Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath is calling for a forensic audit and public Board of Supervisors hearing following a Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Finance Committee meeting Friday that she says raised serious concerns about the agency's financial management.
"If LAHSA were a publicly traded company, regulators would shut them down," Horvath said in a statement.
Among the issues Horvath said were raised at the Feb. 20 meeting: LAHSA lacks the staffing and expertise to pay its bills; has received advanced county funding yet cannot pay service providers for work completed months ago; has refused 24 qualified county staff offered at no cost to assist with operations; and is providing balance sheets to commissioners that do not reconcile or reflect real-time financial data.
Horvath, who noted that county dollars remain with LAHSA until July 1, outlined three immediate demands: a public hearing at the Board of Supervisors, a forensic audit with county auditors embedding at the agency immediately, and prompt payment of all outstanding invoices owed to service providers contracted on the county's behalf.
"The old system is broken — and that is why we are building a new one that actually works," Horvath said.
Edited by SMDP Staff