Secretary Scott Turner announced Thursday that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would immediately suspend funding to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA.
The announcement comes after an HUD-led investigation into the organization.
“Since 2021,” Turner wrote on X, “LAHSA received $1 billion while homelessness skyrocketed and fraud ran rampant. Our message to the homelessness industrial complex: if you are doing something fraudulent, you are on notice.”
The Los Angeles Times reported that homelessness in L.A. grew 80% between 2015 and 2023. The unsheltered population in L.A. was statistically unchanged between December 2024 and January 2026, according to RAND.
Turner sent a letter to Gita O’Neill, interim CEO of LAHSA, saying that “HUD has evidence that LAHSA’s repeated false statements and its irresponsible actions and failures … pose a threat to HUD, the public, and those living on the streets of Los Angeles.”
The letter informed O’Neill that the department has “withdrawn its funding for the agency, and the City of Los Angeles is considering doing so as well.”
The federal defunding came after Turner announced in a HUD news conference on June 6 that $4 billion would be put into the Continuum of Care Program, which aims to end homelessness, to “(restore) the program to its true intent. It is a competitive grant … we want to reward merit.”
LAHSA accused of mismanaging funds
The HUD investigation says that it found several incidents of mismanaged funds.
“In August 2023,” the report says, “LAHSA could not even determine whether it used funding to pay for empty hotel rooms.”
It also found that LAHSA “failed to provide documentation to verify the existence of nearly 2,300 housing sites for which it was responsible.”
The report states that the organization had no “conflict-of-interest policy” until September 2025 and that the former CEO resigned after committing over $2 million in federal funds to her husband’s employer.
Although HUD has increased funding by 178% since 2013, homelessness doubled and free housing increased by 212%.
“Record funding and record amount of homelessness. How many know that is not sustainable?” said Turner.
“Under President Trump,” said Turner in the HUD press release, “HUD will fund results, not corrupt failure or the homeless industrial complex. … Taxpayers will no longer bankroll an organization that puts its own self-interests ahead of the Americans it was created to serve.”
