Latest news with #VaLeciaAdamsKellum
CBS News
21-07-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
LA homeless services CEO to officially step down on Friday
The chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority will officially step down on Friday after submitting her resignation in April. The resignation of Va Lecia Adams Kellum came days after the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to strip LAHSA of more than $300 million and create a new county department of homelessness. In a letter to the LAHSA Commission, Adams Kellum wrote it was the "right time" for her to step down after serving as head of the department since March 2023. "I am incredibly proud of LAHSA's talented and dedicated staff and deeply grateful for their tireless work. I thank them and the Commission for the opportunity to serve as CEO and for our partnership in reducing homelessness in our region," Adams Kellum wrote in her resignation letter. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass credited Adams Kellum as the architect of Inside Safe, a program intended to address street encampments and bring people into temporary housing. Under her leadership, the annual point-in-time homeless count showed there was a 4% decrease in homeless people across the county, while in the city of Los Angeles, there was a 3.4% drop. The 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count showed that unsheltered homelessness in the county declined by 9.5% in 2025 compared to the prior year, and it has dropped by 14% over the last two years. While the count showed a decline in homeless numbers, the board of supervisors felt more could be done. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the new Department of Homeless Services and Housing is expected to "streamline services, break through bureaucracy, and deliver results across all 88 cities and unincorporated communities." The LAHSA agency had come under fire when a recent federal court review faulted it for losing track of billions in taxpayer funds while failing to address the region's homelessness crisis. An audit revealed that LAHSA could not account for tens of millions of dollars. The board of supervisors voted in April to essentially defund the joint city-county LAHSA and instead form its own department. In early July, Sarah Mahin was appointed as director of the new Department of Homeless Services and Housing. She served as the Director of Policy and Systems at LAHSA and coordinated services across a range of organizations and multiple county and city departments.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Homelessness in Los Angeles drops for 2nd straight year
For the second consecutive year, homelessness decreased in the Los Angeles area, the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count found. 'Deep collaboration, focused emergency response, and innovative programming caused homelessness to decline by 4.0% in LA County and 3.4% in the City of LA,' the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority said Monday. The count, conducted Feb. 18-20, found more than 72,000 homeless people in the county and almost 44,000 in the city, down from 2023's highs of 75,518 and 46,260, respectively. 'It's official: The annual homeless count in Los Angeles shows a consecutive year decrease for the first time. Ever,' L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said on social media. 'On day one, I declared a state of emergency to reject the old way of doing things. Now, we've turned the page. We will not stop working urgently to save lives.' This year's reductions of 4% and 3.4% for county and city, respectively, are significantly larger than last year's reductions of 0.3% and 2.2%. 'When I first came to LAHSA, I said we'd reduce unsheltered homelessness in three years,' said LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum. 'We did it in one and cemented it in two. By bringing innovative solutions, system change, and working arm in arm with our partners over the last two years, LAHSA has helped move people inside with the urgency this humanitarian crisis demands.' Kellum, who is transitioning out of her LAHSA role, added that 'we can also see clearly that our work isn't done' in an apparent message to local leaders, her colleagues and eventual successor. 'It's crucial we keep moving forward, together, to sustain our reductions in unsheltered homelessness,' she said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Guardian
15-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Homelessness in Los Angeles county declines for second straight year
Homelessness in Los Angeles county declined by 4% to an estimated 72,308 people in 2025, the Los Angeles homeless services authority (Lahsa) announced on Monday. The southern California metropolitan area previously reported its highest unhoused population in 2023, when it counted 75,518 people experiencing homelessness. That count decreased slightly to 75,312 people in 2024. 'For the first time in our city's recent history, homelessness has gone down two years in a row,' the Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, said at a press conference announcing the results of Lahsa's annual point-in-time count. The estimate is based on a count conducted over three days in February 2025, and includes people living on the street and people in shelters. For the first time in its history, the point-in-time count was entered entirely digitally, a change the agency hopes will improve speed and accuracy in future counts. 'Reducing homelessness is now a trend in the city and the county,' said Lahsa's CEO, Va Lecia Adams Kellum. Unsheltered homelessness in the city of Los Angeles dropped by 7.9% from 2024, for a total of a 17.5% decrease since 2023. About two-thirds of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles are unsheltered. The number of people in shelters rose by 4.7%. Lahsa noted a 22% decrease in chronic homelessness, with nearly 6,000 fewer chronically homeless people living on the street. As in previous years, the majority of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles continue to be overwhelming people of color, particularly Black and Latino people. Approximately one-third of all unhoused people in the United States live in California. Experts say the crisis is largely due to a lack of affordable housing in one of the most expensive states in the country. 'We chose to reject the status quo which was choosing to leave people on the street until housing was built,' said Bass, who noted that California's governor, Gavin Newsom, texted her a congratulations on her way to the press conference. Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness on her first day in office in 2022. During Monday's press conference, Bass and other Los Angeles area leaders touted the success of the city's encampment resolutions and funding for interim and permanent housing. 'We've made real progress towards ending homelessness, and we cannot let that momentum falter now,' said Adams Kellum. Yet California has also deployed increasingly aggressive tactics to break up homeless encampments following a 2024 US supreme court ruling that cities can criminalize unhoused people for sleeping outside – even if there are no available shelter spaces. In February, Newsom warned cities and counties that they could lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding if they do not make progress in clearing out encampments and tackling homelessness. And in May he escalated those warnings, calling for cities to effectively ban encampments 'without delay'. Earlier this month, California also voted to overhaul its landmark environmental protection rules, to allow for the construction of more housing that might combat the state's homelessness crisis. 'Nobody should see these results and think our job is done,' said Katy Yaroslavsky, a Los Angeles city council member. 'We're still in a crisis, but for the first time in a long time, we're seeing the tide start to turn. We've learned a lot over the past few years about what it takes to resolve encampments and get people housed for good.' Dennis Oleesky, the CEO of Los Angeles Mission, the city's oldest homeless services provider, echoed some of those concerns: 'Any reduction in homelessness is a step in the right direction – and we should acknowledge even small declines as progress. But let's be clear: this remains a humanitarian crisis, not a political one. It's not something that can be fixed with a wave of a wand by any politician or party. A 2% dip is better than an increase, but it's also a wake-up call that our current approach is not enough. This crisis touches real human lives, and it demands more than policy tweaks – it requires all of us, as citizens, to take part in the solution. We need to pair bold, compassionate action with shared accountability. Only then will we begin to see lasting, meaningful change.' Lahsa has come under scrutiny in recent months, with the Rand Corporation noting earlier this month that the agency's point-in-time count appeared notably less than its own similar count. In April, the LA county board of supervisors went so far as to end its funding for the joint county-city initiative, instead funneling its support for homelessness services to a new county agency. Those and other recent budget cuts may mean that this is the last homeless count the agency is able to conduct, Adams Kellum said.
The Guardian
14-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Homelessness in Los Angeles county declines for second straight year
Homelessness in Los Angeles county declined by 4% to an estimated 72,308 people in 2025, the Los Angeles homeless services authority (Lahsa) announced on Monday. The southern California metropolitan area previously reported its highest unhoused population in 2023, when it counted 75,518 people experiencing homelessness. That count decreased slightly to 75,312 people in 2024. 'For the first time in our city's recent history, homelessness has gone down two years in a row,' the Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, said at a press conference announcing the results of Lahsa's annual point-in-time count. The estimate is based on a count conducted over three days in February 2025, and includes people living on the street and people in shelters. For the first time in its history, the point in time count was entered entirely digitally, a change the agency hopes will improve speed and accuracy in future counts. 'Reducing homelessness is now a trend in the city and the county,' said Lahsa's CEO, Va Lecia Adams Kellum. Unsheltered homelessness in the city of Los Angeles dropped by 7.9% from 2024, for a total of a 17.5% decrease since 2023. About two-thirds of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles are unsheltered. The number of people in shelter rose by 4.7%. Lahsa noted a 22% decrease in chronic homelessness, with nearly 6,000 fewer chronically homeless people living on the street. As in previous years, the majority of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles continue to be overwhelming people of color, particularly Black and Latino people. Approximately one-third of all unhoused people in the United States live in California. Experts say the devastating crisis is largely due to a lack of affordable housing in one of the most expensive states in the country. 'We chose to reject the status quo which was choosing to leave people on the street until housing was built,' said Bass, who noted that California governor Gavin Newsom texted her a congratulations on her way to the press conference. Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness on her first day in office in 2022. During Monday's press conference, Bass and other Los Angeles area leaders touted the success of the city's encampment resolutions, funding for interim and permanent housing. 'We've made real progress towards ending homelessness, and we cannot let that momentum falter now,' said Adams Kellum. Yet, California has also deployed increasingly aggressive tactics to break up homeless encampments following a 2024 US supreme court ruling that cities can criminalize unhoused people for sleeping outside – even if there are no available shelter spaces. In February, Newsom warned cities and counties that they could lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding if they do not make progress in clearing out encampments and tackling homelessness. And in May he escalated those warnings, calling for cities to effectively ban encampments 'without delay'. Earlier this month, California also voted to overhaul its landmark environmental protection rules, to allow for the construction of more housing that might combat the state's homelessness crisis. 'Nobody should see these results and think our job is done,' said Katy Yaroslavsky, a Los Angeles city councilmember. 'We're still in a crisis, but for the first time in a long time, we're seeing the tide start to turn. We've learned a lot over the past few years about what it takes to resolve encampments and get people housed for good.' Lahsa has come under scrutiny in recent months, with the Rand corporation noting earlier this month that the agency's point-in-time count appeared notably less than its own similar count. In April, the LA county board of supervisors went so far as to end its funding for the joint county-city initiative, instead funneling its support for homelessness services to a new county agency. Those and other recent budget cuts may mean that this is the last homeless count the agency is able to conduct, Adams Kellum said.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Los Angeles homeless chief to resign after the county guts her agency
