LAist · on Judge Carter's Oct. 27 hearing on LAHSA's successor
At a Wednesday hearing, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter scheduled an Oct. 27 hearing he called "our decision-making day on so many matters" on who will administer roughly $240 million a year in federal homeless funding after LAHSA relinquishes the role, and said he wants funds transferred to L.A. County by January if the county is chosen. Carter said "The watchdog wasn't watching, and the money got distributed without accountability." City staff estimated a city homeless services department would take up to two years to build; prosecutors have so far charged six people connected to L.A. homeless service providers.
The LA CoC Board voted Sept. 23 to advance a proposal designating the county as collaborative applicant for HUD funds, subject to approval by the CoC general membership; the county moved roughly $300 million of its annual homelessness funding to its new in-house department in July.
Los Angeles County officials announced Tuesday the county will apply to HUD to take over four federal functions LAHSA relinquished — the annual point-in-time count, the annual federal funding application, the Homeless Management Information System, and the Coordinated Entry System — while the city of Los Angeles is seeking only the HMIS and CES functions. The move follows LAHSA's September 16 vote not to continue as lead agency for the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, which covers 85 cities plus unincorporated county. County counsel said any departure from the LAHSA joint-powers authority would require 180 days' notice; about $241 million already earmarked for the region by Congress is at stake.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week overruled U.S. District Judge David Carter's partial preliminary injunction that had allowed LAHSA access to federal homelessness funding for fiscal year 2026.
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The Oversight Committee's Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency scheduled a hearing, "Fixing Fraud and Failure in Federally Funded Homelessness Services," for September 15 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Subcommittee Chairman Tim Burchett said the panel would present Los Angeles as "a case study of failed policy, fraud, and mismanagement"; the announced witnesses are Paul Webster of the Cicero Institute and Jonathan Choe of the Discovery Institute. Mayor Karen Bass, whom Burchett asked in a September 2 letter to testify and produce LAHSA contracting records, said she is not available to appear, with her office offering to work with the subcommittee on a later date.
HUD suspended LAHSA from federal grant activity on June 11; a federal judge in August issued a preliminary injunction halting the suspension while LAHSA's lawsuit proceeds.
At a September 9 news conference with City Controller Kenneth Mejia, Councilmember Nithya Raman said Mayor Karen Bass had failed to oversee hundreds of millions in homelessness spending and pledged that, if elected, the city would manage its homelessness funding by the end of her first year, with Mejia given greater audit access. Bass's campaign said her departure from the LAHSA Commission does not change who oversees the funding. Raman said unsheltered homelessness fell 49% in her district in the most recent count; the 2026 count estimated 45,194 people homeless citywide, up 3.4%, with unsheltered homelessness up 7.9% to 29,115.
A federal judge in August issued a preliminary injunction halting the Trump administration's June suspension of LAHSA's HUD funding while LAHSA's lawsuit proceeds.
The board of the Los Angeles Continuum of Care published a request for qualifications seeking applicants for the four federally mandated functions that make up LAHSA's core work, including the homelessness database, the annual count, and the annual HUD funding application. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the county would apply to take over those functions, and Mayor Karen Bass said the city "intends to apply for some or all the roles"; Bass stepped down from LAHSA's 10-member board Wednesday. Applications are due September 24, with a special meeting scheduled October 7 and the board's report to Judge David O. Carter due October 13.
In August, Judge Carter ordered HUD to accept LAHSA's 2026 application and distribute $241 million under local priorities while requiring a nationwide competition for the 2027 contract.
Mayor Karen Bass announced she will step down from the LAHSA Commission effective Wednesday, September 9, after LAist reported in late August that she missed 13 of 21 commission meetings over a recent year period. Her office did not say whom she plans to appoint to the seat. The announcement came as the city works toward a homelessness system independent of LAHSA.
Bass's three-year term on the LAHSA Commission expired June 30, 2026, and she had remained on the commission past that date.
Federal and county prosecutors charged Alex Soofer, leader of the now-defunct nonprofit Abundant Blessings, with fraud, alleging he pocketed at least $10 million in homelessness funds that flowed through LAHSA to his nonprofit and his for-profit company. LAist reported that LAHSA's top two compliance officials declared Abundant Blessings "High-Risk" in a May 2024 delinquency notice while the agency continued awarding it new contracts, paying $5 million to the nonprofit through direct contracts starting in 2023. Soofer and the nonprofit agreed last November to pay LAHSA $1.25 million in a settlement; he has pleaded not guilty.
LAist reported that Mayor Karen Bass, the first Los Angeles mayor to appoint herself to the LAHSA Commission, missed 13 of 21 commission meetings between mid-August 2025 and now, and has been absent for 25 of 47 meetings since joining in late 2023. LAHSA's bylaws state that commissioners absent four times within a year may be subject to removal; Bass's office said she remained informed of agency business through her other appointees.
The LAHSA Commission oversees roughly $500 million in annual homelessness funding for the joint city-county authority.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority said it plans to modernize its financial operations after a KPMG fiscal review found that delayed payments to contracted service providers stemmed from interconnected operational issues — complicated workflows, manual processes, multiple funding sources, and underused data systems — rather than any single cause. The agency said it has implemented many of the recommendations and is seeking an accounting firm to guide longer-term changes; HUD Secretary Scott Turner posted on X on August 14 that "LAHSA is on notice — not another dime until they show the money actually helps people toward recovery and self-sufficiency."
On August 13, Judge David O. Carter ordered HUD to restore homelessness-program funding for Los Angeles County, ruling the June suspension violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter issued a preliminary injunction finding HUD acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it suspended the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority from managing federal homelessness funds, and ordered LAHSA restored as master applicant when the funding process is redone — about $240 million on behalf of 140 service providers under the application originally due Aug. 26. Carter set a trial date in February, ordered the Los Angeles Continuum of Care to deliver a review by Oct. 13 of agencies that could replace LAHSA, and ordered HUD to execute stalled contracts with providers that have been working without reimbursement. HUD Secretary Scott Turner posted on X that the administration would "fight this legally."
HUD suspended LAHSA on June 11; a separate Aug. 7 ruling in Rhode Island threw out HUD's 2026 homelessness spending plan, nullifying the Aug. 26 application deadline.
The Rhode Island ruling vacating HUD's FY2026 CoC NOFO eliminated the August 26 application deadline at issue in the LAHSA case, and Judge David O. Carter said he was interested in setting a trial date as early as February 2027. The court is weighing temporary relief over $240 million in federal funding that providers across LA County rely on to serve 11,000 people, according to local homelessness officials.
HUD suspended LAHSA from federal grant activity in June 2026, and Carter granted a stay on July 2 maintaining funding during the litigation.