LA Can’t Say Where $2.4 Billion in Homeless Funding Went.
Its Homelessness-Committee Chair Is Now Running for Mayor.
Los Angeles’s own City Controller found the city failed to spend at least $513,000,000 budgeted for homelessness in a single fiscal year. A separate, court-ordered audit reviewing $2,400,000,000 in spending since 2020 found the city couldn’t verify whether services it paid for at roughly 2,300 housing sites were ever actually provided. In June, HUD suspended the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s federal funding entirely, citing “a clear pattern of fraud.”
Councilmember Nithya Raman (D) chairs the City Council committee with direct oversight of that spending. She’s now running for mayor on a promise to fix exactly the system she has run for three years — while, by her own council colleagues’ on-record account, a motion to break the city free of the troubled agency has sat on her committee’s desk for over 500 days.
LAHSA disputes the fraud characterization and has sued the federal government over the funding cutoff; that fight is unresolved.
- $513,000,000 — homelessness funds LA's own City Controller found went unspent in FY2024, out of a $1.3 billion budget
- $2,400,000,000 — in spending a court-ordered audit reviewed (2020-2024) — finding roughly 2,300 housing sites the city could not verify
- $911,000,000 — spent acquiring homeless-housing properties with 1,104 units still sitting vacant, per California Post reporting
- 500+ days — a motion to break Los Angeles free of LAHSA has sat without action under Raman's committee chairmanship
- $4,000,000 — a state grant Raman secured for LA River encampment cleanup and left largely unspent for nearly two years while campaigning for mayor
LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia (D) published the first-ever formal tracking of the city’s homelessness spending in November 2024 — and found at least $513,000,000 of a $1.3 billion budget simply wasn’t spent, a shortfall the Controller attributed to understaffing and outdated technology. A separate audit by Alvarez & Marsal, commissioned by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter under the long-running LA Alliance for Human Rights litigation, reviewed $2,400,000,000in spending from June 2020 to June 2024 and found the city “failed to verify whether services invoiced were provided” at roughly 2,300 sites.
In June 2026, HUD Secretary Scott Turner (R) suspended federal funding to LAHSA, citing “a clear pattern of fraud” and the Controller’s own audit findings. “Year after year, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were funneled to LAHSA with little accountability,” Turner said. “Meanwhile, homelessness skyrocketed.” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli (Trump-administration appointee) separately launched a criminal fraud task force with the FBI, HUD-OIG, and IRS-CI. Then-LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum had already resigned amid disclosure of a $2.1 million contract she signed with a nonprofit that employed her own husband. LAHSA sued the Trump administration over the funding cutoff on June 29; that lawsuit is unresolved.
“Year after year, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were funneled to LAHSA with little accountability. Meanwhile, homelessness skyrocketed.”
Scott Turner, HUD Secretary, June 2026
Raman chairs the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee — the body with direct oversight of the spending HUD says shows “a clear pattern of fraud.” A motion to break Los Angeles free of LAHSA entirely has sat without a vote for more than 500 days on her watch. Separately, a $4,000,000 state Encampment Resolution Fund grant Raman secured for LA River cleanup went largely unspent for nearly two years, even as fellow Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez (D) used the same grant program to house 90 people and clear 40 RVs in her own district in the same window.
“The numbers don't lie. The fact that it's been a year and there's been no commitment for the expenditure of those funds reflects a failure to lead.”
Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez (D), on Raman's unspent LA River grant
Homelessness in LA is a humanitarian crisis. And our response isn't working. The city has the money to fix this. But we are not moving urgently enough.
What Raman says: “The city has the money to fix this. But we are not moving urgently enough.”
What her committee record shows: a LAHSA break-off motion stalled 500+ days; a $4 million grant left largely unspent for two years.
She is the urgency she says is missing.
A federal agency just cut off Los Angeles's homelessness funding over fraud it says the city's own audits already documented. The councilmember who chairs the committee responsible for catching it is asking voters to promote her — while a motion that might have caught it sooner has sat on her desk, undecided, for more than a year and a half.
