Exclusive | House DOGE panel calls Mayor Bass to DC over alleged $1B homeless funds scandal

The US House is calling on Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to testify over alleged “waste, fraud and abuse” involving more than $1 billion in federal homelessness funding funneled through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), according to a letter obtained by the California Post.

The Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, led by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), summoned Bass to a Sept. 15 public hearing titled “Fixing Fraud and Failure in Federally Funded Homelessness Services.” 

The hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC. 

The panel is investigating alleged abuse of federal grants intended to address homelessness — with a particular focus on LAHSA and its distribution of federal money to nonprofits in Los Angeles and the surrounding area. 

“Because Los Angeles officials have not adequately protected federal taxpayer dollars, it appears that many nonprofits to which those funds have been allocated are not using them for their intended purpose,” Burchett wrote to Bass.

The DOGE subcommittee is part of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is the House’s principal oversight committee with broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time”

The House panel is demanding documents from Bass’ office covering the period from Jan. 1, 2020, to the present, including records on LAHSA’s internal controls, the use of federal homelessness funds and communications between the mayor’s office, LAHSA, the City Council and LA County Board of Supervisors. The documents are due by Sept. 14 — one day before the hearing. 

LAHSA has received more than $1 billion in federal funding since 2021, including $220 million in 2024 alone, according to the letter.

The panel also cited a Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general investigation into LAHSA’s handling of federal funds, including alleged “repeated false statements” and failures involving financial management, internal controls and safeguards against conflicts of interest. 

In June HUD suspended further federal funding to LAHSA until officials could demonstrate that adequate safeguards were in place to protect taxpayer dollars. A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administrations cuts in August.

The scrutiny comes as homelessness remains a massive problem in Los Angeles.

California has around 182,000 homeless people, including about 73,000 in Los Angeles County and more than 45,000 in the city, a 3.4% increase from the previous year, according to HUD Data.

LAHSA is a joint city-county agency responsible for coordinating homeless services, with the city and county sharing oversight of federal funds flowing to the authority. Bass and the LA City Council collectively appoint half of LAHSA’s governing board, while members of the county Board of Supervisors appoint the other members. 

The committee also pointed to several specific examples that have raised questions about LAHSA’s oversight.

Among them is a $2.1 million contract signed by former LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum with Upward Bound House, the employer of her husband. Kellum had previously told LAist she had recused herself from matters involving her husband’s employer, but public records later showed she personally authorized the contract. LAHSA said the contract had “inadvertently ended up” in front of her. 

The panel also cited reporting about 1736 Family Crisis Center, which has received more than $36 million in federal grants since 2008, including at least $25 million through LAHSA since 2021.

The organization’s CEO, Carol Adelkoff, received $1.6 million in total compensation over two years while living in Hawaii, according to the letter. 

The committee says Adelkoff received $742,181 in 2024 compensation and $907,923 the previous year, including a $495,000 bonus. It compared that compensation with the median annual pay of leaders at 16 comparable Los Angeles-area nonprofits, which it said was $159,737. 

The Post has reached out to Bass’ office for comment.

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