The Trump administration’s attacks on the poor and unhoused continued last week after it announced that they cut federal funds from a Los Angeles homelessness agency.
The New York Times reports that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sent a letter to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) on Thursday informing it that it will immediately suspend the agency’s funding and launch an investigation into its spending. HUD claims that even though LAHSA has received $1 billion in funding over the last five years, the agency has done little to address the rampant homelessness in Los Angeles.
“Despite receiving more federal homelessness funding than any other jurisdiction in the nation, Los Angeles remains the epicenter of the nation’s drug-fueled homelessness crisis,” the federal agency said in a statement.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, HUD will fund results, not corrupt failure or the homeless industrial complex,” Housing Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement. “Taxpayers will no longer bankroll an organization that puts its own self-interests ahead of the Americans it was created to serve.”
I mean, as of now, my tax dollars are still funding an administration that’s putting its own self-interests instead of the Americans they were appointed to serve, so I don’t think Turner’s statement is entirely accurate.
LAHSA released a statement calling the suspension of funding “a blatant attempt to pull yet more resources from Los Angeles” and claimed the decision could “put thousands of formerly homeless people back on the street.”
“If HUD’s Inspector General actually conducts a fair review of LAHSA’s current and future practices, they will clearly see how our systems now allow us to clearly track the work and investments that have resulted in LA outperforming the nation by reducing homelessness over the last two years,” LAHSA said in its statement.
Source: Trump Administration Suspends Los Angeles Homeless Services Funding
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