Funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have been allocated to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to house homeless victims of the Palisades Fire — though there are very few.
In addition, as the Westside Current notes, homeless services are supposed to have hundreds of millions of their own dollars, thanks to the passage of Measure A last year, which raised sales taxes half a cent in L.A. County for homeless relief.
The Westside Current reported:
One year ago, according to LAHSA’s 2024 homeless count, there were just 16 unsheltered homeless persons residing in the Palisades, and three makeshift shelters. Sharon Kilbride, a member of the Pacific Palisades Homelessness Task Force, told us that at the time of the fire there were about “15 [homeless persons] that didn’t want housing once we cleared our hillsides.” The PPHTF has its own outreach workers, who, in conjunction with The People Concern, comb the hillsides and beaches on a twice-weekly basis for encampments, offering temporary shelter to those who accept it.
In the areas of Altadena devastated by the Eaton Fire, the number of encampments counted in 2024 was even fewer than in the Palisades. Census Tract 43.01 – the area west of Lake Avenue where 17 people lost their lives — reported just one encampment. The adjacent tract, 4602, also reported just 1 tent, with just two homeless individuals. In fact, none of the eight census tracts in Altadena contained more than one or two encampments last year.
Another question raised by this event is why LAHSA, with an annual budget of $857 million, needed FEMA’s assistance to offer services to 45 individuals. As Sharon Kilbride told us, according to her contacts at The People Concern, in the two weeks following the fires, they “were readily getting the vouchers from LAHSA for motels for folks.” This would appear to indicate that LAHSA had plenty of resources, including temporary housing, for any unhoused person who needed it after the fire. According to a January 14th LAHSA press release, “On January 13, 15 outreach teams deployed in 30 high-danger areas to engage people experiencing homelessness. The teams contacted people living outdoors and in RVs near fields to provide educational materials on fire safety and meals and offered motel vouchers and beds at LAHSA’s Welcome Navigation Center.” The release stated that they had distributed 645 motel vouchers all over the city since the fire. In contrast with FEMA aid, recipients of these rooms and services acquired them immediately, without having to go through a two-hour application process and weeks of waiting to hear back.
While FEMA aid has been going to LAHSA, victims of the fire who need FEMA aid are having trouble accessing it in many cases, thanks in part to rampant fraud.
There have long been concerns with mismanagement at LAHSA. Last year, the Westside Current noted separately, the Pacific Palisades Community Council (PPCC) requested that an independent state agency investigate LAHSA over “serious and widespread mismanagement, lack of accountability, and possible corruption.”
LAist reported Tuesday that LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum approved a $2.1 million contract with a nonprofit organization where her husband is a senior employee.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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