Urban Alchemy said a portion of the site was closed in 2024 because LAHSA and the city of L.A. instructed it to do so.<\/p>\n
Now that the program is closing down entirely, city and LAHSA officials are scrambling to transfer remaining residents to other shelters.<\/p>\n
People living at the site first learned of the impending evictions late last week, according to multiple residents interviewed by LAist. One of them, Miles Johnson, said he\u2019d been living there with his girlfriend for 10 months.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aWe just got moved,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just got put out. All our stuff is still in bags.\u201d <\/p>\n
LAHSA says it has been working to secure alternative shelter placements for 25 people who were living at the Safe Sleep Village. <\/p>\n
Ahmad Chapman, a spokesperson for LAHSA, said the agency expects to make housing offers to all remaining participants before the closure.<\/p>\n
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The main entrance to the Lincoln Avenue Safe Sleep Village, located in a parking lot in South L.A. <\/p>\n
Residents displaced<\/p>\n
The Lincoln Safe Sleep Village is located near the intersection of South Central Avenue and East 25th Street in a parking lot next to the historic Lincoln Theater. It\u2019s in Councilmember Curren Price\u2019s ninth district.<\/p>\n
A South L.A. nonprofit called the Coalition for Responsible Community Development purchased the property in 2020 using state Project HomeKey funds. It has plans<\/a> to build a 60-unit affordable housing complex there soon. <\/p>\n Price\u2019s office told LAist this week that news of Urban Alchemy ending its contract to run the site came as a surprise. <\/p>\n \u201cUntil this recent news, our expectation was to transition any remaining residents by the end of this year,\u201d Price\u2019s communications director Angelina Valencia-Dumarot told LAist. \u201cThis sudden change disrupts that plan and creates uncertainty for unhoused neighbors currently at the site.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday afternoon, city of L.A. crisis response teams were transporting several residents and their belongings from the Safe Sleep Village to other nearby open shelter beds. <\/p>\n \u201cThey dumped me off at a place and I almost didn’t get a bed,\u201d James Rudy told LAist. \u201cThis was all last minute. I was afraid they were going to screw me.\u201d <\/p>\n He said he was forced to throw away most of his clothing and belongings during the move. Rudy is now staying at a shelter 5 miles away called Testimonial Community Love Center, where clients are required to leave each day between 8:45 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., he said, adding that he preferred the tent village. <\/p>\n \u201cThe place we left wasn\u2019t that bad.\u201d Rudy said. \u201cI was in a tent, but at least I was able to do what I needed to do. Here it\u2019s not really practical.\u201d<\/p>\n Tracy Wallace told LAist on Tuesday that her husband had been transported to another shelter, and she was waiting to reunite with him there. <\/p>\n \u201cWe’re gonna be apart, not sleeping together,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause one side is for men and the other side is for women, but that’s still fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Urban Alchemy said it was making former residents\u2019 well-being a top priority. The organization estimated that, as of this Wednesday, there were seven residents still waiting on alternative placements.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we wind down our operations at this site, we appreciate the efforts underway to help guests move to safe, supportive places.\u201d spokesperson Jess Montejano said in a statement.<\/p>\n Urban Alchemy told LAist that five of its 15 workers were laid off this week. Ten have been transferred to work in other Urban Alchemy projects, and the organization is working to connect the laid-off employees to other jobs, Urban Alchemy said.<\/p>\n The nonprofit bills itself as a social enterprise, hiring mostly formerly incarcerated people.<\/p>\n Some displaced residents from the Lincoln Safe Sleep Village were transported to alternative shelters on Tuesday. <\/p>\n Cutting ties\u00a0with LAHSA<\/p>\n LAHSA had contracted with Urban Alchemy to operate the Safe Sleep Village since 2022. Annual funding for the site was reduced from $2.3 million last budget year to $1.2 million this year.