Skid Row Housing Receiver Resigns After City Says He Mishandled The Job

L.A. city leaders succeeded this week in ousting the man they put in charge of Skid Row’s biggest provider of homes for unhoused people.

Mark Adams resigned Thursday as the Skid Row Housing Trust receiver, during a court hearing before Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff.

"It seems to me that maybe a fresh start is the way to go," Beckloff said, according to Courthouse News Service.

Kevin Singer and his company Receivership Specialists is replacing Adams, at the request of City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto.

“I wish Kevin and the project nothing but the best of luck,” Adams said in a statement to LAist.

“The most important outcome is helping the residents of Skid Row receive safe, sustainable living.”

City officials say 1,500 people, many of whom were previously unhoused, are at risk in the housing trust’s properties, after years of neglect that have left many apartments unsafe to live in.

The backstory

The judge put Adams in charge of the properties in early April at the request of Feldstein Soto, who praised him at the time as the most experienced person for the job.

But that support for Adams imploded in recent weeks, after Feldstein Soto said Adams made a series of “unforced errors.”

The worst one, the city attorney has said, was when a company Adams hired wrongfully told 451 tenants they’d be evicted.

Adams called those notices “a flub up” in an interview with LAist. But the city attorney says they were unacceptable. The notices were later rescinded.

“That kind of error visited upon people who are incredibly vulnerable — who have no place to turn, and who show up at their door and are faced with a three-day notice to quit or pay rent — is completely unacceptable,” Feldstein Soto told city councilmembers earlier this week.

In moving to oust Adams, the city attorney also cited him not providing the city with financial transparency reports that were required, and being far behind in fixing fire safety issues in the buildings.

She has acknowledged not fully vetting Adams’ background, which the LA Times and LAist have reported includes multiple judges finding problems with his past receiverships – including major overbilling for his company’s services.

City puts forward $10 million loan

To incentivize the judge to replace him, city officials announced a plan late last week to offer a low interest $10 million loan to help fix the buildings – on the condition that Adams is replaced.

Adams blasted city officials in a Monday court filing, saying they’ve sabotaged his ability to repair the buildings by being able to loan $10 million all along, but not offering to lend it unless he’s replaced.

“Candidly, the City’s actions may end up costing lives due to the absence of critical security vendors, and additional funding needed for imminent repairs (that the City simultaneously demands be completed with deadlines for compliance despite no funding to complete them),” Adams wrote in the filing.

He said city officials were trying to distract from their own failures to prevent the housing trust’s collapse, despite city housing officials knowing for years that the buildings were falling apart.

“[The] regulatory failures that led to the financial collapse of the Skid Row Housing Trust long preceded this receivership and lay squarely at the doorstep of the Housing Department,” Adams wrote.