LAHSA owes millions to homeless service providers; county looks to speed up payments

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Late last month, an executive with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority informed an oversight body of a brewing problem: The agency was delayed in paying millions owed to homeless service providers.The executive, Deputy Chief Financial Officer Janine Lim, blamed the delay, in part, on staff resignations and plummeting morale amid uncertainty over the agency’s future.

Come July, after years of criticism directed at LAHSA for mismanagement, the county will have moved most of its funding from the joint city-county agency and transferred it to a new county department.The city of Los Angeles is considering a similar move.

“LAHSA is experiencing a monumental change which at the heart of it has affected our people’s ability to pivot,” Lim told LAHSA commissioners last month.On Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors stepped in and directed staff to formulate a plan to speed up payments.

It also approved funding for a county financial review of LAHSA that was announced last week.The action came at the request of Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who has repeatedly chastised the agency, saying that if it were a public company, “regulators would shut them down.”“My phone is ringing off the hook from service providers who are demanding to be paid,” Horvath said.LAHSA has long faced criticism over how it manages the region’s homeless services.

Audits have found the agency lacked proper oversight over its funds and programs, leaving them susceptible to waste and fraud.Nonprofit providers have also repeatably complained about late payments.

County supervisors cited those issues when last year they voted to remove funding from LAHSA and set up a new county homeless department to manage county-funded programs.But those dollars and contracts won’t transfer until the next fiscal year, starting in July.

And LAHSA is once again delayed in paying nonprofit operators, eve...