A federal judge on Friday ordered a comprehensive independent review of all homelessness programs funded or administered by the city of Los Angeles.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter granted a wide scope for scrutiny, going beyond the standards he initially indicated he wanted.
The audit, which city officials agreed to in principle earlier this month, is part of a settlement with the Los Angeles Human Rights Coalition, a group of business owners and residents who sued the city and county, claiming they failed in their duty to address homelessness. .
Carter's order calls for “full and comprehensive transparency of every homelessness assistance program and initiative funded or implemented by the City of Los Angeles.”
This would include not just a review of the city's shelter programs as agreed to in the settlement, but Mayor Karen Bass's Inside Safe program, the city's controversial anti-camping ordinance, and street cleanups by the Bureau of Sanitation's CARE+ teams.
The broad scope of the audit arose during several days of negotiations between the city, the Los Angeles Alliance and other community groups seeking to intervene in the case.
The agreement lists 31 topics that the audit must cover. Among them are how effective the city's funds are in reducing homelessness, how service providers show success, and how the city and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority avoid double-counting people receiving housing and services.
During previous hearings, Carter received approval from the city to pay for an outside audit. Lawyers for the city and the Los Angeles Alliance told Carter on Monday that they have general agreement on the scope of the audit but have yet to establish definitions of some terms. The judge gave them until Thursday to comply.
The seven-page document they submitted Thursday outlines a comprehensive audit program.
It requires “complete and accurate information regarding city expenditures and uses of public funds, including city, county, state and federal funds allocated to assist people experiencing homelessness.” This will include money from the joint homeless services authority between the city and Los Angeles County.
The scope of work will include analyzing whether these programs increase or decrease the stability of homeless people and whether they help or hinder them in receiving appropriate care, such as behavioral health care, treatment beds, and substance abuse treatment.
The parties in the case agreed to use three external auditor candidates to make presentations to the court at the next hearing in the case, scheduled for April 4.
At Monday's hearing, Carter also received an undertaking from Mayor Bass, who was in the courtroom, that all homeless utility bills, including supporting documentation, would be posted on a public website.
He insisted on sharing the documents, saying: “The best auditor is the public.”
Asserting that “there has been absolutely no accountability or transparency regarding at least $600 million” spent by the city in one period, Carter questioned why an agreement could not be reached that “all invoices must contain supporting documentation regarding “Regarding what has been implemented.” , “Why wait for an audit to do this?”
The city can do that within the two weeks requested by the judge, Bass said.
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority CEO Fa Lesia Adams Kellum, who telephoned the court Monday at Carter's request, pledged to provide such documents so the city could release them to the public.
“Absolutely,” Adams-Kellum said. “One hundred percent committed to doing that.”
On Friday, Carter explained his request for documentation. He said he wants to change what he sees as a culture of paying bills that lack written explanations of their purpose and what has been done, assuming the work is done.
“If our providers in the field don’t have the basic documentation, the presumption is the opposite — that they didn’t do the work,” the judge said.
A major point of contention in negotiations over the scope of the audit was which city programs would be included.
On Monday, Shayla Myers, an attorney representing two groups that intervened in the lawsuit, said the review should include the city's enforcement of Municipal Bylaw 41.18, which prohibits camping near places such as schools and day care centers or in designated designated areas. By decision of the city council.
The Community Action Network of Los Angeles, one of the intervening groups, and other homeless advocates assert that the law is only intended to purge certain areas of homeless people.
In contrast to the Inside Safe Act, which focuses on getting people to voluntarily enter shelters, the anti-camping law merely pushes people from one place to another, making it more difficult for outreach workers to help them, advocates say.
Carter had previously said he was not inclined to include Ordinance 41.18 because he saw it as primarily a “political decision on the part of the city.”
But Myers successfully pushed to have the scope cover “every homelessness assistance program and initiative funded or implemented by the City of Los Angeles,” including the anti-camping ordinance.
Carter accepted the principle without comment on Friday, and praised all parties involved.
The audit issue arose after the Los Angeles Alliance filed a motion last month asking Carter to fine the city $6.4 million, alleging it was dragging its feet on a requirement to set goals and milestones to reduce homeless encampments. The city approved a timeline for these landmarks in January, nearly a year later than they were initially scheduled.
The judge agreed that the city had violated its obligation under the April 2022 settlement agreement, but said he was concerned the amount sought would be “taking money from the homeless when we need that money on the front side.”
He said he instead believes the law firm Umhofer, Mitchell & King, which brought the case, should be compensated in an amount that has not yet been determined.
