The Trump administration has barred Los Angeles County’s main homelessness agency from accessing federal funds while it investigates the agency’s alleged “wanton mismanagement of public funds.”The move puts at risk almost $200 million that LA area service providers count on to help California’s largest homeless population. In a letter Thursday to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development accused the LA agency of fraud, while also blaming it for failing to decrease homelessness. The agency failed to record when people left their motel housing, misused government money by using it to pay for services provided under another contract and could not provide documents to prove the existence of homes it was responsible for, according to HUD. The LA agency is suspended from participating in federal funding competitions until HUD’s Office of Inspector General completes its investigation.
“Taxpayers will no longer bankroll an organization that puts its own self-interests ahead of the Americans it was created to serve,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a news release.
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