Over 3 years, homeless nonprofit paid more than $1.7 million to companies owned by its chief executive
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Set us as preferred In recent years, the nonprofit A Step to Freedom has grown rapidly, collecting millions of dollars from the government to house and feed homeless people coming out of jail in L.A.County.
What was a small organization providing 20 or so men shelter each year, with $25,500 in revenue in 2018, grew to operate six interim housing sites serving about 200 people at a time in 2024, with more than $5 million in revenue, largely from taxpayers, according to federal tax filings.The expansion enabled A Step to Freedom, run by chief executive Kenya Croom, to help far more people, but it also had another, less visible beneficiary: Croom herself.According to a Times review of public and internal records, over three years, the nonprofit paid more than $1.7 million to Croom’s two for-profit businesses that provided food for the shelters and, in its most recent tax filings, did not disclose her ties to them as required.The nonprofit’s most recent tax filing shows Croom made roughly $120,000 in 2024 for a 40-hour workweek leading A Step to Freedom.
She said she earns an additional $100,000 salary from one of the for-profit companies.Nonprofit experts interviewed by The Times raised concerns that someone in a position like Croom’s could profit to the detriment of both taxpayers and the people the money is meant to serve.In interviews, Croom defended the contracts, saying her companies provided meals, snacks and beverages to the nonprofit’s roughly 200 residents at a lower cost than what outside vendors would have charged.She said the failure to disclose her role in the companies on the nonprofit’s tax filings was an oversight.
“We didn’t check a box.We made a mistake,” she said, adding that the nonprofit is undergoing an audit.
“We just have work to do.And our work to do here is really to help people.”...