LA's homelessness agency handles $700M in contracts each year. Just one employee must disclose conflicts

More than two years after L.A.’s embattled homeless services agency acknowledged it was required to make more of its officials file state-mandated disclosures, the agency remains far less transparent than other local governments about its leaders’ potential conflicts of interest, an LAist review has found.

State law requires local government officials to disclose their personal financial interests — including gifts they’ve received, outside income to them and their spouses, and other interests — for public transparency and to ensure officials avoid conflicts of interest. Agencies are required to make officials whose decisions could affect “any financial interest” file the disclosures, according to state law.

Local governments often require many of their staff to file these disclosures. In contrast, only one employee of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority — its CEO — files the annual forms, called form 700s, according to an LAist review of public documents.

In September 2022, LAHSA’s then-chief executive officially notified county staff that the agency was required to add more positions to its list of mandated reporters. Those changes were due within 90 days.

But more than two years later, no additional staff have been required to file the forms, according to documents LAist obtained from LAHSA through a public records request.

Among those not on the mandated disclosure list are officials who oversee finance and contractor compliance.

Also not currently required to disclose financial ties on form 700s: LAHSA’s newly hired chief executive strategist who, according to state business filings, owns a consulting business with the leader of one of LAHSA’s largest contractors.

County officials on Tuesday provided a list of 39 types of positions LAHSA has proposed adding as mandated form 700 filers, after LAHSA did not provide a copy following repeated requests from LAist. The undated six-page proposal was approved by LAHSA’s governing commission this October, according to a county spokesperson.

It does not specifically list the strategist role, but it does include such positions as chief financial, staff, programming and operating officers, among other roles. None of the positions proposed to be added have been required to file the forms yet, a step that’s not expected until after county supervisors are scheduled to give final approval to the list in February.

Serious questions about oversight of contractors

LAist’s review of LAHSA’s form 700 filings comes as agency officials face a wave of criticism over their oversight of contractors the agency pays to provide homeless services. Two teams of auditors — separately overseen by the county and by a federal judge — have found the agency failed to both hold contractors accountable and properly monitor their performance.

According to state regulations, every local government in California has to adopt a list establishing which job positions have to file form 700 disclosures. The list — known as a conflict-of-interest code — must include every job involved in decisions that could foreseeably have a significant impact on “any financial interest,” according to the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Hundreds of staff work at LAHSA, which is a joint city-county agency. Many of those staff are involved in oversight, analysis and decisions about more than $700 million in annual taxpayer spending on contracts with homeless service providers.

Local governments often have many staff positions on their lists. The L.A. Housing Department, for example, has fewer staff than LAHSA and lists 72 types of employee jobs required to file — from the general manager down to finance officials, project managers, accountants and compliance analysts.

L.A. Councilmember Monica Rodriguez serves on the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee and has been a vocal critic of LAHSA in recent months. She has called on the city, which sends about $300 million a year to LAHSA, to cut ties with the agency as the county pursues a similar move in the wake of the audit.

“It really is disappointing that what continues to be shown is a lack of transparency for conflicts, for performance of contracts, for data,” Rodriguez said after LAist described its findings.

“I don’t understand what it’s going to take for LAHSA to get the message that they’re a public agency that requires transparency and accountability to the taxpayers and to the governmental agencies that fund them.”

Who is accountable

Responsibility for updating LAHSA’s list falls on its leadership, according to information provided by county spokesperson Elizabeth Marcellino. Every two years, the agency’s chief executive has to file a form with the county certifying whether any changes are needed to who has to file. It was on that form in September 2022 that LAHSA’s then-chief noted more positions needed to be added.

County officials then review proposed changes from LAHSA and bring them before the Board of Supervisors for final approval. Another L.A. County spokesperson, in a statement to LAist, said LAHSA declared changes were needed on the Sept. 30, 2022 form that gave a 90-day deadline. Agency officials made an initial proposal to top county officials nine months later, in June 2023, according to that county spokesperson.

Wendy Greuel, chair of LAHSA’s governing commission, told LAist the agency has been working to add more positions to its conflict-of-interest code. A final vote to implement it is now expected by county supervisors in February, some 28 months after that first acknowledgement that changes were due within 90 days.

“Once approved, we expect it will result in more employees having to complete the form 700,” Greuel wrote in an email to LAist. She said LAHSA’s governing commission approved a proposed list update in October, though it was not attached to the public agenda and agency officials have not provided a copy to LAist after requests over multiple days.

Greuel, who is an L.A. mayoral appointee appointed by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti, and Va Lecia Adams Kellum, LAHSA’s CEO, have not answered why that process has taken more than two years.

Most of that time has been under Adams Kellum, who took the helm in March 2023 after L.A. Mayor Karen Bass chose her for the role.

After LAist emailed the California Fair Political Practices Commission to ask about LAHSA’s list of form 700 filers and the state law requirements, agency officials said they will be looking into it.

Bass and county Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who both sit on LAHSA’s governing commission, haven’t responded to requests made last week for comment through their spokespeople.

