HUD, a member of the White House fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance, said it is immediately halting LAHSA’s participation in federal programs while the department’s inspector general investigates possible wrongdoing by the agency and its leadership. The move was outlined in a letter sent to LAHSA Board Chair Wendy Greuel and CEO Gita O’Neill, according to Fox News.The agency has received nearly $1 billion in federal funding since 2021, according to HUD, in addition to support from city, county, and state governments.
“Suspending LAHSA’s participation in federal government programs is a necessary step in accomplishing that critical mission in Los Angeles,” HUD wrote in the letter. “LAHSA’s failures have been so severe and pervasive that Los Angeles County has withdrawn its funding for the agency, and the City of Los Angeles is considering doing so as well.”
The federal scrutiny follows the resignation of former LAHSA chief executive Va Lecia Adams Kellum, who stepped down last year after investigators found she directed $2.1 million in federal funds overseen by the agency to a nonprofit organization that employed her husband.
“HUD cannot ignore LAHSA’s wanton mismanagement of public funds,” the department wrote. “Turning over billions of dollars from American taxpayers to an organization under investigation and suspected of gross misuse of federal funding and ‘obvious fraud’ does nothing to reduce homelessness.”
