Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been summoned to Washington, D.C. to testify before a House subcommittee investigating alleged waste, fraud and abuse tied to more than $1 billion in federal homelessness funding routed through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority since 2021. The public hearing, titled Fixing Fraud and Failure in Federally Funded Homelessness Services, is scheduled for 11 a.m. on September 15 in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building.
The summons comes from the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, led by Rep. Tim Burchett, which sits under the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, according to New York Post. In a September 3 announcement, Burchett detailed that the investigation centers on alleged corrupt contracting, self-enrichment schemes and systemic failures in grant-making procedures, according to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Burchett wrote that Los Angeles officials have not adequately protected federal taxpayer dollars and that many nonprofits receiving allocated federal funds appear not to be using them for their intended purpose.
The panel has also demanded documents from Bass's office covering January 1, 2020 to the present, due September 14, including records on the use of federal homelessness funds, LAHSA internal controls records, and communications among the mayor's office, LAHSA, the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Oversight of the money is shared awkwardly: Bass and the City Council appoint half of LAHSA's governing board, while the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appoints the rest. LAHSA itself is a joint city-county agency coordinating homeless services, and it received more than $1 billion in federal funding since 2021, including $220 million in 2024 alone, according to the letter cited by the Post.
A Federal Freeze, Then a Judicial Reversal
The congressional probe follows a rockier chapter for LAHSA's federal money. In a June 11, 2026 suspension letter, HUD Deputy Secretary Andrew Hughes accused the agency of “wanton mismanagement of public funds,” even as he warned that federal dollars make up roughly 8% of LAHSA's budget and that cutting them off risked ending permanent housing subsidies for thousands of formerly homeless Angelenos, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. HUD's Inspector General had been investigating alleged failures in LAHSA's internal controls, financial management and conflict-of-interest safeguards, along with alleged repeated false statements.
That suspension didn't stick. U.S. District Judge David Carter ruled on August 13 that HUD had illegally revoked LAHSA's funding, writing that while “LAHSA may be dysfunctional,” federal assistance had to continue because vulnerable unhoused residents depend on those services, per WNG. LAHSA had sued HUD to restore its grant pipeline, and the ruling forced federal money to keep flowing even as the DOGE subcommittee's own inquiry ramped up.
A $1.6 Million Payout Draws Scrutiny
Much of the House panel's attention has landed on 1736 Family Crisis Center, a LAHSA contractor that has received at least $25 million through the agency since 2021 and more than $36 million in federal grants since 2008. According to the documents cited by the Post, CEO Carol Adelkoff received $907,923 in compensation in 2023 and $742,181 in 2024, for a two-year total of $1.6 million that included a $495,000 bonus. By comparison, median annual pay for leaders of 16 comparable Los Angeles-area nonprofits was $159,737.
Adelkoff, who lives in Hawaii, told the Los Angeles Times the total reflected an $824,000 cash-out for unused vacation time accrued across 40 years. The nonprofit watchdog CharityWatch called the payout an extraordinary governance breakdown, according to the same Los Angeles Times report and a related post on the CharityWatch blog.
The Adams Kellum Conflict-of-Interest Episode
Congressional investigators are also expected to press on a separate controversy involving former LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum. Public records obtained by LAist in February 2025 showed she personally signed and authorized a $2.1 million federal contract in May 2024 with Upward Bound House, where her husband, Edward Kellum, worked as Director of Operations and Compliance. California conflict-of-interest law bars public officials from participating in contracts that financially benefit a spouse.
Adams Kellum told LAist she had recused herself from matters involving her husband's employer, and LAHSA said the contract had inadvertently ended up in front of her. An outside law firm's independent review in July 2025 cleared her of intentional ethics violations, concluding the signature was an inadvertent administrative oversight, per LA Local, and LAHSA subsequently pledged additional staff training on contract routing. Adams Kellum resigned after Los Angeles County voted in April 2025 to pull its roughly $300 million to $350 million in annual funding and launch its own standalone Department of Homeless Services and Housing, which officially opened after LA County's overhaul vote on July 1, 2026.
Budget Growth and a Rising Street Count
The scale of money now in question reflects LAHSA's rapid growth. The agency's annual operating budget ballooned more than tenfold in less than a decade, from $63 million in 2015 to over $800 million by 2022, as local tax measures and federal relief funds expanded — a surge that coincided with mounting audits flagging unmanaged contractor payments.
Even as the funding fights played out, street-level numbers moved in the wrong direction. Los Angeles homelessness increased 3.4% from the previous year according to HUD data, with the city's homeless population rising to more than 45,000 and Los Angeles County home to about 73,000 homeless people, part of a statewide total of around 182,000. LAHSA's own July 2026 Point-in-Time count showed unsheltered homelessness in the city rose 7.9%, a spike the agency attributed in part to a pause in time-limited rental subsidies caused by regional funding strains.
LAHSA's troubles with contractors extended beyond the headline-grabbing cases. In June 2026, the agency terminated its contracts with provider Home At Last Community Development Corp. after IRS federal agents seized cash tied to its founder amid an investigation into conflict-of-interest transactions and executive compensation, forcing LAHSA to scramble to relocate roughly 181 shelter residents.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has authority to investigate any matter at any time, and the House has now formally called Bass to testify as the September 15 hearing approaches. With the DOGE subcommittee's document deadline landing just one day before the hearing, the coming weeks will test whether the inquiry produces new accountability for LAHSA's federal dollars or becomes another flashpoint in the ongoing rift between Los Angeles City, LA County and federal overseers.