Will officials have to file retroactively?

Greuel and Adams Kellum have not responded to an email from LAist asking whether LAHSA positions being added to the list will be required to retroactively file form 700s for past years they were employed by the agency.

A statement from the county's Executive Office of the Board of Supervisors said that office, which is led by Edward Yen, “will not be asking for nor requiring retroactive filings of Form 700,” adding that’s a question for LAHSA.

State law requires certain officials to file form 700s even if their position is not on their agency’s list of who has to file. Anyone in a job position that was created after Jan. 1, 2010 must file the disclosures if their position meets the disclosure criteria set by state law, regardless of whether the position is on the agency’s list, according to a state regulation.

Until their position is added to the list, officials must fill out the forms using the broadest category for what they have to disclose, unless the agency describes in writing why that position should disclose under a more limited category, the regulation says.

LAHSA’s staff size has grown sevenfold over the past decade, according to data posted on Transparent California. It shows 118 staff in 2014, growing to 840 last year after the agency took on a massive growth in responsibility and funding.

What’s actually being proposed

When LAHSA’s governing commission voted in October to approve a new proposed list of who needs to file the disclosures and received a presentation on the process, the proposed code itself was not included in the public agenda documents.

It’s unclear whether the commissioners received a copy of the list before voting to approve it. Greuel and Adams Kellum haven’t responded to an email from LAist asking if they did.

A state law guide from the California Attorney General’s Office says any documents distributed for discussion or approval to bodies like the LAHSA Commission "shall be made available without delay to members of the public."

“There’s no reason why it can’t be done in this day and age. You just post the agenda, you link to the supporting documents,” said David Loy, an attorney and legal director for the First Amendment Coalition.

“There’s no question for me that it’s absolutely best practice for transparency and accountability, that agenda is posted, and every single item is linked,” Loy said.

LAHSA officials haven’t provided LAist a copy of the list the commission approved, despite multiple requests. But county officials did.

LAHSA’s proposal, disclosed by a county spokesperson, includes seven tiers of required disclosure and assigns one or more of those tiers to each of the 39 job categories listed.

The agency's attorneys are Dae “Dan” Kim from the County Counsel’s Office and Catrina Archuleta-Silva from the City Attorney’s Office. LAist sent them emails asking if LAHSA’s current code follows state law.

Kim didn’t respond, and a spokesperson for City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto replied saying the office does not “comment on client communications or legal advice.”

Read LAHSA's proposed list

Conflict of interest code proposal ▶

What the LAHSA CEO has disclosed

Va Lecia Adams Kellum, CEO of Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, at a news briefing at L.A. City Hall in June 2023.

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Gary Coronado

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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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On her form 700s, Adams Kellum discloses spousal income from one of LAHSA’s service provider contractors, where her husband Edward Kellum works as director of operations and compliance. Adams Kellum told LAist in an email that procedures have “ ‘walled me off’ from any involvement in matters concerning” her husband’s employer.

“I am completely recused from matters that involve or impact Upward Bound House,” she wrote.

She and Greuel have not responded to a follow-up question asking about meeting minutes that show LAHSA commissioners granting Adams Kellum the authority to execute contracts with her husband’s employer.

After approving the proposed conflict of interest code on Oct. 30, the LAHSA commission’s next item was to authorize Adams Kellum to enter into a $2.6 million contract with her husband’s employer, among other contracts, according to the meeting agenda. That item was approved, the minutes show.

Greuel, Adams Kellum and her staff have not provided copies of the contracts with Adams Kellum’s husband’s employer, more than a week after LAist began asking.

What we know about the part-time strategist

Kris Freed was a consultant to LAHSA before being hired as the agency’s chief executive strategist on Nov. 1. She said in a LinkedIn post that she would continue consulting for clients in the homeless services industry while in her role at LAHSA, adding that her commitment to them “will remain unwavering and steadfast.”

Contacted by phone, she told LAist none of her clients work in L.A. County. She co-owns a consulting business with the leader of one of LAHSA’s largest service providers, HOPICS, according to its state business filings.

Freed’s role at LAHSA “does not entail oversight of finances or contracting,” said agency spokesperson Paul Rubenstein. “None of her work is in Los Angeles and she suspended her partnership with the head of a service provider for the duration of her time at LAHSA.”

The business partner at HOPICS temporarily stepped away from the consulting business with Freed according to an October agreement Rubenstein provided to LAist. The agreement cited “a conflict of interest” that had been identified from both business partners’ employment. A subsequent state business registration filing states the HOPICS leader continues to co-own the consulting business with Freed.

In her LAHSA executive role, Freed was scheduled to present a housing “Unit Acquisition Strategy Update” last month to county supervisors’ homelessness policy aides, according to the county’s meeting agenda. Among the information in her presentation slides was about housing acquired by HOPICS, the provider led by her consulting business partner. Freed presented the slides at the meeting, according to a county official.

The September job posting for Freed’s part-time executive position at LAHSA stated it would pay up to $322,587 for a maximum of 29 hours per week. The position was open for about a week, according to the posting.

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