Los Angeles’ homelessness mega-agency defunded, CEO resigns after failed audits

The chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority resigned days after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors defunded the super-agency to create its own homelessness department.

LAHSA had failed two recent audits in recent months, and CEO Va Lecia Lecia Adams Kellum was found to have “inadvertently” signed millions of dollars of contracts to the nonprofit her husband works at, violating the organization’s conflict-of-interest policy.

With a new $1 billion per year countywide sales tax hike for homelessness programs to be distributed across the county on the basis of the number of homeless individuals, the county would be able to use this new funding and $300 million it would have spent on LAHSA on the new agency.