A federal judge Thursday ordered L.A. homelessness officials to immediately make available records needed for auditors looking into where hundreds of millions in public money has gone.
“You’re not working on your time frame now. You’re working on mine,” Judge David O. Carter told officials with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) during a Thursday court hearing.
Bevin Kuhn, LAHSA’s acting deputy chief analytics officer, told Carter the agency originally planned to make data publicly available in October. At that point in the hearing, Carter — clearly frustrated about what he described as “slow-footing” — told Kuhn the court would order data to be produced sooner.
“I don’t know how much more clear I can be. Get going,” Carter said. “I mean now.”
How we got here
The comprehensive audit by the firm Alvarez & Marsal is related to a settlement reached almost two years ago in a long-running lawsuit between advocates for the unhoused and the city and county of L.A. That suit was filed by the L.A. Alliance For Human Rights.
As part of that settlement, the city agreed to create nearly 13,000 new shelter and housing beds for unhoused Angelenos. The county separately agreed to create 3,000 mental health and addiction treatment beds.
Auditors trying to track spending and outcomes on homelessness efforts in recent years told Carter in court Thursday that figuring out which providers were paid to achieve what outcomes has been like untangling a bowl of spaghetti. The city and county have provided some data, they said, but other requests have not been fulfilled.
Last-minute data dumps
L.A. City…
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