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iAUDIT! - About two-and-a-half years ago, I wrote Los Angeles has become the land of Do-It-Yourself advocacy. Residents have been forced to create formal and informal groups to counter local government initiatives that seem to be out of touch, and indeed openly hostile, to constituents’ concerns. Time and again, we read news stories of homeowners who express surprise and frustration when encampments are cleared just to be repopulated, or when new transitional housing suddenly appears in a neighborhood with no prior community engagement. When residents or business owners call the City to request encampment clearances, they’re often told LA lacks the resources to address the problem or they’re lectured that campers have a right to use the sidewalk. The City spends about $1 billion a year on homelessness, yet the problem never seems to get better.
The City’s top leaders seem detached from reality. Mayor Bass insists homelessness has decreased, while Councilmembers affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) say encampments can’t be cleared until housing has been created for nearly all the unhoused. Meanwhile, they feel empowered to ignore, and occasionally verbally attack, constituents who dare to question their priorities. In a now infamous statement at a town hall, Councilmember Raman flippantly responded “It's like I don't think kids are going to be safer because a tent is 500 feet away from a school...it's like whatever," when asked if she would enforce an anti-camping ordinance in her district. She could have said something like, “I respect my constituents’ views and share their concern for keeping our schools safe. I believe it’s more effective to get people off the street and into shelter than to just make them move somewhere else”. Instead, she chose a junior high school-level insult to dismiss residents’ concerns.
Sometimes, leaders’ arrogance devolves from ignoring their constituents to outright lying to them. In 2025, a group of residents in Cheviot Hills formed a nonprofit organization called The Integrity Project to address concerns around a scandal-plagued homeless housing development on Shelby Drive. Integrity Project members were instrumental in providing evidence for the US Attorney’s fraud case against the development. Officials from the Weingart Center, a large corporate nonprofit, have been placed on leave for their part in the development deal, where an assisted living facility was sold for far more the market rate using taxpayer money.
Stunningly, the City of LA, in the person of Mayor Bass and Councilmember Yaroslavsky, are forging ahead with the development despite paying as much as $11 million in fraudulently inflated costs. The Integrity Project is now involved in a lawsuit to compel the city to stop the development at least until the fraud case is adjudicated. Weingart Center, as a party to the transaction, is part of the lawsuit.
In a motion to dismiss the case, attorneys for Weingart claimed statements it made about limiting the population of the development to seniors may have been lies, but they are “protected political speech” and therefore officials can say whatever they want with no accountability. Under the State of California’s Housing First policies, state funds cannot be used to purchase or operate a facility that restricts the population, (e.g. No Barrier policies must apply). Trying to defuse community opposition, Councilmember Yaroslavsky made public statements that the facility’s population could be restricted to senior citizens (ironic considering senior were evicted from the assisted living facility operating there before the purchase). Both Weingart and Yaroslavsky knew state Project Homekey money must be used for No Barrier Housing First projects, but simply lied to quell opposition. That deliberately lying to constituents about a major financial transaction and claiming it is “political speech” is preposterous and arrogant. Rather, it is an assertion that an elected official or its nonprofit partner cannot be held responsible for anything they say. According to Weingart’s argument, transparency and accountability are punchlines for insiders’ jokes played on the public. Public input has no value if it is subject to obfuscation by our elected leaders.
The Shelby Drive development and the Integrity Project are just two examples of what’s happening all over the city. On the Westside, residents had to deal with former Councilmember Bonin’s habit of purchasing hotels without public knowledge and converting them into transitional and permanent housing. He’d hold “community meetings” after the purchase and present the conversions as fait accompli. Homeowners are still dealing with the fallout. A development called Red Tail Crossing is listed as an affordable housing project on Airport Bl. Yet, a grassroots Westchester community group found that 40 of the facility’s 102 units are reserved for permanent supportive housing, (PSH). Neighborhood Council of Westchester/Playa (NCWP) members who approved this project were unaware that it would have 40 units for PSH at the time they approved it.
As I have reported in many other columns, the lack of support services in shelters and housing has plagued Los Angeles for years. An excellent example of how LA fails its population in need is this essay on Brian, a homeless person who was dumped in a spartan apartment with no support, and soon returned to the streets.
Red Tail Crossing has become the center of neighborhood complaints about criminal behavior outside the facility and late-night noise from disturbed residents. There is also an issue with questionable water draining through a hole in the perimeter wall and into a residential street, leaving standing water and mosquito infestations.
