A House subcommittee has summoned Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to testify on Capitol Hill September 15 as part of an investigation into "potential waste, fraud, and abuse" of federal homelessness funding. The House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, chaired by Rep. Tim Burchett, cited "reports of blatant corruption" in the contracting practices of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and possible misallocation of federal dollars. The letter also requests years of documents and communications between Bass's office, LAHSA, and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors dating back to 2020, and references prior reporting on a contract signed by former LAHSA head Va Lecia Adams Kellum involving a nonprofit tied to her husband.
LAHSA maintains that audits have found no evidence of fraud or corruption and point to improved performance metrics. The hearing, titled "Fixing Fraud and Failure in Federally Funded Homelessness Services," comes amid an ongoing legal battle between LAHSA and the Trump administration after HUD suspended the agency from federal grant activity in June; a judge has since blocked that suspension pending a trial set for February.
