LAHSA Responds

iAUDIT! - For the first time since I began writing this column in March 2023, I received a response from a government official. A Communications Specialist from LAHSA provided me with clarifications to my previous column on LAHSA’s executive salaries. His email, in its entirety (lest I be accused of cherry picking) stated:

“I wanted to share some information that will clarify some of the items outlined in your article for City Watch LA.

I wanted to clarify that Kris Freed’s hourly wage is $155.09, and she can work a maximum of 29 hours a week.

I also wanted to let you know about some of the innovations Dr. Adams Kellum implemented and some of the results we are seeing systemwide:

Please feel free to contact me if you have additional questions.

Have a great day”.

The only text I omitted from the email was the sender’s name and email. My column was about the issue of executive compensation and performance, not the people in those positions, so there is no reason to make things personal. In addition, the Communications Specialist may have been asked by someone higher in the organization to respond, so his email may or may not have been his own words.

Regardless of who wrote the response, the real issue of Ms. Freed’s compensation—and the compensation of several top LAHSA executives—is the value they bring to homelessness programs. As I said in last week’s column, while LAHSA has added several highly paid management positions over the past few years, homelessness has steadily increased.

Per the email, Kris Freed’s hourly rate is $155 instead of the $213 in my column. This may be true specifically for Ms. Freed, but agencies budget by position rather than person. The cost of a position is what’s budgeted. The math is simple: the position is budgeted at $322,000 per year at 29 hours per week, or 1,508 hours per year. Dividing $322,000 by 1,508 equals $213.52 per hour. Interestingly, LAHSA seems to have changed the compensation in the job description after my column was published. The current job description says the top hourly rate is $155.00. However, when I checked the same description a few weeks ago, it shows the top rate is $27,882.27 per month, or $322,5787.20 per year; those amounts have disappeared from the new description. See the image below for the original compensation information:

$155.09 per hour at 29 hours per week would be $17,990 per month, not the $27,882 shown. The older compensation bulletin doesn’t use bad math; its merely more accurate. As LAist reported, the position is budgeted at $322,000 per year. Ms. Freed may currently be making $155 per hour, but there’s nothing stopping Dr. Adams Kellum or LAHSA’s Commission from giving Ms. Freed a raise tomorrow. That’s why agencies budget by position instead of the person; they want to ensure they have the money needed to give someone a raise or cost of living increase when appropriate. Again, the key question is what value Ms. Freed’s position brings to LAHSA, regardless if it pays $155 or $213 per hour. We could broaden that question to ask what benefit the increase in staffing and budget has had. As I pointed out in an earlier column, LAHSA’s fiscal year 2016-17 budget was $132.1 million, and it had 200 employees. The 2016 PIT count showed 46,874 homeless in L.A. County. By fiscal year 2023-24, LAHSA’s budget ballooned to mor than $840,000,000 and it had 800 employees. The 2024 PIT count showed more than 75,000 homeless in the County. For a six-fold increase in budget, and a quadrupling of staff, the County suffered a 60 percent increase in homelessness.

I am in no way suggesting the Communications Specialist was trying to give me inaccurate or misleading numbers. This person is in public relations, not finance, and in all likelihood was told what to say in his email. His response could have been assigned to him by Paul Rubenstein, LAHSA’s Deputy Chief of External Relations. Mr. Rubenstein authored the “analysis” of the City’s municipal code section 41.18, regulating camping in public spaces. As described in detail by L.A.’s Chief Legislative Analyst, Mr. Rubenstein’s report was riddled with errors and unsupported assumptions. Mr. Rubenstein also engaged the publisher of Circling the News in a farcical back-and-forth about the 2024 PIT count missing people on beaches and in parks. LAHSA management’s penchant for deflection and obfuscation is evident in the second half of the response I received, focusing on the Authority’s supposed success.

There isn’t enough room in this column to get into the details of each of the stories linked in the Specialist’s email. An overarching comment would be that PR pieces are not performance. You can say whatever you want in a press release, but it’s the numbers that count. One of the stories is about LAHSA’s 2024 performance, so let’s focus on it. The press release touts several improvements in LAHSA’s ability to move people into interim shelter and then permanent housing. It also mentions the implementation of a bed occupancy tracking system and a data dashboard. One of the more questionable “improvements” was that LAHSA worked with the County to ensure “providers can receive more of their funding up front”. This is a startling claim given the federal court-appointed auditors’ statements and the LA County Auditor/Controller’s report on LAHSA’s near complete lack of verifiable performance data when it pays providers. Specifically, the County Auditor/Controller found LAHSA has failed to recoup millions in advances to providers. Apparently, LAHSA’s management intends to make it even easier for providers to obtain advances, while doing nothing to address the problems it has accounting for them.

Likewise, LAHSA’s claims of improved performance should be considered in light of other reports. A few weeks before LAHSA released its press release on performance, L.A.’s City Controller issued an audit of pathways to permanent housing. It showed just how poorly the current system performs in utilizing existing shelter space and in permanently housing clients. The audit’s findings are consistent with another report from December 2023 on LAHSA’s inability to track interim housing availability. Whatever improvements LAHSA may claim in a press release cannot be supported by the little data available.

What, then, should we make of the Communication Specialist’s email? Again, I want to say its likely nothing he wrote was intentionally misleading, at least from his perspective. In fact, I appreciate he acknowledged my concerns and addressed them; that is the first time any government entity has made the effort to respond to one of my columns. LAHSA has a reputation for releasing incomplete and inaccurate information, and this person certainly can’t be blamed for that. The Authority’s problems are systemic and structural, and executives show no inclination to change course. As I wrote in my last column, organizations adopt behaviors that support their existence and growth. Because it can’t meet basic performance expectations, LAHSA has adopted a behavior of deflection, aggressive public relations, and spin. I encourage readers to follow the links and review LAHSA’s press releases. Then read the audits and reports I mentioned and make up your own minds about who is more reliable.

(Tim Campbell is a resident of Westchester who spent a career in the public service and managed a municipal performance audit program. He focuses on outcomes instead of process.)