Tipsheet

The White House Fraud Task Force Just Pulled Tens of Millions From Los Angeles' Homeless Programs

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  June 11, 2026 1:00 PM

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a member of the White House Fraud Task Force led by Vice President JD Vance, will immediately suspend tens of millions of dollars in federal funding to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) while HUD's inspector general investigates potential misconduct by the agency and its leadership, according to a letter obtained by Fox News and sent to LAHSA Board Chair Wendy Greuel and CEO Gita O'Neill.

“Suspending LAHSA’s participation in federal government programs is a necessary step in accomplishing that critical mission in Los Angeles,” HUD wrote in the letter. “LAHSA’s failures have been so severe and pervasive that Los Angeles County has withdrawn its funding for the agency, and the City of Los Angeles is considering doing so as well.”

“HUD cannot ignore LAHSA’s wanton mismanagement of public funds. HUD’s mission is to reduce the plague of homelessness in America,” the letter added. “Turning over billions of dollars from American taxpayers to an organization under investigation and suspected of gross misuse of federal funding and 'obvious fraud' does nothing to reduce homelessness. Indeed, diverting dollars from worthy programs to LAHSA merely makes the homeless crisis worse.”

LAHSA receives nearly $1 billion in combined city, state, and federal funding to address Los Angeles' homelessness crisis. Despite that massive investment, homelessness has continued to grow, while audits and investigations have uncovered significant examples of waste, fraud, and abuse. At the same time, many of the agency's programs have produced extremely limited results, often helping barely a fraction of the homeless population.

For example, between 2021 and 2023, the City of Los Angeles spent more than $3 million implementing an anti-camping initiative aimed at moving homeless individuals into more permanent housing. After three years, however, the program reportedly secured permanent housing for just two people and temporary housing for 313 others. To make matters worse, the program attempted to place fewer than 2,000 individuals overall, resulting in a permanent housing placement rate of roughly 0.1 percent among those it served. Measured against the city's broader homeless population, the impact was significantly smaller.

"Since 2021, LAHSA received $1 billion while homelessness skyrocketed and fraud ran rampant," the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner, said. "Our message to the homelessness industrial complex: If you are doing something fraudulent, you are on notice."

This comes as Los Angeles officials continue to say that the city's homeless population has fallen for a second year in a row, yet nearly 75,000 homeless people still remain in the city. Even worse, many of its programs continue to be as ineffective as the one above, focusing on providing clean needles so drug users can inject at taxpayers' expense, while few are focused on helping homeless people become productive members of society.