Citing incomplete data, LAHSA announces drop in homelessness as county considers taking control of funding

Preliminary results of last month’s Los Angeles County homelessness count show a year-to-year drop in the number of people living outdoors, according to data released months earlier than usual.

The data, from the L.A. Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, is incomplete. It was distributed three months earlier in the process, as the agency faces an upcoming vote that could see the county take over direct oversight of hundreds of millions of dollars the county currently sends LAHSA every year.

Usually, no data is released from the annual Point-in-Time homelessness count until late June, after the full count is tabulated and a survey is conducted to estimate how many people were living in the tents and vehicles counted early in the year.

But this year, LAHSA Chief Executive Va Lecia Adams Kellum handled it differently. She released raw, incomplete data, as county supervisors prepare to vote April 1 on having the county seize control of funding after a pair of scathing audits about LAHSA.

Adams Kellum’s administration sent out a news release Thursday about the preliminary drop in the count and calling for continued county support of LAHSA. The release said the data indicates the unsheltered homeless count in L.A. County will drop by 5% to 10% when the final count is released later this year. That follows last year’s count showing a drop after years of increases.

“It’s important for decision-makers to focus on change while continuing the momentum LAHSA, the rehousing system, the city and county have produced over the last two years,” Adams Kellum said in the release.

“L.A. has been waiting years for this moment. Let’s trust what we have built and the real progress we are making,” she added.

The projected reduction in street homelessness “is a reason why we want to see [the] city and county continue to work together," she told ABC 7 about the preliminary results.

LAHSA is jointly funded by the city and county and overseen by a commission appointed by city and county elected officials.

Data is missing

Because the information is being released so early, some data is missing, according to footnotes LAHSA released to LAist in response to a public records request. Counts of unhoused youth are not included, and numbers could change for special counts along parks and highways, officials say.

“Note that all raw unsheltered counts (for each year) exclude estimates of occupants of dwellings as well as unsheltered youth who are added to the count as estimates from the result of the Youth Count,” one footnote says.

The preliminary data also does not include the annual multiplier data developed by USC researchers, which LAHSA has said “is crucial to developing the annual Homeless Count estimate.”

The preliminary data released by LAHSA show the 2025 count found 3,600 fewer people and dwellings — such as tents, makeshift shelters and vehicles — compared with the previous year. That’s about an 11% drop.

This year’s count also saw a drop in volunteers. About 10% fewer people signed up compared with participants last year, and many of those who registered this year did not show up after LAHSA moved the count back by a few weeks because of the January wildfires.

Adams Kellum’s administration has said the drop in volunteers shouldn’t affect the quality of the count.

LAist excluded from media briefings

In a deviation from past practice, Adams Kellum did not invite LAist to her briefings of reporters on the count results.

In the previous two counts since Adams Kellum took the helm at LAHSA, LAist was invited to the media briefing in advance of the official release, where the results were released and reporters could ask questions.

LAist was not invited to her Wednesday briefings of the Los Angeles Times and ABC-TV Channel 7 about the preliminary results, which were part of a presentation about her efforts at the agency.

The Times and ABC 7 published articles on it Thursday morning. LAist requested copies of the data. It took three hours of requests from LAist, including contacting Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ office, before LAHSA disclosed the preliminary data.

Adams Kellum did not respond to questions about why she departed from her past practice.

LAHSA spokesperson Paul Rubenstein responded that the count information was provided during wider-ranging conversations with other outlets, but has not answered who initiated those interviews and why LAist was not invited.

The file name of the document sent by LAHSA was "Media Briefing March 2025."

Questions about missing documents

About two weeks ago, LAist began asking LAHSA about hundreds of supporting documents that appear to be missing for last year’s count. That count recorded the first drop in unsheltered homelessness in many years in the city of LA.

Adams Kellum’s administration says it has not withheld any records from LAist but has not yet explained why scans of handwritten counts for more than 200 census tracts appear to be missing from what her agency disclosed in response to a records request.

LAist also has reported on an ethics breach at the agency, involving Adams Kellum signing a $2.1 million contract with her husband’s employer — despite previously telling LAist she had followed conflict-of-interest rules banning her from such involvement.

Her husband is the director of compliance at the vendor.

LAHSA ultimately paid about $1.7 million under that one-year contract — ending in December — without any reports on the vendor’s performance or contract compliance, according to a LAHSA public records response to LAist.

That appears to be common practice at LAHSA with the service providers it collectively pays about $700 million in county and city tax dollars each year, according to an audit and a written explanation from LAHSA to LAist.

Adams Kellum distances herself from audit’s findings

The most recent audit of LAHSA, overseen by a federal judge, found that LAHSA has made it impossible to accurately track homelessness spending, by failing to collect accurate data from its vendors and hold them accountable. That audit has further fueled calls for the county and city to pull funding from the regional agency and instead oversee it directly.

Speaking during her media briefing with ABC-TV Channel 7 on Wednesday, Adams Kellum emphasized the audits "cover a sliver of the first year of my time at LAHSA.”

But the audit overseen by Judge David O. Carter examined a period that included 15 months of Adams Kellum’s time leading LAHSA, according to the report released by the court. Adams Kellum became CEO in late March 2023, and the audit looked at a period running from mid-2020 to June 30, 2024.

She has not responded to an email asking for clarification.

Carter has scheduled a public hearing March 27 on the audit’s findings. He has asked some city and county elected officials to attend.