Los Angeles Homeless Services Agency sues feds over funds

By Robert Matteson
The Center Square

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority is suing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after the federal agency suspended funding for LAHSA last month.

LAHSA filed the lawsuit against President Donald Trump, HUD and Secretary of HUD Scott Turner on Monday, in an attempt to prevent the interruption of federal resources needed to support over 11,000 people across Los Angeles County, according to a press release. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

“HUD’s purported suspension of LAHSA violates the Administrative Procedure Act, is unconstitutional, and ultra vires. The harm would be irreparable,” LAHSA said in a complaint obtained by The Center Square on Tuesday. “Ultra vires” is a Latin legal term that means “beyond powers,” indicating LAHSA believes HUD acted beyond its authority.

LAHSA was created in 1993, as a joint powers authority of the city and county of Los Angeles, to address homelessness, according to the complaint.

“LAHSA is the lead agency in the HUD-funded LA Continuum of Care and coordinates and manages federal, state, county, and city funds for programs providing shelter, housing, and services to people experiencing homelessness,” the complaint said.

Andrew D. Hughes, deputy secretary of HUD, announced LAHSA’s funding would be suspended in a letter filed on June 11. In his letter, Hughes claimed that LAHSA has severely mismanaged taxpayer funds and that the funds have been used unlawfully and irresponsibly, The Center Square previously reported.

Hughes said LAHSA received more than $220 million for 2024 and $944 million since 2021.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, HUD will fund results, not corrupt failure or the homeless industrial complex,” Turner said in a press release from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “Year after year, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were funneled to LAHSA with little accountability. Meanwhile, homelessness skyrocketed. Taxpayers will no longer bankroll an organization that puts its own self-interests ahead of the Americans it was created to serve.”

HUD gave LAHSA 30 days to respond to the notice.

Since 2013, funding for LAHSA has increased 178%, and homelessness in Los Angeles has increased 100%, HUD said in the press release.

LAHSA called Secretary Turner’s claims that HUD investigated LAHSA and found waste, fraud, and abuse, “false,” in the complaint.

“HUD has failed to identify any public agreement or transaction that LAHSA has violated, failed to set forth ‘adequate evidence’ and the ‘reasoned decision making’ that would support LAHSA’s suspension, and failed to consider the effect of its suspension decision on the unhoused persons of Los Angeles and the providers who support them,” the complaint said.

According to statistics sent to The Center Square by LAHSA, 7,545 households and 11,423 people are served by federal resources. Of these people, 1,627 are seniors, and 89 are veterans.

Since 2023, homelessness has declined 4.3% in Los Angeles County and 5.5% in the city of Los Angeles, according to LAHSA. Unsheltered homelessness has declined 14% countywide and 17.5% within the city.

“If HUD gets its way, people will be turned back onto the street, reversing the historic reductions in homelessness we’ve delivered after decades of increases in LA,” Kolby Lee, director of communications for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, told The Center Square, answering questions by email.

Bass’s office previously said she too was concerned about the misuse of taxpayer funds.

“Mayor Bass, too, has grave concerns about LAHSA and zero tolerance for mismanagement and negligence, which is why she previously directed the City to evaluate how to move away from the agency,” according to a statement from her office. “Threatening federal funds does nothing to house people and jeopardizes the progress Mayor Bass has led to reduce homelessness for two years in a row, after it only went up in Los Angeles for years. Ultimately people will lose their lives. We urge HUD to work with the City of Los Angeles to provide the necessary funding to reduce homelessness.”

HUD’s decision to suspend funding came more than a year after LAHSA failed two audits in April 2025. Those failures followed a federal court finding that the authority could not account for $2.3 billion, The Center Square previously reported.

LAHSA said its goal remains clear.

“The goal is straightforward: Keep people housed, keep services operating, and prevent thousands of vulnerable Angelenos from becoming collateral damage in a political dispute over funding,” LAHSA said.

The Center Square reached out to HUD and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office, but did not hear back by the time of publication. The Center Square also contacted the White House, which referred questions to HUD. When The Center Square reached out to LAHSA with questions, the agency responded with a copy of its complaint and its statistics.