'Abysmal': Trump's budget cites L.A. homelessness agency as he proposes housing cuts
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WASHINGTON — President Trump is singling out the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority as a cautionary tale about Democratic mismanagement of publicly funded programs, using it to justify proposed cuts to homeless assistance services across the country.Trump’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year, released Friday, asks Congress to eliminate the Continuum of Care — a federal program that funds housing and services for homeless Americans — citing concerns about “fraud and corruption” among local agencies that administer it.The White House points to LAHSA, which manages many homeless services for the city and county, as the example of why the program needs to go.The agency has faced criticism locally for years for lack of proper oversight and the county is in the process of transitioning programs to an internal department.“LAHSA has an abysmal record of reducing what is the highest number of street homeless individuals in the United States, and an independent audit issued in March 2025 found that the authority failed to accurately track billions of Federal and local dollars,” the budget says.
California Local officials say more than 14,500 L.A.County households in subsidized, permanent housing could be forced into homelessness, mostly because of federal cuts.The local agency pushed back in a statement after the budget was released.“Cutting this funding or destabilizing the Continuum of Care program would directly result in more tents on our streets, not fewer,” said Gita O’Neill, the agency’s interim chief executive, adding that under its leadership unsheltered homelessness in Los Angeles has fallen 15% and that 90% of the program’s funding goes “directly to rental assistance.”Local officials are already grappling with homeless service cuts at the state and county level given budget constraints and LAHSA warned Trump’s proposal would make mat...