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A recent audit report released by the Los Angeles County Auditor has exposed severe incompetence within the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), highlighting the agency’s failure to maintain even basic financial management practices.
According to the audit findings, LAHSA demonstrated fundamental accounting deficiencies, including failing to recover advance payments to contractors and neglecting to properly record contracts exceeding $500,000. More alarmingly, the agency was found to have misappropriated government funds by unauthorized transfers between different accounts.
One of the most startling revelations was the waste of $218 million in taxpayer money over the past five years, during which a quarter of temporary housing facilities were essentially abandoned. This has raised suspicions that LAHSA may have been more focused on collecting facility management fees rather than providing actual welfare services to the homeless.
Contract management practices were found to be even more problematic. The agency failed to maintain proper documentation for $5 million distributed to five recipient organizations, drawing harsh criticism for neglecting basic responsibilities as a public institution.
The internal audit system was revealed to be virtually nonexistent. LAHSA’s internal audit department had lost its independence and failed to perform its duties, not even establishing proper audit plans. This indicates a complete loss of self-regulatory capability within the organization.
The ultimate victims of this mismanagement were the homeless population. Statistics showing that less than 20% of temporary housing facility residents successfully found permanent housing demonstrate LAHSA’s ineffective operations.
Lindsay Horvath, Chair of the LA County Board of Supervisors, stated, “These audit findings show that LAHSA is no longer capable of managing homeless services,” and proposed comprehensive reform through the establishment of a new county department.
A Los Angeles City Council representative strongly criticized the agency, saying, “Despite pouring hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into the problem, the homeless situation hasn’t improved at all. This is a disaster caused by LAHSA’s incompetence and poor management.”
The audit has sparked calls for immediate reform and stricter oversight of the agency responsible for managing one of Los Angeles’s most pressing social issues.
