The House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency asked Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to testify about what it describes as waste, fraud and mismanagement at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and requested nearly seven years of documents by September 14; Bass's office said she would not be available. The LAHSA Commission last week removed audit committee chair Justin Szlasa, who had pressed the agency to finish an audit of $7 million in unspent federal grants. HUD placed a notice titled "Intent to Reorganize HUD and Revise Headquarters and Field Operating Model" on Federal Register public inspection Friday, then withdrew it before publication; as of this morning the First Circuit had not ruled on HUD's motion to stay the Continuum of Care NOFO vacatur. The Portland City Council voted 12–0 to begin development negotiations with Albina Vision Trust for city-owned land next to the Moda Center, and the AP reported more than 1,700 vacant affordable units in Portland, per the Portland Housing Bureau, a 7.5% vacancy rate. Publishing after the Labor Day weekend, the national section runs two items.
The Portland City Council voted 12–0 Thursday to approve beginning negotiations with Albina Vision Trust, a Black-led redevelopment nonprofit, over city-owned property next to the Moda Center that currently consists of two parking lots. The trust's master plan calls for housing, commercial storefronts, public plazas and riverfront access across a 94-acre section of Lower Albina; executive director Winta Yohannes and Black business owners and developers testified in support before the vote.
The vote comes as Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon seeks nearly $600 million in public funding for a Moda Center renovation, with a binding council vote on the arena deal expected in December 2026.
Associated Press · 2026-09-07 · on Portland affordable-unit vacancies amid a shortage for the lowest-income renters
The AP reported, in a story datelined Portland, that units priced for renters at 60–80% of area median income are sitting vacant in several cities while the lowest-income renters cannot find housing. The Portland Housing Bureau counted more than 1,700 vacant affordable units in the city, an overall vacancy rate of 7.5%, most of them priced for renters at 60% of area median income. The National Low Income Housing Coalition counts about 4 million affordable rental units available for the country's 11 million extremely low-income renter households.
The article puts a healthy vacancy rate at around 5%.
East Portland News · on Sharon Meieran's homeless-spending critique at a Lents neighborhood meeting
Multnomah County chair candidate Sharon Meieran told the Lents Neighborhood Livability Association's August meeting that the county's homeless services budget grew from $50 million to $400 million annually over ten years while homelessness worsened threefold, and that the county's $25 million deflection center has not, by her account, transitioned a single person into treatment in two years of operation. 4D Recovery executive director Tony Vezina told the same meeting that Housing First policies amount to what he called "toxic empathy" and advocated a "Recovery First" approach.
Meieran represented District 1 on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners from January 2017 to January 2025; the race for chair also includes Julia Brim-Edwards and Shannon Singleton.
The House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, chaired by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), sent Mayor Karen Bass a letter asking her to testify at a Washington hearing on what it describes as waste, fraud and mismanagement at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, and requested nearly seven years of documents by September 14. Bass's attorney David Michaelson replied that she would not be available, said unsheltered homelessness in L.A. has fallen 11% since 2022, and said city leaders are preparing a plan to make the city the "sole or primary administrator" of its homeless services. LAHSA's suspension by HUD kept it from filing an August 26 application for $240 million in federal funding on behalf of 140 homeless services organizations.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter issued a preliminary injunction against HUD's suspension of LAHSA in August; HUD has filed papers indicating it will appeal.
LAist · 2026-09-04 · on the removal of LAHSA audit committee chair Justin Szlasa
The LAHSA Commission approved new committee assignments last week that removed Commissioner Justin Szlasa as chair of the three-member audit committee; commission chair Stephanie Graves, a Bass appointee, recommended the change and told LAist it was her "prerogative" without explaining her reasoning. Szlasa, an appointee of county Supervisor Kathryn Barger, had pressed LAHSA to finish a years-long audit of its failure to spend $7 million in federal grants; his replacement as audit chair is Charles Stringer, a Bass appointee.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter earlier called the camping-site capacity payments Szlasa identified "obvious fraud."
Neighbors of an encampment at 42nd Avenue South near Beacon Avenue South organized to press the city for action after drone imagery showed the site growing from a handful of tents and RVs in June 2025 to several acres spanning multiple private and public properties. Unified Care Team interim director Lee Momon told residents by email that the encampment "is ranked as a lower priority than other camps in the city" and committed to bi-weekly trash cleanup and outreach while a resolution plan is developed, without giving a timeline.
The city opened a tiny home village adjacent to the site in 2022.
West Seattle Blog · 2026-09-04 · on Roxhill Park encampment removal outcomes
Seattle's Unified Care Team released its figures on the August 28 clearance of the Roxhill Park encampment: 27 people were living there at the time of the resolution, and the team's six visits between August 1 and August 28 produced three shelter referrals. Crews removed approximately 21,000 pounds of debris on August 28 and 29.
The encampment was cleared less than a week and a half after a man was shot in the park.
The Banner reported that Baltimore's Division of Homeownership and Housing Preservation — the office that placed Teonna Brown and her six children in an East Baltimore rowhouse later condemned — had been under a fraud investigation since the spring, and that three employees were terminated in mid-July. Emails obtained by the Banner show police found one person believed to be involved in criminal activity, with the case referred to the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office and policy violations referred to the inspector general; Mayor Brandon Scott acknowledged city staff failed to follow up with the family after placement.
