A multi-million dollar contract tied to homelessness services in Long Beach is under intense scrutiny after a city audit uncovered serious concerns about oversight, documentation and accountability.<\/p>\n
In an exclusive interview, Long Beach City Auditor Laura Doud detailed what she describes as systemic breakdowns within the city\u2019s Homeless Bureau \u2014 issues that may have made it difficult to track how tens of millions of taxpayer dollars were spent.<\/p>\n
The investigation centers on more than $69 million allocated between 2020 and 2025 to address homelessness. Of that total, $24.6 million went to a nonprofit shelter operator known as \u201cFirst to Serve.\u201d According to Doud, her audit uncovered troubling gaps in the organization\u2019s documentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was missing information from some documentation,\u201d Doud said. \u201cAnd in some cases, there was no documentation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those findings raise a critical question still under investigation: whether the city received the services it paid for. Doud said that determination remains part of an ongoing audit and declined to comment on whether the case has been referred for criminal investigation.<\/p>\n
When contacted, a public relations firm representing \u201cFirst to Serve\u201d said the nonprofit had recently learned of \u201callegations of irregularities connected to a former employee.\u201d The organization said it is \u201cfully cooperating with (its) partners in government as they conduct their own investigation\u201d\u2026 while conducting its own internal review.<\/p>\n
Doud emphasized that \u201cFirst to Serve\u201d is not the only contractor under scrutiny, confirming that at least one additional provider is also being examined.<\/p>\n
The audit also points to missed warning signs within the city itself. Doud said some red flags, such as the nonprofit listing a residential property in South Los Angeles as its business address, should have prompted earlier concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be a red flag for us as well,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n
The PR firm later told us the address is an administrative office and re-entry facility. NBCLA wasn\u2019t able to immediately verify that.<\/p>\n
Questions about the contractor had surfaced publicly before the contract was terminated. During a November 2025 City Council meeting, councilmembers Tunua Thrash-Ntuk and Megan Kerr raised concerns about \u201ccustomer service issues\u201d and sought further analysis from Homeless Bureau Director Paul Duncan before approving continued funding.<\/p>\n
Still, the contract remained in place until it was ultimately terminated behind closed doors and announced on March 31, roughly four months after Doud raised concerns with city officials.<\/p>\n
The controversy comes amid broader challenges for Long Beach\u2019s homelessness response. The Homeless Bureau has faced criticism over several high-profile missteps, including a failed tiny home project that cost $2.9 million and ongoing concerns about conditions in shelters, where more than 60 deaths have been reported between 2021-24.<\/p>\n
Despite years of investment, homelessness in Long Beach continues to rise. Point-in-time counts show the number of unhoused residents increased from 2,034 in 2020 to nearly 3,600 in 2025 \u2014 a surge of more than 76%.<\/p>\n
The rate decreased slightly in 2024 by 2%, but increase 6.5% in 2025.<\/p>\n
Doud acknowledged that stronger oversight could have prevented some of the current issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I think the city does need to do a better job,\u201d she said when asked whether the problems should have been caught sooner.<\/p>\n
City officials said new safeguards are now being implemented, including stricter invoice reviews and improved verification processes before payments are approved.<\/p>\n
However, key questions remain particularly around accountability. Doud said clearer answers are expected once her audit is completed later this summer.<\/p>\n
Until then, the case continues to raise concerns about how public funds are managed and whether Long Beach\u2019s broader strategy to combat homelessness is delivering results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A multi-million dollar contract tied to homelessness services in Long Beach is under intense scrutiny after a city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1493,131,133,132],"class_list":["post-285723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-homelessness","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}