<\/p>\n The latter amount was supposed to pay for 46 tent spaces. But Urban Alchemy said the contract didn\u2019t cover its fixed costs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to provide the staff no matter what, per the terms of the contract, whether it\u2019s one person or 46,\u201d an Urban Alchemy representative said. \u201cWe tried to work with [LAHSA] often, to try to find a way for it to pencil, and it just wasn\u2019t the case.\u201d<\/p>\n Urban Alchemy said LAHSA \u201carbitrarily changed its funding formula,\u201d resulting in the nonprofit losing nearly $1 million on the contract. <\/p>\n The nonprofit first notified LAHSA on Dec. 22 that it planned to terminate the contract, both parties confirmed to LAist. <\/p>\n According to LAHSA payment records<\/a>, Urban Alchemy spent about 69% of its budget on personnel for the 2022-23 budget year. Payroll records for February 2024 showed an average of eight staff members working at the site around-the-clock.<\/p>\n Last Thursday, one month after notifying LAHSA about the closure, Urban Alchemy\u2019s director of operations in L.A. emailed city and LAHSA staff, demanding help rehousing residents. <\/p>\n \u201cGiven the urgency of the closure date, ongoing uncertainty places guests and frontline staff in an untenable position,\u201d Tim Kornegay wrote in a Jan. 22 email. \u201cLeadership action is critically needed now to prevent avoidable harm.\u201d<\/p>\n The next day, LAHSA representatives told Urban Alchemy about a transfer plan for the people still living at that Safe Sleep site, the agency said.<\/p>\n Early this week, Mayor Karen Bass\u2019s office and Price\u2019s office told LAist they were aware of the situation and supported LAHSA\u2019s work to prevent people from winding up with nowhere to go.<\/p>\n City of Los Angeles crisis teams helped transport residents to new shelter locations before the closure. <\/p>\n A federal judge weighs in <\/p>\n Months before Urban Alchemy announced it would shut down the South L.A. site, questions about its funding and capacity made their way to a federal judge.<\/p>\n The situation emerged as the city of L.A. is under a court order to provide more shelter for unhoused Angelenos and LAHSA is under scrutiny for having failed to properly manage hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with service providers like Urban Alchemy.<\/p>\n Last year, LAHSA paid the nonprofit $2.3 million based on inaccurate data about the site\u2019s capacity, records show. On paper, Urban Alchemy had 88 available beds on site. In reality, half that many were available. <\/p>\n Officials from the Homeless Services Authority had instructed the nonprofit in April 2024 to close down operations in one of two converted parking lots, according to emails reviewed by LAist. Dozens of plywood tent platforms were removed, but LAHSA did not update the capacity data or funding for the site until more than one year later. <\/p>\n The city of L.A. and LAHSA continued to report outdated capacity data about the South L.A. tent program to a judge overseeing a settlement that requires the city to open 13,000 new shelter beds by next June.<\/p>\n In November, U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter described the situation as \u201cobvious fraud.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n Michele Martinez, a special master appointed to help enforce the terms of the settlement, visited the site in June and found that it appeared to be operating at half capacity. She then tried to verify the number of beds available at the site with city officials, but did not get an answer, Carter said at a November court hearing<\/a>. <\/p>\n The city of L.A. corrected the information reported to the judge after one member of LAHSA\u2019s governing board, the LAHSA Commission, visited the site and reported what he saw there.<\/p>\n Commissioner Justin Szlasa said he had voted to approve millions in funding for Urban Alchemy last year with the understanding that the South L.A. space could accommodate 88 people. But when he visited in May 2025, he saw that half of it was closed.<\/p>\n Szlasa filed a public records request with LAHSA in September to obtain the contracts and payment details for the Urban Alchemy site, but he has not yet received a full response, he said. <\/p>\n He told LAist he\u2019s been asking for an evaluation of the contract to be put on the LAHSA Commission\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n Urban Alchemy does not have any remaining contracts with LAHSA, but the organization runs a tent village in Culver City and has some other contracts with the city of L.A. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769724488_944_.jpeg\")
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