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DEEGAN ON LA—City Hall has tried to remedy it. So has Federal Judge David O. Carter. Before them, for decades, less high-profile attempts have been made to solve “it”.
“It”, the homeless reality, continues to grow out of control.
Our unsheltered neighbors, the kind-hearted epithet used by some to describe the masses of homeless sheltering on the city’s sidewalks, deserve far better service and treatment than they have been getting.
For a while, taxpayers were ok with signing off on bond issues and tax increases—in the billions of dollars— that the politico hucksters backing them said would throw enough money at “it” to severely reduce the homeless problem.
The money flowed but who knows to where and that has led to a pair of serious and impactful developments that were announced last week. A homeless services money pit is being put out of business, and the Feds have stepped in to “follow the money” of federal funds sent to LA for homeless programs.
The Los Angeles Housing Services Authority (LAHSA) is being yanked out of service and defunded thanks to a brave County Supervisor Katherine Barger and a brave City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, working together to force a change.
An audit of how and where the LAHSA funds earmarked for homeless relief were applied apparently made their eyes pop out. Not so Mayor Bass who, for the record, has objected to the shutdown move.
The mayor’s buddy Va Lecia Adams Kellum has unwittingly become a poster child for financial mismanagement of funds directed to the homeless. She was privileged by the mayor with a $430,000 annual salary when she was hired by her to be LAHSA’s director.
There was a quick pivot by the new director to sign off on a $2 million paycheck to a company her husband helps to run.
Adams Kellum sought victim status by saying that she “mistakenly signed” the paperwork after staffers inadvertently sent it to her. She resigned her LAHSA position last week.
Also last week, Adams Kellum walked out of a voluntary hearing in Judge Carter’s federal courtroom noting that its voluntary and I’m not required to be here, so I’m leaving.
Judge Carter and the city taxpayers were snubbed.
Less likely for her to be allowed that sort of avoidance to testify is the new Federal team assembled to investigate the homeless services money trails and accountability. Unlike the casualness of the “voluntary” Judge Carter hearing, it will have the teeth of subpoena power.
The new federal sheriff in town, formally designated as The Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force, is here to wade through the swamp to “investigate crimes" related to the misappropriation of federal tax dollars intended to alleviate homelessness”. The task force includes:
• The US Attorney for the Central District of California
• The Justice Department’s Major Frauds, Public Corruption and Civil Rights section
• The DOJ’s Civil Division’s Civil Fraud section
• The FBI
• The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General
• The IRS Criminal Investigation department
The task force will not end homelessness, but should be able to get to the bottom of where did all the money go, and who should be held accountable at LASHA and other service providers to the homeless for mishandling federal funds.
(Tim Deegan is a civic activist whose Deegan on LA weekly column has been a feature of CityWatch for 11 years. Tim writes about city politics and communities. Tim can be reached at [email protected].)
