Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) is the lead agency responsible for coordinating housing and social services for the

homeless Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

. LAHSA allocates funds and administers contracts with regional agencies that provide emergency, transitional and permanent housing, and other services that assist homeless individuals. In the 2022-2023 fiscal year, LAHSA had an annual budget of . LAHSA is governed by a 10-member board of commissioners, five of whom are appointed by the

Mayor of Los Angeles The mayor of the City of Los Angeles is the official head and chief executive officer of Los Angeles. The officeholder is elected for a four-year term and is term limit, limited to serving no more than two terms. (Under the Constitution of Califo ...

, while the remaining five are appointed by the

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States. History On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Sessions as their first ...

History

LAHSA was established in 1993 as a

joint powers authority A joint powers authority (JPA) is an entity permitted under the laws of some U.S. states, whereby two or more public authorities (e.g. local governments, or utility or transport districts), not necessarily located in the same state, may jointly ex ...

between the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and

county of Los Angeles Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

. The formation of LAHSA was a result of a lawsuit settlement in 1991, addressing limited access to a state-mandated welfare program called General Relief. In 2005, LAHSA began conducting an annual homeless count. In 2021, LAHSA increased its base salary for employees to $50,000 in response to findings that some staff were experiencing homelessness. In January 2023, Va Lecia Adams Kellum was appointed as LAHSA's chief executive, receiving an annual salary of . Adams Kellum is close to Mayor

Karen Bass Karen Ruth Bass (; born October 3, 1953) is an American politician, social worker and former physician assistant who is serving as the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles since 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, Bass had previously served in the U.S. ...

and previously ran St. Joseph Center, a homeless nonprofit organization in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Controversies

LAHSA has been critiqued for its ineffective handling of homelessness in California, including areas such as homeless outreach and spending oversight. Between 2015 and 2022, LAHSA's funding increased 13 times, from $63 million to $808 million, while homelessness increased 1.6 times. The accuracy of several annual LAHSA homeless counts, including in 2021 and 2022 has been challenged by Los Angeles city officials. In August 2019, a

Los Angeles City Controller The Los Angeles City Controller is an official in the government of the city of Los Angeles, California. The City Controller is the paymaster and chief accounting officer of the city. Along with the Mayor and the City Attorney, the City Controller ...

audit found that despite doubling its outreach staffing between 2016 and 2018, LAHSA continued to miss the majority of its own outreach goals, including placements into housing, temporary shelter, and referrals for substance abuse and mental health treatment. In January 2022, the

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...

released a report identifying significant issues with spending oversight within LAHSA. Elected politicians, including

Joe Buscaino Giuseppe "Joe" Buscaino (born ) is an American politician and former police officer, who served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council for the 15th district from 2012 to 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, Buscaino served as President ...

, have publicly criticized the agency. In May 2022, an investigative news report found that LAHSA outreach workers were throwing out food intended for the homeless at the end of each workday. The findings prompted criticism from LAHSA board members and the

Los Angeles City Attorney The Los Angeles City Attorney is an elected official who serves as the city of Los Angeles' government's lawyer and as a criminal prosecutor for misdemeanor violations. The Los Angeles County District Attorney prosecutes felonies. The city attorne ...

Mike Feuer Michael Nelson Feuer (born May 14, 1958)Nancy Hill-Holtzman, "Ambition, Altruism Drive Mike Feuer", ''Los Angeles Times'' (March 29. 1995), p. B1, B6. is an American politician and lawyer, who served as Los Angeles City Attorney from 2013 to 202 ...

for waste of taxpayer-funded resources.

References

External links

* {{US housing by state Homelessness organizations in the United States Homelessness in California Government of Los Angeles Government of Los Angeles County, California Housing in California 1993 establishments in California

History

Controversies

See also

References

External links