The U.S. House is now calling on Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to provide testimony concerning alleged “waste, fraud, and abuse” involving over a billion dollars in federal homelessness funding that was funneled through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), according to a letter that has been obtained by The California Post.
The Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is led by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), summoned Bass to appear in a public hearing on September 15, 2026, titled “Fixing Fraud and Failure in Federally Funded Homelessness Services.” The hearing is set to begin at 11 a.m. in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building located in Washington, D.C.
The panel is taking a deeper look into alleged abuse of federal grants that were intended to help address the issue of homelessness, with a special focus on LAHSA and its process for distributing federal funds to nonprofit organizations based in L.A. 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 said to Bass.
According to a report from the New York Post, the DOGE subcommittee is part of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is the oversight committee that has been granted broad authority that allows it to investigate “any matter” at “any time.” The panel is requesting documents from Bass’ office from January 1, 2020, all the way to the present.
The requested documents include records on LAHSA’s internal controls, anything relating to the use of federal homelessness funds, and communications between Bass’ office, LAHSA, the City Council, and L.A. County Board of Supervisors. The documents are to be turned in to the panel on September 14, the day before the hearing is set to begin.
The report also revealed that LAHSA has received over a billion dollars in federal funding over the course of the last five years, including a whopping $220 million in 2024 alone. The panel also cited information from a Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general investigation into LAHSA’s handling of federal funds.
This includes allegations of “repeated false statements” and failures concerning financial management, internal controls, and safeguards that were put in place to prevent conflicts of interest. In June 2026, HUD put a halt on any further federal funding being sent to LAHSA until officials at the agency could prove that adequate safeguards were in place to protect taxpayer money.
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Homelessness is a massive problem in the Golden State. California currently has somewhere in the ballpark of 182,000 homeless people. A total of 73,000 of those individuals are in Los Angeles County, with over 45,000 in the actual city, which is an increase of 3.4% since 2025. Half of the members of the LAHSA governing board are appointed by Bass and the L.A. City Council, while members of the county Board of Supervisors appoint the other half.
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