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WESTSIDE - The dysfunction of LAHSA, more commonly known as the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, should have been abolished years ago as their inability to govern has been obvious.
Except for maybe the Mayor Karen Bass and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, no one thinks it solves anything.
With hundreds of millions of dollars wasted, The LA BOS cut the financial chord of this white elephant that was headed by the personal choice of Bass, who wound up resigning in disgrace and under a cloud of acute financial mismanagement and politics as usual.
Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum resigned as CEO of the LAHSA last month amid growing scrutiny over financial mismanagement and ethical concerns. Her resignation followed the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors' decision to reallocate approximately $350 million in annual homelessness funding from LAHSA to a newly established county department. This move was prompted by audits revealing reckless spending, inadequate record-keeping, delayed invoice payments, and unaccounted cash advances totaling $50.8 million to service providers.
A significant controversy involved Adams Kellum signing a $2.1 million contract with Upward Bound House, a nonprofit where her husband held a senior position. Despite an August 2023 directive from the LAHSA Commission excluding her from such contracts due to the conflict of interest, she proceeded to authorize the agreement months later. In other instances, she signed contracts with her husband's employer, raising further ethical concerns .
And despite all the reckless spending and governmental incompetence, homelessness trends during her tenure, LAHSA "self-reported" a miniscule decrease in the unhoused population from 75,518 in 2023 to 75,312 in 2024, marking a 0.3% difference or just 206 individuals.
In response to these failures, the U.S. Attorney's Office launched the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force to investigate potential misuse of federal funds designated for homelessness services in Southern California.
The real question now is what will be done to permanently abolish this white elephant that is nothing but become a furnace for the burning of tax dollars?
As of the 2023–2024 fiscal year, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) operates with the following key figures:
LAHSA's annual budget is approximately $875 million, sourced from both the City and County of Los Angeles. This funding supports a range of services aimed at addressing homelessness, including shelter, food programs, and other social services.
Number of Employees:
In 2023, LAHSA employed 835 individuals. The agency's workforce has expanded significantly over the years, with the number of employees increasing from 118 in 2014 to 840 in 2023.
As of 2023, Va Lecia Adams Kellum served as the Chief Executive Officer of LAHSA until her resignation last month. Her total compensation for the year amounted to $338,240.73, which includes base salary, benefits, and other forms of compensation.
The resignation of Va Lecia Adams Kellum as CEO of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) marks a significant turning point in the agency's future. Her departure follows mounting scrutiny over LAHSA's financial management and operational effectiveness. Recent audits have revealed serious issues within LAHSA, including lax accounting practices, failure to reclaim millions in cash advances, and inadequate contract monitoring.
For example, A November 2024 audit by the Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller found that LAHSA had recovered only $2.5M of $50.8 million in cash advances from the 2017–18 fiscal year, with $8 million still outstanding from advances made between 2016 and 2023!
The restructuring of LAHSA is part of a broader effort to overhaul how Los Angeles addresses homelessness.
But isn't it too little and way too late?
Given the consistent, failed longevity of this agency, its incompetent and reckless leadership, isn't this the time to abolish what does not work and seek broad oversight and intervention from Sacramento?
One proposal includes creating a new county department to centralize homeless services and reduce LAHSA's role to functions mandated by the federal government, such as maintaining a homeless database and conducting the annual point-in-time count .
The Los Angeles City Council is also considering bypassing LAHSA to contract directly with homeless service providers.
Does searching for another alleged "service provider" the solution LA truly needs?
Doubtful.
While these changes reflect growing dissatisfaction with LAHSA's performance and a desire for more effective and accountable management of homelessness services, isn't radial change truly needed with a homelessness czar whose mandate should be to end the failed status quo and fire those responsible for this horrendous mess and failure ?
Why hasn't a single employee outside of Kellum herself been removed, terminated or reprimanded for this colossal waste of time, energy and ability to get anything productive done?
For the future of LAHSA hinges on the outcomes of ongoing audits and the proposed restructuring efforts, who will be legally accountable for this embarrassment of governmental embarrassment?
In the meantime, the leadership vacuum left by Kellum's resignation presents an opportunity for new leadership to steer the agency—or its successor—toward more effective and transparent management of homelessness services in Los Angeles.
Is the answer to resuscitate this rotting corpse?
For LAHSA is a rudderless Titanic, that needs to be sunk once and for all to be prevented from further financial waste, fraud and abuse.
For until those responsible for this unprecedented crisis in competence are held accountable, nothing will change.
A wholesale firing of the entire management team must be replaced. For the change in management of just one is not enough, but an insult to all residents, especially those who relied on their services were robbed by this explosive waste of funds and resources.
Cutting off the head of a dead fish will change nothing.
A new, immediate and independent approach to solving homelessness must be first, not managing or enabling the current failed approach and bureaucracy.
Ending homelessness must be the only real goal and objective.
(Nick Antonicello is a thirty-two-year resident of Venice who covers the current encampment and RV crisis in that neighborhood. Antonicello served as a legislative aide in Bergen NJ, the state's largest county, as well as a state staffer to the New Jersey General Assembly.)
