In the wake of the county’s withdrawal from Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, LA Mayor Karen Bass on Wednesday called for the city’s gradual disconnection from the defunded and staff-reduced agency.
LAHSA is a joint venture to address homelessness by LA County and city.
“The County’s decision to establish its own department and withdraw from LAHSA has created a funding and operational gap, which the City must immediately address in order to ensure life-saving services for unhoused Angelenos are not disrupted,” Bass said in a statement. “We know that the City must build the internal capacity needed to address homelessness on our own. Withdrawing from LAHSA too quickly, without a plan and without the capacity, will no doubt cause unintended consequences that will leave more Angelenos to die on our streets.
“Over the past several years, the City has built significant infrastructure to address homelessness by expanding permanent supportive and interim housing and creating outreach, hygiene, and sanitation programs to respond directly to this humanitarian crisis,” the mayor said. “We have made progress — homelessness is down for two years in a row, a first in City history. But our work is not done.”
Bass noted the new LA County Department of Homeless Services and Housing that she said “created a $300 million gap, which they had to close by prioritizing bureaucracy rather than services.”
Combined with funding cuts at the state and federal level for programs to address homelessness — including a 50% cut to the state’s Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Grant and the federal government’s slashing of homelessness funding and attempts to revoke housing vouchers — Bass said city officials “must continue prioritizing services to Angelenos in need, with the ultimate goal of ending street homelessness for good.”
She called for “a serious, thoughtful transition plan — the last thing we need is a new department and more bureaucracy. In the last budget cycle, we created a Homelessness Bureau within the LA Housing Department, solely focused on ensuring oversight, accountability and results. We need to continue investing in oversight capacity over time while we develop a comprehensive transition plan.”
Bass’ proposed budget for fiscal year 2026-27 “will prioritize streamlining operations and improving efficiency within LAHSA to continue the progress made thus far,” she said. “We need to continue putting people and services first.”
LAHSA spokesman Ahmad Chapman said the agency “is aware of and following the discussions on how the city will contract for its homeless services and stands ready to collaborate with the city once it has chosen a path forward.”
The LA County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday OK’d a motion by District 3 Supervisor Lindsey Horvath calling on the county to directly oversee payment of funds to LAHSA contractors who provide services to county residents experiencing homelessness.
The move came days after county officials announced a review of the LAHSA’s financial and operational practices due to what the county called “serious gaps” in oversight.
According to Horvath’s motion, there are “significant balances of county funding still to be processed by LAHSA and distributed to providers contracted to perform county-funded programming through June 30, 2026.”
The motion directs county administrators to “develop and directly oversee” a plan to pay service providers until all county funds have been paid to the contracted agencies.
LAHSA CEO Gita O’Neill said the agency takes its responsibility seriously, and is moving “aggressively to get these resources into providers’ hands as quickly as possible.”
“We are confident that the Auditor-Controller Office’s review of our aging payables will show the same pain points in our invoice payment processes that LAHSA is already identifying,” O’Neill said in a statement following the county supervisors’ vote. “We look forward to its insight and assistance as we move forward with planned changes to this process.”
More information on LAHSA is on the agency’s website lahsa.org.
