LA County supervisors vote to explore cutting homeless services agency’s budget, creating new department

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to explore how it could trim the budget of the region’s top homeless services agency and move many of its duties to a yet-to-be created department.

The move comes after an audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority found late payments to subcontractors and inadequate monitoring of contracts to make sure providers were complying with the terms of the funding agreements. LAHSA’s current annual budget is $875 million.

Four supervisors voted in favor of the motion, which directs officials to report back early next year on how to create a new county department and begin transferring funding and duties away from LAHSA. One abstained.

What is being proposed?

The proposal calls for LAHSA’s duties to be limited to core functions, including the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count and some emergency services. That means hundreds of millions of dollars managed by the agency could go to the new county department to distribute to dozens of service providers.

If the county moves forward with the proposal, it would be a major change in how the county organizes its response to homelessness.

“It is time to take the hard but necessary steps to double down on transparency and accountability on homelessness by creating a county department where we have direct oversight,” said Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who co-authored the motion with Supervisor Kathryn Barger.

City and county officials have scrutinized the agency in recent weeks, following an audit that found the agency was not paying some service providers on time and that some contracts were not properly monitored and other issues.

Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who abstained from the vote, argued for implementing the audit’s recommendations instead of standing up a new department.

“I do not see how shifting all the homeless services funding and programs to one department addresses the true challenges that service providers are facing,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell also pointed out that the audit did not investigate whether tax dollars were spent incorrectly.

What’s next

County officials are expected to report back early next year with a summary of LAHSA functions that could transition to the new county department.