L.A.'s homeless authority is in a fight for its survival

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred The organization that has been the front line of the Los Angeles city and county response to homelessness for more than 30 years is fighting for its survival in a U.S.court battle over a Trump administration attempt to cut its access to hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds.The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority is asking the court to block a federal government suspension of its role as the administrator for about $240 million in funds from the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.HUD has launched an inspector general investigation of alleged misconduct at the agency and suspended it from procuring federal funds while the investigation is underway.Though the scope of the suspension is not clear, LAHSA has concluded that, in addition to ending its role as administrator of federal grants, HUD is suspending some of its principal responsibilities: conducting the annual homeless count, maintaining the homeless database and managing the system for matching homeless people to housing vacancies.Those losses would reduce LAHSA, already depleted by the withdrawal of county funding that made up more than a third of its budget, to a shell of the $845-million agency that had ballooned over the last decade with local sales tax dollars approved by county voters.LAHSA, formed in 1993 as part of the settlement of litigation between the city and county, grew dramatically after 2016 when city voters approved a $1.2-billion homeless housing bond and the following year county voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax for homeless services, including in the growing inventory of supportive housing.In addition to managing contracts for more than 100 homeless service agencies, LAHSA fields teams of outreach workers.

As it has grown, LAHSA has been buffeted by increasing accusations of waste and ineffici...