Va Lecia Adams Kellum, the head of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, announced her resignation Friday, just days after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to strip her agency of more than $300 million and hundreds of workers. In a letter delivered to the agency's board of commissioners Friday afternoon, Adams Kellum said that due to the move, "shifting key responsibilities from LAHSA to LA County, now is the right time for me to resign as CEO." Adams Kellum, whose agency has been under fire for several months, committed to stay for a transition period 120 days or longer if needed. Adams Kellum took the helm of the agency in March 2023, at a time when it was in the midst of a historic growth spurt, with new funds flowing into homelessness programs, but also faced heightened criticism for disjointed services, poor accounting and, ultimately, the inability to reduce the number of people on the streets. As the former head of the St. Joseph Center in Venice, which she helped transform into a major provider of homeless services, Adams Kellum brought experience to a job that historically had been in the hands of career bureaucrats and vowed to tackle the agency's well-documented deficiencies. She brought a reputation as a problem solver for her management of the cleanup of a massive homeless encampment that grew on the Venice beach and boardwalk during the pandemic. She was credited with designing Mayor Karen Bass' Inside Safe encampment removal program based on that experience. Yet even as she claimed success in speeding up the agency's contracting process, improving data management and securing reductions in street homelessness over the past two years, her agency was the subject of sharply critical audits, which in turn fueled a growing clamor for structural change. In an interview with The Times on Friday, Adams Kellum said she hasn't taken a new position but that she will stay in homeless services. "That's my mission in life," she said. "I remain so steadfast in my commitment to addressing homelessness and helping prevent it and make sure it's rare, brief and non-reoccurring." Adams Kellum said she had hoped to the last minute that her agency could "continue to move in sync with the city and county with a collaborative and real aligned focus on driving down homelessness and reducing unsheltered homelessness. "I've been hoping to the end that we could keep doing it but doing better and different," she said. It wasn't to be. On Tuesday, the supervisors voted 4-0 to take its funding out of LAHSA and put it into a new county homelessness agency. The county provides $348 million — or about 40% of LAHSA's yearly budget — and pays for an estimated 470 workers. Under the board's timetable, most of that money, and potentially all of those workers, would be moved into the new county agency by July 1, 2026. In recent weeks, Adams Kellum had touted her agency's work, including a decrease in street homelessness of more than 5% in the county and more than 10% in the city last year. Before Tuesday's vote, county supervisors gave her little opportunity to defend her agency. Rather than extending her the courtesy of speaking at length as a visiting official, which Adams Kellum had done frequently before, Chairwoman Kathryn Barger only granted her 30 seconds more than a member of the public. After she had spoken for 90 seconds, her mic was cut off. "We kept our promises," she said, after the county had stopped broadcasting her words on their audio system. Adams Kellum and her agency had been under fire for months. In response to critical audits, she has repeatedly acknowledged its flaws, and characterized her mission as one of reforming problems that she inherited from prior administrations. In her resignation letter, she outlined half a dozen accomplishments, including a master leasing program that has quickly secured 772 units supportive housing, an advance payment model to get providers upfront funding and creating a shelter reservation system set to launch in July. "It's been known as a problem in the system for years of not knowing where the openings are and how that impacts referrals," she said in the interview. In November, the county's auditor-controller issued a report concluding that lax accounting procedures and poorly written contracts had prevented LAHSA from recouping millions of dollars it had provided to its contractors as an advance in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. (LAHSA officials responded by saying full repayment was not due until 2027.) Another audit, demanded by a federal judge overseeing a case involving homelessness services, found that LAHSA lacks sufficient financial oversight to ensure that its contractors deliver the services they are paid to provide. That has left the agency vulnerable to waste and fraud, the audit said. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, the judge who commissioned the audit, criticized Adams Kellum for failing to show up for a hearing where the findings were discussed. Told that she was in Boston and would not attend, Carter said that was "not acceptable to me." Adams Kellum sent a letter to the court outlining reforms by her agency to improve financial and contract oversight. Carter, at his hearing, said LAHSA had offered "meaningless" promises. "And frankly, I could care less," he said. "If they were going to do it, they should have done it, or they should have given you a road map now of ... how they're going to do it." Adams Kellum also has drawn criticism for signing a $2.1-million contract between her agency and Upward Bound House, a nonprofit group that employs her husband. Barger said Adams Kellum's handling of the issue was "sloppy," while others called it a clear conflict of interest. Adams Kellum said the contract, which she signed in May 2024, was sent to her for her electronic signature in error. LAHSA officials said the agency's 10-member commission had already taken up that contract nine months earlier. When the item came up at that meeting, Adams Kellum stepped out of the room, according to the meeting minutes. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
