Housing & Homelessness

A woman with medium skin tone with short curly light brown hair wearing black-rimmed glasses and a black jacket with the seal of Los Angeles stands behind a podium speaking into a microphone.

Internal audits help protect taxpayer money. LAHSA hasn’t finished any in years

LAHSA also has failed multiple external audits in recent years, which have found the agency has neglected to properly track spending meant to shelter and house people.

Homelessness rises in Long Beach for second year in a row

A woman bends down while holding a cell phone in her hands. She is talking to two men, seated on a stone wall. In between the men is a white garbage bac with red ties.

SoCal cities made landlords pay when rent hikes pushed out tenants. Then courts stepped in

A "for rent" sign hangs near a discarded mattresses outside an apartment building in the city of Los Angeles.

In failing to plan for new housing, Costa Mesa finds itself in state’s legal crosshairs

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LA used to jail people for sleeping on the street. A case changed the city’s lens on homelessness

A digital illustration of photos and shapes depicting a blanket on a bench, signage, and an encampment.

More Stories

Federal health care dollars are helping to house homeless Californians. Trump could stop that

Gov. Newsom launched a program that uses Medi-Cal to help homeless Californians access housing. Trump could end it in 2026.
More Californians are freezing to death. Experts point to more older homeless people

A growing number of people — many of them older and homeless — are freezing to death during winter.
Nearly a quarter of city-funded shelter beds for unhoused people in LA went unused, audit finds

Additionally, less than a fifth of people who did enter interim housing were able to secure permanent housing, which the audit said is “woefully inadequate.”
Facing need for more housing, LA's City Council votes to keep new apartments away from homeowners

The city needs to rezone for more than a quarter-million new homes. Elected leaders decided to block new housing in single-family neighborhoods.
Orange County has no plans to open temporary emergency winter shelters despite an increase in homelessness

In recent years, county officials have run into resistance from cities that are reluctant to host shelters.
LA officials say more city staff is needed to target thousands of illegal vacation rentals

The city estimates 7,500 homes are being illegally rented through online booking platforms. Here’s how they plan to crack down before the Olympics.
Landlords are using AI to raise rents — and California cities are leading the pushback

California and federal prosecutors have accused software company RealPage of enriching itself ”at the expense of renters who pay inflated prices.”
Busing people out of homelessness: How California’s relocation programs really work

Many California cities offer their homeless residents one-way bus tickets to other places.
Appeals court allows VA to delay new housing at West LA campus

With a stay now granted by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, work on any new housing will be put on ice until April.
New leader of LA homeless programs is out following questions about her oversight in OC during Andrew Do scandal

Before her time at L.A.’s homeless services agency, Lilly Simmering oversaw a county government department in Orange County that greenlit millions of taxpayer dollars to a nonprofit now embroiled in a fraud scandal.
LA County supervisors vote to explore cutting homeless services agency’s budget, creating new department

An audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found late payments and inadequate monitoring of contracts.
For LA council member, new homeless services audit was ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’

L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez wants to pull funding from LAHSA. Big question: Would the city do a better job overseeing homeless services?

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Housing & Homelessness