LA City Council votes to explore seizing control of LAHSA spending

The Los Angeles City Council is directing city officials to look into pulling hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the region’s homeless service agency after two audits found failures to ensure money was spent properly.

The council unanimously approved the motion from Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who called Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority a "monstrosity." The city's chief legislative analyst, city administrative officer and the L.A. Housing Department will now produce a report on how the city could directly contract with homeless service providers rather than LAHSA.

"There's a point where we just have to call an end to funding the failure," the councilmember said, citing a scathing November audit that found the agency routinely paid providers late and failed to track whether contract terms were followed. A second audit this month found that LAHSA had failed to track billions in homelessness spending.

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

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If Los Angeles is going to pull its funding from LAHSA, which Mayor Karen Bass has said she doesn't support, the City Council will need to vote on the issue again.

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The city’s move comes ahead of an L.A. County Board of Supervisors vote next week that would shift $300 million out of the homeless service agency and under direct county control.

"As the City and County contemplate the paths they may take, it is vital that the system remains aligned under one vision and direction to drive the regional collaboration that is required to end homelessness. LAHSA was a central partner in that collaboration," said LAHSA spokesperson Paul Rubenstein in a statement.

Rubenstein also said the number of unhoused people living on the streets has dropped for two years straight. Last week, LAHSA shared preliminary data from last month's L.A. County homelessness count that showed a decline in the number of people living outdoors compared to last year. That raw, incomplete data was released early ahead of the county's vote on LAHSA funding.

For L.A. city, any actual decision to pull LAHSA's funding will require another vote.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has called for the city and county to continue funding services through LAHSA.

Correspondent Nick Gerda and reporter David Wagner contributed to this story.