Los Angeles County Fire Assistance Grant Funds to the Boyle Heights WorkSource Center for Lineage Fire Recovery to support impacted workers and businesses. 

Additionally, council members instructed the LADBS and the city attorney to provide recommendations for increasing penalties for notices of violations “on projects that impose a significant impact to the community,” as seen in the Lineage fire. Recommendations should include a fee and fine structure that ranges from $25,000 to $1 million per fine, according to a city staff report.