Donald Trump and Scott Turner: Holding homelessness agencies accountable

Los Angeles receives more federal homelessness assistance funding than any other region of the country.So, on June 11, when the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it was immediately suspending more than $200 million in federal funding to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) while it investigates fraud, mismanagement, and waste, it sent a shock wave across the nation’s homelessness service providers. For years, LAHSA, the regional entity entrusted with federal homeless assistance funding, has been the subject of warnings, complaints, audits, and a lawsuit against the City and County of LA.LAHSA’s performance has been characterized as “a bowl of spaghetti,” “cutting blank checks,” “broken,” and “smoke and mirrors.”Since 2001, HUD audits of LAHSA‘s “Continuum of Care” program have highlighted a history of persistent problems, including failures to monitor grantees, paying ineligible expenses, and poor financial management.The “Continuum of Care” program, according to HUD, “is designed to promote communitywide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness by providing funding for efforts by nonprofit providers and State and local governments.” It also is supposed to help homeless people access government services.But in LA, thanks to LAHSA, Continuum of Care is a mess.The LA County auditor-controller and LA city controller each expressed concerns over LAHSA’s poor payment and reimbursement systems; inflated number of people housed and double counting; data quality issues; and internal accountability issues.   LAHSA stonewalled a professional management firm that evaluated it in the course of the lawsuits mentioned above.The final report showed that LAHSA doesn’t know how much it’s paying, to whom, for what, and whether money was well spent (or spent at all).LAHSA doesn’t even know how to help an unsheltered person find a home for the night, and no one is verifying whether provi...