The organization that has been the front line of the Los Angeles city and county response to homelessness for more than 30 years is fighting for its survival in a U.S. court battle over a Trump administration attempt to cut its access to hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority is asking the court to block a federal government suspension of its role as the administrator for about $240 million in funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.<\/p>\n
HUD has launched an inspector general investigation of alleged misconduct at the agency and suspended it from procuring federal funds while the investigation is underway.<\/p>\n
Though the scope of the suspension is not clear, LAHSA has concluded that, in addition to ending its role as administrator of federal grants, HUD is suspending some of its principal responsibilities: conducting the annual homeless count, maintaining the homeless database and managing the system for matching homeless people to housing vacancies.<\/p>\n
Those losses would reduce LAHSA, already depleted by the withdrawal of county funding that made up more than a third of its budget, to a shell of the $845-million agency that had ballooned over the last decade with local sales tax dollars approved by county voters.<\/p>\n
LAHSA, formed in 1993 as part of the settlement of litigation between the city and county, grew dramatically after 2016 when city voters approved a $1.2-billion homeless housing bond and the following year county voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax for homeless services, including in the growing inventory of supportive housing. In addition to managing contracts for more than 100 homeless service agencies, LAHSA fields teams of outreach workers. <\/p>\n
As it has grown, LAHSA has been buffeted by increasing accusations of waste and inefficiency. An audit of city homeless programs<\/a> ordered by U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter zeroed in on services provided by LAHSA as disjointed and lacking adequate data systems and financial controls to monitor contracts for compliance and performance.<\/p>\n Carter has scheduled an Aug. 6 hearing on LAHSA\u2019s request for an injunction stopping the HUD suspension.<\/p>\n He ordered the two sides to meet in hopes of preserving the status quo until he rules. But talks broke down late last week<\/a> when HUD issued a notice of intent to require dozens of homeless services contractors in Los Angeles to apply directly to the federal agency for the new funding cycle rather than pooling their applications through LAHSA, as has been the practice.<\/p>\n LAHSA responded Tuesday by sending service providers a notice urging them to ignore the HUD notice.<\/p>\n \u201cLAHSA is actively continuing its lawsuit and is challenging this administrative overreach in court,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n In court papers, LAHSA\u2019s attorneys argue that the suspension is a pretext by the Trump administration to eliminate local discretion in pursuit of the president\u2019s 2025 Executive Order \u201cembracing a new policy focused on \u2018ending crime and disorder\u2019 on the streets by prioritizing criminal enforcement, drug treatment, institutionalization and civil commitment of the mentally ill.\u201d<\/p>\n HUD dismissed that claim as \u201can exercise in rhetoric, speculation, and dramatic hyperbole, not law.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHUD fully explained why it decided now was the time to suspend LAHSA, and that LAHSA dislikes the given reasons is no license to second-guess the agency\u2019s determinations,\u201d its opposition brief said.<\/p>\n LAHSA has painted a dire picture of the harm the suspension would cause and argued that Trump\u2019s maneuvers to overhaul homelessness spending is causing more than a dozen of its subcontractors, including domestic violence shelters, to go months without being reimbursed for their work.<\/p>\n \u201cThese organizations are soon likely to face an urgent lack of funds that may threaten their ability to continue providing critical services to the unhoused under HUD\u2019s suspension notice,\u201d LAHSA\u2019s complaint said.<\/p>\n Growing tension between LAHSA and the Trump administration boiled over on June 11<\/a> when HUD sent the agency a 13-page suspension letter citing \u201cLAHSA\u2019s repeated false statements and its irresponsible actions and failures, including its lack of financial management, internal controls, and safeguards against conflicts of interest,\u201d as justification for barring its participation in federal procurement pending an investigation by HUD\u2019s Office of Inspector General. <\/p>\n HUD cited past inspector general reports, audits by the city and county that faulted LAHSA management, news reports about conflicts of interests and a federal judge\u2019s in-court commentary on \u201cobvious fraud\u201d in a program administered by LAHSA.<\/p>\n