U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli on Tuesday announced a new task force investigate waste and fraud involving money allocated to address homelessness in Southern California and Central Coast counties.
The Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force will consist of federal prosecutors from the Major Frauds Section, the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section and the Civil Division’s Civil Fraud Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, officials said. The Central District has jurisdiction in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, which combined have over 20 million residents and nearly 200 cities.
The task force will receive assistance from the FBI, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General and IRS Criminal Investigation.
“California has spent more than $24 billion over the past five years to address homelessness,” Essayli said in a statement. “But officials have been unable to account for all the expenditures and outcomes, and the homeless crisis has only gotten worse. Taxpayers deserve answers for where and how their hard-earned money has been spent. If state and local officials cannot provide proper oversight and accountability, we will do it for them. If we discover any federal laws were violated, we will make arrests.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office noted that despite voter-approved initiatives and billions spent, homelessness remains a crisis, especially in LA County.
“Last month, a court-ordered audit found that homelessness services provided by the city and county of Los Angeles were ‘disjointed’ and contained ‘poor data quality and integration’ and lacked financial controls to monitor contracts for compliance and performance,” prosecutors said.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and LA City Council in recent weeks moved to withdraw from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the joint city-county agency that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars for homeless services.
LAHSA critics and auditors have accused the agency of waste, inefficiency and lack of transparency.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government provided $100 million in emergency aid to LA County for homeless services. In March, HUD awarded more than $200 million to address homelessness in Los Angeles, according to Essayli’s office.
The new task force will investigate crimes related to the misappropriation of federal tax dollars intended to alleviate homelessness in the Central District of California. Its priority will be to review federal, state and local programs receiving federal grants and funding and to investigate fraud schemes that involve the theft of private donations intended to provide support and services for people experiencing homelessness.
“Any exploitation of the homelessness crisis via the theft of funds intended to improve conditions cannot and will not be tolerated,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said in a statement. “The FBI is proud to join the newly formed task force and will continue to investigate fraudulent schemes and corrupt officials who misappropriate government funding or private donations intended to aid those in need.”
Tyler Hatcher, special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in LA, said in a statement that his agency “is uniquely poised to track any funds granted through various federal programs. We look forward to working with our federal partners to ensure taxpayer and donor funds are spent in accordance with their original intended purposes.”
Clara Karger, a spokeswoman for LA Mayor Karen Bass, in a statement Tuesday noted the two-year decease in the city’s homeless population.
“Our focus is on outcomes and saving lives,” she said. “Last year, Los Angeles bucked national increases with a 10% decrease in street homelessness and preliminary data points to another decrease for a second year in a row. These results are in part due to increased accountability and transparency around results and budgeting. The City of Los Angeles will continue to push forward disrupting the status quo and saving lives — that must remain the focus.”
LA County’s homeless population totals more than 75,000, with over 45,000 in the city of Los Angeles 45,000. Unhoused residents in the Central District’s six other counties exceeds 20,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Any spotlight to root out waste, fraud and abuse is something I think our taxpayers would appreciate,” LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement to HeySoCal.com. “I too have serious concerns about the recent audit of LAHSA’s financial management and it is one of the reasons I supported pulling county funding from that agency so we could better provide accountability and transparency.”
Essayli was sworn in April 2 as the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California following his appointment by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Prior to that he was elected twice to the State Assembly.
Updated April 9, 2025, 2:41 p.m.
