Bass to step down from LA's lead homeless agency commission. LAist found she was often absent

Mayor Karen Bass is stepping down from the governing body for the L.A. region’s embattled lead homeless services agency on Wednesday, her office told LAist.

"Mayor Bass is stepping off the board of LAHSA tomorrow, Sept. 9, and will be appointing a new appointee," a spokesperson for the Mayor's Office said, in a statement Tuesday evening.

The decision comes after LAist reported Bass skipped more than half the L.A. Homeless Services Authority Commission meetings held since appointing herself in 2023.

Details on the exit plans

Last week, Bass told KFI’s Gary and Shannon that she planned on leaving the LAHSA Commission, citing time constraints.

“I am going to be stepping down because I just — in terms of time and all,” Bass said in a live radio interview on Friday.

The Mayor's Office confirmed her plans to LAist Tuesday evening. The office did not clarify who Bass plans to appoint to fill the seat on the 10-member commission.

The backstory

LAist reporting found Bass missed 13 of the 21 LAHSA Commission meetings held over a recent year period, well above the four absence-threshold that can trigger potential removal under LAHSA’s bylaws.

Bass’ three-year term on the LAHSA Commission expired June 30, but she still remained on the commission as of Tuesday.

LAist reviewed three years of meeting records and found that Bass was among two sitting commissioners who had four or more absences over a single 12-month period.

L.A.’s mayor appoints half of the board’s members.

Paul Rubenstein, LAHSA's chief of staff, told LAist earlier on Tuesday that Bass had not informed the agency that she planned to step down from the commission. Other members of the commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

What’s next?

LAHSA is a joint powers authority between the city and county, created three decades ago to manage the region’s response to homelessness.

The agency has come under scrutiny for alleged mismanagement of taxpayer dollars, including the Trump administration's attempt to suspend LAHSA.

In response to the agency’s documented dysfunction, L.A. County pulled most of its money from the agency and created its own homelessness department. Bass now appears fed up with LAHSA and eager for the city to follow suit as the city of L.A. weighs next steps.

"The Mayor's first-hand experience at LAHSA reinforced her understanding that our current system is broken and in need of major overhaul, which is why she is developing a transition plan to build a city-led homelessness response system committed to delivering results for the City of Los Angeles," Ilanna Morales, a spokesperson for the Mayor's Office, said in a statement to LAist.

Bass explores LAHSA breakup

The Mayor's Office previously told LAist Bass had directed the L.A. Housing Department and other city departments to evaluate how to move away from LAHSA. But staff for the department declined to confirm whether they received such a directive and, in response to a public records request, said it had no record of one.

Bass has increasingly signaled frustration with LAHSA following the Trump administration's suspension of the agency in June. A U.S. District judge has paused that suspension for now, but LAHSA's future remains uncertain.

“I took the step of being on the commission so that I could learn much more and I could see what we needed to do,” Bass told KFI. “And I came to the conclusion that the city needs to have its own system.”