Trump admin yanks funding from LA homeless agency amid explosive fraud probe: ‘Necessary step’

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EXCLUSIVE: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 safeguardThe Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which is a member 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 its CEO Gita O� 

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.

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The move puts one of the country’s biggest homelessness bureaucracies under direct federal scrutiny after years of criticism thatbillions have gone into homelessnessprograms 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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A person walking past large piles of trash inside a homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles

A person walks amid large trash piles at a sprawling homeless encampment near East 14th Street in downtown Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept.25, 2025.(Allen J.Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“Suspending LAHSA’s participation in federal government programs is a necessary step in accomplishing that critical mission in Los Angeles,” HUD wrote in the letter.“LAHSA’s failures have been so severe and pervasive that Los Angeles County has withdrawn its funding for the agency, and the City of Los Angeles is considering doing so as well.”

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 infederal fundsunder 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.

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HUD noted in its letter that the judge considered placing LAHSA into receivership as well.

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.

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Homeless encampments lining the boardwalk at Venice Beach in Los Angeles

Homeless encampments line the boardwalk at Venice Beach in Los Angeles amid ongoing concerns about crime and quality of life issues.The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority will conduct its annual point-in-time count to assess the number of unhoused people in the region.(Reuters)

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.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, HUD will fund results, not corrupt failure or the homeless industrial complex,�“Year after year, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were funneled to LAHSA with little accountability.Meanwhile, homelessness skyrocketed.Taxpayers will no longer bankroll an organization that puts its own self-interests ahead of the Americans it was created to serve.”

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 populationin Los Angeles.

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Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who is the vice chair of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, praised the leadership on this issue from HUD Secretary Scott Turner, President Donald Trump and Vance, who serves as the chairman of the fraud task force that was established earlier this year. 

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“Los Angeles didn’t care about helping the homeless, but the Trump Administration does,�“It is unconscionable that Los Angeles has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars that was supposed to be used on housing our nation’s most vulnerable.Instead of providing a roof and care for the homeless, Los Angeles has used these funds to line the pockets of left-wing NGOs.Such a disgrace ends today.”

Los Angeles MayorKaren Bassand Los Angeles officials have pointed to recent homeless-count data as evidence that the crisis has begun to improve, with LAHSA reporting that countywide homelessness fell for a second straight year in 2025 and Bass saying it marked the first time in the city’s recent history that homelessness had declined two years in a row.

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But the numbers still showed more than72,000 people experiencing homelessnessacross Los Angeles County, and critics have continued to argue that modest declines do not erase years of runaway spending, encampments and repeated audit findings thatthe region’s homelessness system has failedto adequately track whether taxpayer dollars are producing results. 

Hotels in Los Angeles California with city skyline in background

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass advanced to a runoff in her bid to win reelection as Mayor of Los Angeles(Getty Images)

The federal action from HUD comes after Los Angeles city and county officials had already begun backing away from LAHSA, the Associated Press reported last year.

The city council moved to explore bypassing the agency and contracting directly with providers, while the county moved to redirect hundreds of millions of dollars in annual homelessness funding away from LAHSA and into a new county department, citing the need for stronger accountability after a series of audits.

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“HUD cannot ignore LAHSA’s wanton mismanagement of public funds. HUD’s mission is to reduce the plague of homelessness in America,” the agency’s letter to LAHSA leadership on Thursday stated.“Turning over billions of dollars from American taxpayers to an organization under investigation and suspected of gross misuse of federal funding and “obvious fraud” does nothing to reduce homelessness.Indeed, diverting dollars from worthy programs to LAHSA merely makes the homeless crisis worse.”

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