A federal judge may have forced the Trump administration to keep funding the LA Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), but the day of reckoning is coming.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) blocked $241 million in funding to LAHSA in June, citing what it called “obvious fraud.”
That accusation wasn’t some invention of the Trump White House.
LA County and the city of LA had both raised serious questions about mismanagement and conflicts of interest at LAHSA.
A federal judge may have forced the Trump administration to keep funding the LA Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), but the day of reckoning is coming. David Buchan for CA Post
LA County and the city of LA had both raised serious questions about mismanagement and conflicts of interest at LAHSA. David Buchan for Ca Post
LAHSA has struggled to explain what happened to billions of dollars that flowed into its coffers over the last several years, including roughly $1 billion in federal funds.
One thing that LAHSA wasn’t doing: fighting homelessness.
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The 2026 homeless count revealed that the number of homeless people in the city of LA rose by 3.4%. The county saw a rise of 1.2%.
This week, HUD Secretary Scott Turner and US Department of Heath and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came to Southern California to drive home the message: LAHSA is a failure.
LAHSA has struggled to explain what happened to billions of dollars that flowed into its coffers over the last several years, including roughly $1 billion in federal funds. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
Turner noted that while homelessness doubled in LA over the past decade, funding to LAHSA had nearly tripled.
There is no excuse — and no reason for taxpayers, at any level, to be funding the agency.
US District Judge David O. Carter may have blocked the administration from cutting LAHSA’s federal funding.
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But he made clear that he was only preserving the funding because there was no replacement for LAHSA yet.
Kennedy spoke about what a new approach should look like: “treatment first,” instead of “housing first.”
“Housing first” simply spent billions of dollars on hotel and motel rooms without addressing the underlying reasons people had become homeless in the first place.
Those reasons often have to do with drug addiction and mental illness.
A homeless man leans his head on his knees next to a grocery cart of empty water bottles during an extreme heat advisory on Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
In fact, many homeless people who were simply given housing quickly returned to life on the streets, where they could find — and abuse — drugs more easily.
Kennedy, who had his own struggle with addition decades ago, noted that faith-based alternatives like the Dream Center actually help people recover while providing shelter.
The Dream Center helps homeless people get off the street, and back on their feet, for a fraction of the cost of the “housing first” policy that LA, and California, have followed.
LAHSA may still be here, but it’s time for LA, and California, to move on — to “treatment first.”
