The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) has faced two scathing audits and claims of its CEO committing financial impropriety. LA County supervisors voted to defund the agency last month and start their own, and LA City Council could follow suit. LAHSA simply didn’t live up to expectations, according to Jon Regardie, writer for Crosstown LA.
“LAHSA has been around for decades, and we've seen the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles County worsen over decades. And county leaders just seem to have decided, ‘Well, this can't get any worse, so let's take that $300 million or so and go on our own … new county department,” says Regardie.
He continues, “One can certainly argue that a county department is much easier than working in a joint city-county agency, which LAHSA is. So in this case, the county is going to have a lot more control over its money and how it's used.”
Although LAHSA had a slew of problems, there’s no guarantee that LA County and LA City could do better. Regardie says the new setup could risk siloization when addressing homelessness.
“If the county is focusing on its money, then perhaps the county is focusing more on homelessness in its county areas. And the City of LA could wind up focusing on homelessness in the City of Los Angeles.”
LA Mayor Karen Bass launched her Inside Safe program two years ago to put unhoused people into temporary and eventually permanent places to live. Regardie reports that the program purports to have cleared 86 encampments in all 15 city council districts, and more than 1,600 unhoused people are in interim housing.
However, the cost of the program has been criticized, especially as Los Angeles tries to fill a nearly $1 billion deficit. But results from Inside Safe could take time.
“Many of the people who are being helped in Inside Safe are what is known as chronically homeless individuals who've been on the street for a year or more. They may suffer from addiction or mental illness. It takes a lot of time, a lot of resources to re-enter the mainstream of society,” says Regardie.
But is it enough? Will extra sales tax or another government agency do the trick? It’s too soon to tell.
“It's a situation that's continued to get worse, despite more money, despite more people talking about it. It seems that we need an empowered countywide homelessness czar, someone with actual, real authority who did not have to answer to the mayor of Los Angeles, who did not have to answer to county supervisors. Are we ever going to get there? Are the powers-that-be going to give up some of their power? Hard to see that happening. So will things get better? We can only hope,” says Regardie.