Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been summoned to Washington, D.C. to testify before a House subcommittee investigating alleged waste, fraud and abuse tied to more than $1 billion in federal homelessness funding routed through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority since 2021. The public hearing, titled Fixing Fraud and Failure in Federally Funded Homelessness Services, is scheduled for 11 a.m. on September 15 in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building.
The summons comes from the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, led by Rep. Tim Burchett, which sits under the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, according to New York Post. In a September 3 announcement, Burchett detailed that the investigation centers on alleged corrupt contracting, self-enrichment schemes and systemic failures in grant-making procedures, according to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Burchett wrote that Los Angeles officials have not adequately protected federal taxpayer dollars and that many nonprofits receiving allocated federal funds appear not to be using them for their intended purpose.
The panel has also demanded documents from Bass’s office covering January 1, 2020 to the present, due September 14, including records on the use of federal homelessness funds, LAHSA internal controls records, and communications among the mayor’s office, LAHSA, the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Oversight of the money is shared awkwardly: Bass and the City Council appoint half of LAHSA’s governing board, while the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appoints the rest. LAHSA itself is a joint city-county agency coordinating homeless services, and it received more than $1 billion in federal funding since 2021, including $220 million in 2024 alone, according to the letter cited by the Post.
A Federal Freeze, Then a Judicial Reversal
The congressional probe follows a rockier chapter for LAHSA’s federal money. In a June 11, 2026 suspension letter, HUD Deputy Secretary Andrew Hughes accused the agency of “wanton mismanagement of public funds,” even as he warned that federal dollars make up roughly 8% of LAHSA’s budget and that cutting them off risked ending permanent housing subsidies for thousands of formerly homeless Angelenos, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. HUD’s Inspector General had been investigating alleged failures in LAHSA’s internal controls, financial management and conflict-of-interest safeguards, along with alleged repeated false statements…