A top Trump agency is cutting off funding to the Los Angeles agency responsible for coordinating billions in homelessness spending after accusing it of “obvious fraud,” “wanton mismanagement” and repeated failures to safeguard taxpayer dollars, Fox News Digital has learned.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), part of the White House fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance, is immediately suspending the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s (LAHSA) federal funding while HUD’s inspector general investigates potential offenses by the agency and its leadership, according to a letter sent to LAHSA’s board Chair Wendy Greuel and CEO Gita O’Neill, which was obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital.
The letter detailed conflicts of interest, financial mismanagement, fraud, lack of oversight and more from the homelessness agency, which has faced efforts by the city and county to take it over.
The move puts one of the country’s biggest homelessness bureaucracies under direct federal scrutiny after years of criticism that billions have gone into homelessness programs in Los Angeles while the crisis remains entrenched on the streets.
LAHSA receives funding at the city, county, state and federal level, with the group getting nearly $1 billion from just the federal government since 2021, according to HUD.
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LAHSA’s former top executive, Va Lecia Adams Kellum, resigned last year after she was found to have been a party to directing $2.1 million in federal funds under LAHSA’s control to her husband’s Santa Monica-based nonprofit employer.
HUD says a federal judge last year also concluded that LAHSA had committed “obvious fraud” after it allegedly kept requesting funding for an 88-bed shelter even though it knew the shelter was operating at roughly half capacity.
HUD noted in its letter that the judge considered placing LAHSA into receivership as well.
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LAHSA’s inability to verify the existence of nearly 2,300 housing sites for which it was responsible is another recent issue that has plagued the homelessness provider, according to HUD, which said 70% of the contracts for those sites did not disclose any expenses over the prior year.
Public audits of LAHSA, meanwhile, found a pattern of routinely paying service providers late and poor record keeping preventing it from monitoring contracts, including $5 million in cash advances sent to five different service providers, according to The Associated Press. In November 2024, the City Controller’s Office found that LAHSA failed to spend $513 million in public funds budgeted in fiscal year 2024, blaming a lack of staff and old technology, according to HUD.
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Other audits concluded that LAHSA’s poor record keeping made it unable to accurately identify or calculate how well its spending has been benefiting the homeless population in Los Angeles.
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The post Trump Administration Yanks Funding From LA Homeless Agency Amid Explosive Fraud Probe: ‘Necessary Step’ appeared first on American Renaissance.
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