Staff from Councilmember Park’s office usually refer complaints to the facility’s management nonprofit, the Community Corporation of Santa Monica. In a classic exercise in deflection, management simply denies there is anything unusual happening at the development.
I had the opportunity to review several emails between local residents and Red Tail management, and I was immediately struck by the growing frustration at the manager’s persistent inaction. Regarding an email trail of people dumping trash (including mattresses) in the street and in homeowners’ backyards, residents provided photos, but Red Tail managers asked if they had video of clients doing the dumping, which is an astounding request--not many people have their phone cameras turned on at all times. Red Tail continued to obfuscate until a group of residents contacted the LAPD’s Pacific station commander seeking a resolution. The email, in part, reads,
“I am a longtime resident of Westchester (CD11). [A local resident] recommended that I reach out to you regarding serious and ongoing concerns related to the Red Tail low-income housing development located just two doors from my home.
Over the past several months, we have experienced a significant decline in neighborhood safety and quality of life. Specifically, we have observed an increase in illegal activity along Airport Boulevard, including suspected drug sales, individuals engaging in explicit conduct in parked vehicles, and repeated violations of overnight parking restrictions accompanied by excessive noise at late hours (1:00–4:00 a.m.).
Additionally, several residents have reported being threatened when attempting to document the consistent dumping of mattresses, trash, and food waste along Airport Boulevard. On a personal level, I have experienced individuals entering my property by climbing over my back fence, which is extremely concerning. I have also directly witnessed suspected drug activity in the immediate area. We are also experiencing an uptick in RV dwellers and large tractor-trailers returning to Airport Blvd.
Members of our community have attempted to address these issues with the Community Corporation of Santa Monica. Unfortunately, our concerns were dismissed despite providing video and photographic evidence, and communication has since ceased.
Given the severity and persistence of these issues, many nearby residents would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet with you in person. We believe it would be helpful for you to see the conditions firsthand and to advise us on appropriate next steps to address this situation effectively".
Red Tail continues to be a significant problem in the community, with no substantive response from facility managers or the Council office.
As City and nonprofit officials create a wall of denial and inaction to defend their failed programs, groups like The Integrity Project and Westchester Park News have grown up to advocate for residents and business owners. On a city-wide basis, the LA Alliance for Human Rights, a coalition of DTLA residents, business owners and unhoused people has been engaged in a years-long legal battle to get the city and county to live up to their commitments to provide shelter and services to the homeless. The many problems with the homelessness system were summarized in a comprehensive court-ordered review published by the audit firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) in May 2025. Inconsistent services, lax contract management, payments made without supporting documentation, and unreliable data are a few examples of the evidence A&M uncovered. The City’s response was to hire a high-priced law firm to fight the findings instead of correcting the problems.
The common theme in these situations is singularly depressing. Not only does the City ignore the needs of its residents, it often works in direct opposition to them. Residents are forced to form their own advocacy groups and spend their own time and money doing what the city should be doing. This is especially insulting because millions in taxpayer money are being spent to defend the system that works against them.
Even more egregiously, officials seem to think that its okay to lie, deflect, and obfuscate in the name of their ideas of social justice. In their minds, lying to constituents about the purchase of a housing facility and who will be in it is justified because they are working for a higher purpose. The ends justify the means. Arrogance and moral ambiguity are indicative of how so-called progressive leaders view many citizens as obstacles to be overcome rather than constituents whose concerns should be addressed. While leaders live in a theoretical world, residents and business owners must deal with the real-world consequences. Since recognizing serious problems with services in shelters would mean admitting there are systemic problems in the shelter/housing system (and that housing is not a universal solution to homelessness), advocates cannot give citizen concerns any legitimacy.
Voters’ frustration with the status quo has carried Spencer Pratt to the mayoral runoff, and the myths we’re told from progressive Councilmember Raman has left her in third place. Perhaps a reckoning is coming from an electorate no longer willing to be ignored.
(Tim Campbell is a longtime Westchester resident and veteran public servant who spent his career managing a municipal performance audit program. Drawing on decades of experience in government accountability, he brings a results-driven approach to civic oversight. In his iAUDIT! column for CityWatchLA, Campbell emphasizes outcomes over bureaucratic process, offering readers clear-eyed analyses of how local programs perform—and where they fall short. His work advocates for greater transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness in Los Angeles government.)
