Feds Investigating Los Angeles Homeless Industrial | Political News

It’s no secret that there is main grift within the homeless industrial complicated, particularly in California, and eventually it appears like we’re on the street to uncovering the fraud and seeing corrupt bureaucrats perp-walked.

On the heels of a scathing unbiased audit of the City of Los Angeles’ spending on homelessness commissioned by US District Judge David O. Carter, Bill Essayli, the recently-appointed US Attorney for California’s Central District, introduced the formation of the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force, “which will investigate fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption involving funds allocated toward the eradication of homelessness within the seven-county jurisdiction of the Central District of California” and make arrests in the event that they discover that any federal legal guidelines had been damaged.

Essayli issued a assertion principally saying, enough is enough:

“California has spent more than $24 billion over the past five years to address homelessness. But officials have been unable to account for all the expenditures and outcomes, and the homeless crisis has only gotten worse. Taxpayers deserve answers for where and how their hard-earned money has been spent. If state and local officials cannot provide proper oversight and accountability, we will do it for them. If we discover any federal laws were violated, we will make arrests.”

New: recent Trump-appointed US Atty in nation’s most populated district — central CA — @billessayli touring notorious Skid Row with Federal district choose David Carter. Both will now audit/examine the place billions in homeless funding goes in LA & SoCal pic.twitter.com/LpMXLKWXKo

— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) April 7, 2025

The Audit

Most spending on homelessness in Los Angeles County is finished via the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), a joint powers authority funded by each the county and the town. Since the 2017 passage of Measure H LAHSA’s price range “has grown more than seven times over to its current $875 million” a yr.

After receiving the outcomes of the audit he commissioned, Judge Carter referred to as the state of affairs a “slow train wreck,” referred to as the county “the Rocky Horror Picture Show” of homelessness, and threatened to nominate a receiver to supervise spending. That caught the attention of Essayli, who was then a state Assemblyman, who’s long fought for accountability in homelessness spending in Sacramento. So, when Essayli was sworn in as US Attorney about a week after that listening to, it was natural for him to show his consideration to the issue.

Curiously, we now have a progressive NGO to thank for this audit and the highlight on corruption. Here’s why.

In 2020, during the COVID lockdowns, the LA Alliance for Human Rights sued each the City and County of Los Angeles in federal court docket, alleging that the town’s homeless situations violated of state and federal law and asking that the defendants be ordered to supply shelters and “wraparound services” for the homeless. Both the town and county entered settlement agreements with LA Alliance for the town to supply 20,000 beds and take away roughly 10,000 tents and autos from the streets by July 2027, and for the county so as to add 3,000 mental health beds and contribute funding to the beds the town agreed to supply. A federal monitor was appointed to help Judge Carter in overseeing compliance.

Unsurprisingly, regardless of the large inflow of funding, the town is not holding up its finish of the discount, and in late 2024 LA Alliance requested Judge Carter to slap the town with a $6.4 million fantastic. Instead, Judge Carter requested the town to pay for an unbiased audit of the final 4 years of its homelessness spending, and it reluctantly agreed.

Audit Highlights

The whole audit will be learn right here, however the thumbnail is that primary financial accountability and compliance procedures had been utterly absent, conflict-of-interest insurance policies had been completely ignored, and since of siloing there was duplication of spending and energy. For instance:

[Auditors] discovered that, during the Lookback Period, LAHSA didn’t contemporaneously confirm that the service supplier invoices mirrored precise providers supplied on the given location earlier than approving cost. 

And, as LAist reported:

There was “a high level of noncompliance” among the many small quantity of service supplier contracts that had been reviewed, auditors added. And a lack of oversight, they wrote, has “made it challenging” to find out how program funds had been used and “whether they achieved the intended outcomes.”

Auditors additionally revealed that $1.7 million was paid out on a $2.1 million contract to Upward Bound House, the place the husband of LAHSA’s now-former Chief Executive, Va Lecia Adams Kellum, is a high government. Adams Kellum signed the contract and two amendments herself and is listed because the LAHSA administrator for the contract. Obviously, that award was made in violation of ethics guidelines, and auditors discovered that no efficiency experiences had been submitted to LAHSA to justify the disbursement.

Prior to beginning her job as CEO Adams Kellum herself obtained a $60,000 no-bid contract from LAHSA to advise LA Mayor Karen Bass on homelessness points and Bass’ Inside Safe initiative for six weeks (yes, you learn that appropriately, six weeks) in early 2023. She was paid a base wage of $430,000 a yr as CEO of LAHSA, and resigned final week after the LA County Board of Supervisors voted to divest from LAHSA.

We met with @USAO_LosAngeles @billessayli Tuesday hours after he introduced a new activity power that may examine attainable fraud and corruption within homelessness funds throughout Southern California pic.twitter.com/zDL8JRxlWe

— Matthew Seedorff (@MattSeedorff) April 9, 2025

Bass’ Reaction

After Essayli’s announcement, Bass referred to as the Task Force a “distraction” whereas additionally admitting that she is aware of the system is damaged. Bass has been concerned in “addressing homelessness” in Los Angeles for many years, so in mild of that and her function in these do-nothing, no-bid contracts, her phrases ring particularly hole. In an interview with KNX she mentioned:

“We know the system is damaged. This is nothing new. The level is to repair the system, to remodel the system. But having mentioned that, that is going to be a full distraction and disruption, and it may sow doubt amongst the public. And if we’re ever going to get people off the road, we need to remain targeted on that mission, and we completely need to remodel the system.”

She then had the gall to say she anticipated Essayli to work together with her to “correct” the system and never take a look at service suppliers as potential criminals.

What’s Next?

During the March 27 listening to, Judge Carter declined to nominate a receiver as plaintiffs requested, and as an alternative directed LA Mayor Karen Bass and different officers to return up with options to the problems offered within the audit earlier than a May 15 listening to – or else.

“I think as elected officials, you’ve inherited an extraordinarily difficult task. And I imagine you came to court today thinking that hell and brimstone would rain upon you. Quite the opposite. At the end of this, I’m going to be asking if there’s anything that your branch of government can do to resolve the problems that have been presented to you.

. . .

“So unless the two of you [Bass and LA County Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger] can work this out in some way, the court’s going to have to.”

Of course, that’s just relating to the LA Alliance case and Los Angeles County, where 75,000 of the region’s 100,000 homeless people reside. Carter has requested California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s presence at the next hearing, reasoning that if Newsom has time to “blog,” he has time to attend to this issue:

“I want you to get together and call Gavin down here. He has a blog, and he’s busy blogging.”

And, LA County is already making strikes in response to Carter’s considerations, divesting from LAHSA and opting to create their own inner company.

It’s prone to take US Attorney Essayli’s crew a bit longer to get to some conclusions and maybe make arrests, however given how blatant some of the corruption is, it may not take that long.

Stay tuned – that is an subject we will probably be following carefully.

Thanks partly to RedState’s unbiased investigative journalism, corruption and malfeasance by Democrat officers throughout the nation continues to be delivered to mild – and now that President Trump is back within the White House, motion is being taken.

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