The housing department said the rowhouse's condemnation was solely for a gas line improperly split between the furnace and dryer.
FOX45 News · 2026-09-02 · on Baltimore's shelter-hotel maintenance contracts
Spotlight on Maryland reported Baltimore paid contractor Old Town Hotel Group about $4 million on a first maintenance contract and nearly $2 million on a second for two downtown hotels used as homeless shelters, while an August inspector general report described mold, poor ventilation and mushrooms growing through carpeting found in a September 2025 inspection of the Sleep Inn at 301 Fallsway. The Mayor's Office of Homeless Services said the contractor resolved the reported issues and a new vendor took over in July; Continuum of Care chair Nico Sanders said testing covered six rooms, three of which showed elevated mold spore levels, all at the Sleep Inn.
The city bought the two hotels in 2024 for $15.2 million in federal COVID funds and plans to convert both to permanent supportive housing, with construction tentatively beginning in mid-2027.
The Atlanta Regional Commission unveiled Housing Forward 2035, the first regional housing plan for the 11-county Atlanta area, setting a target of 367,000 new homes by 2035 and calling for a four-fold increase in affordable home production for households earning under $55,000 a year. The plan cites a shortage of more than 200,000 affordable homes for lower-income households and calls for preserving 104,000 existing affordable units at risk of loss; the commission lacks zoning authority, so the plan depends on voluntary adoption by member governments.
ARC's analysis found current market trends on track to meet 25% of housing demand from households earning less than $55,000 a year; formal adoption is expected in late 2026 or early 2027.
HUD posted no news after September 3, the First Circuit had not ruled on HUD's stay motion in NAEH v. HUD as of this morning, and no new federal data releases fell in the holiday window; the section runs two items.
Federal Register · 2026-09-04 · on a HUD reorganization notice withdrawn after filing, before publication
HUD placed a one-page notice titled "Intent to Reorganize HUD and Revise Headquarters and Field Operating Model" on Federal Register public inspection on September 4, then sent the Office of the Federal Register a letter requesting its withdrawal; the notice was never published, and the public-inspection PDF now reads "THIS DOCUMENT WAS WITHDRAWN." Per the Federal Register's editorial note, the withdrawn document remains on public inspection through close of business on September 8, and copies of the withdrawal letter or the document can be requested from the Office of the Federal Register.
HUD published a separate notice on June 24 of its intent to consolidate its Kansas City, Missouri field office into the Kansas City, Kansas regional office, and GAO has an ongoing review of HUD's proposed field office reorganization.
Capital & Main via Times of San Diego · 2026-09-06 · on a California bill barring housing-authority work requirements and time limits
The California Legislature passed and sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill, carried by Assemblymember Matt Haney and sponsored by the National Housing Law Project, that forbids California housing authorities from imposing work requirements or time limits on low-income tenants receiving federal rental assistance; the bill responds to HUD's proposed rule permitting such conditions. Newsom has until September 30 to sign or veto it and has not indicated his position; if he signs, California would become the first state with a law expressly forbidding its housing agencies from imposing the requirements. More than 900,000 Californians rely on federal housing assistance.
Nineteen states plus the District of Columbia wrote to HUD Secretary Scott Turner in May opposing the proposed work-requirements and term-limits rule, whose comment period closed May 1.
2026-09-08 — Status hearing before Judge Edward Chen on Berkeley's Eighth and Harrison encampment; the city postponed its planned sweep until after the hearing (source)
2026-09-08 — Comments due on HUD's proposed rescission of the 2024 floodplain and Federal Flood Risk Management Standard rules (source)
2026-09-08 — Withdrawn HUD reorganization notice (document 2026-18233) comes off Federal Register public inspection at close of business (source)
2026-09-14 — Deadline for Mayor Karen Bass's office to produce nearly seven years of LAHSA-related documents to the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (source)
2026-09-14 — Comments due on HUD's CDBG-DR allocation formula notice (Docket No. FR-6337-N-02) (source)
2026-09-15 — House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency hearing on LAHSA's use of federal funds; Bass's testimony requested (source)
2026-09-18 — NW Northrup Shelter in Portland closes permanently, one year after opening (source)
2026-09-28 — Comments due on HUD 30-day information collection notice, "Public Housing Reform; Change in Admission and Occupancy Requirements" (source)
2026-09-30 — Deadline for Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign or veto the California bill barring housing-authority work requirements and time limits on federal rental assistance (source)
2026-10-01 — FY 2027 Fair Market Rents take effect; comments on the FMR notice also due this date (source)
2026-10-09 — Comments due on HUD's proposed amendments to the Fair Housing Act disparate-impact standard (source)
2026-10-19 — Offset appeals due 5 p.m. ET from original Moving to Work agencies under HUD Notice PIH 2026-22 (source)
2026-10-27 — Comments due on HUD 60-day information collection notice, "Public Housing Capital Fund Program" (source)
2026-11-02 — Comments due on the revised Operations Notice for the Moving to Work demonstration expansion (source)
2026-12-11 — Continuing resolution signed September 2 (H.R. 6500) funds the government through this date (source)