He organized a day-long summit<\/a> focused on how L.A. could shift its funding of homeless services so that contractors are paid for positive results. And for the past year he served as chair of LAHSA\u2019s audit committee, where he pushed for more independence for internal auditors and pressed LAHSA to finish<\/a> a years-long audit into its failure to spend $7 million in federal grants.<\/p>\n Last week, Szlasa was removed as chair of the three-member committee, without explanation. The move has generated criticism at a time when LAHSA remains under strict scrutiny \u2014 and the threat of losing federal<\/a> and city funding<\/a> \u2014 just two months before the general election.<\/p>\n Learn the ins and outs behind L.A.’s housing crisis.<\/p>\n Sign up for Building Your Block, a seven-issue newsletter course from LAist that explains the obstacles around housing development in L.A. and what you can do to make things better.<\/p>\n \u201cJustin has been the lifeline for any viable future for LAHSA,\u201d said Rick Cole, a former top deputy in the L.A. City Controller\u2019s office, which audits city tax dollars.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s pushed for the kind of transparency and accountability that everyone has wanted from that agency for 30 years,\u201d Cole added. \u201cAnd the absence of it is what has led to its imminent downfall.\u201d<\/p>\n Although he is no longer its chair, Szlasa remains a member of the three-person audit committee. Losing the position means he no longer has authority to decide when and whether proposals will be scheduled for discussion and action. Szlasa said the chair also takes the lead in overseeing LAHSA\u2019s internal audit staff in between the monthly committee meetings.<\/p>\n In an interview, Szlasa said he asked to stay on as audit chair, and was denied without being given a reason.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m disappointed,\u201d he said. \u201c\u200aI really took a very athletic approach to my work as chair. If we did a good job on that committee, we would be stepping towards the transparency, the accountability, the operational excellence that LAHSA really needs and the citizens of Los Angeles really deserve \u2014 whether they’re housed or unhoused.\u201d<\/p>\n No explanation for the removal<\/b><\/p>\n Szlasa was removed from his post as audit chair at the request of Stephanie Graves, an appointee of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.<\/p>\n Graves is the new chair of LAHSA Commission, whose 10 members govern the agency. The audit committee is a subset of the larger commission, and its members are tasked with overseeing an annual federally-required audit, as well as internal audits meant to root out oversight problems.<\/p>\n Graves recommended Szlasa\u2019s removal as audit chair last week as part of her request for new committee assignments. The full commission approved her recommendations Friday.<\/p>\n LAist asked Graves why she recommended removing Szlasa. She said it was her \u201cprerogative\u201d as chair of the full commission. She has not explained her reasoning.<\/p>\n \u201cSzlasa continues to be on the Audit Committee and his insights are valuable,\u201d Graves said in a text message.<\/p>\n Stephanie Graves, the newly-selected chair of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Commission, speaks at the press briefing for the 2026 homeless count results in Los Angeles on July 24, 2026.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Bass echoed Graves\u2019 response, saying the appointments in question \u201care determined by the LAHSA Commission Chair and subject to the confirmation of the full Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither the Mayor\u2019s Office nor Graves have answered whether Bass directed Szlasa\u2019s removal or discussed it with Graves before she made her recommendation.<\/p>\n Bass has directed LAHSA outside of public view in the past, including by ordering it<\/a> to contract with one of her mayoral transition advisors<\/a> \u2014 Va Lecia Adams Kellum \u2014 as a $40,000-per-month consultant to design the mayor\u2019s homelessness program Inside Safe.<\/p>\n Adams Kellum became LAHSA\u2019s CEO just after the consulting contract ended in 2023. She left LAHSA last summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Graves also was on the mayor\u2019s transition team<\/a> and attended a meeting of Bass\u2019 re-election campaign\u2019s finance committee last year, according to a campaign disclosure<\/a>. Graves runs a PR firm that has taxpayer-funded contracts overseen by Bass and her appointees.<\/p>\n Cole, who also serves as a Pasadena City Council member, said Szlasa\u2019s removal is part of a \u201ccover-up\u201d of dysfunction at LAHSA.<\/p>\n \u201cMayor Bass hand-picked her choice to head LAHSA, who led directly to its downward tailspin,\u201d Cole said, referring to Adams Kellum. \u201cSo it\u2019s not surprising that her appointee [Graves] would be continuing the ongoing cover-up of dysfunction at the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n LAist reached out to both Bass and Graves for reaction to Cole\u2019s comments, but has not received a response.<\/p>\n In an email sent Friday after this article was published, LAHSA Chief of Staff Paul Rubenstein said it is normal for committee chairs to change year to year. <\/p>\n According to data he provided, at least one committee chair has previously remained for a second year in a row.<\/p>\n Fixing ‘dysfunction’ at LAHSA<\/b><\/p>\n Cole said Szlasa has been trying to fix the dysfunction that has led to problems at LAHSA.<\/p>\n Among those problems was $10 million in LAHSA funds alleged to have been illegally pocketed by the leader of a service provider, according to federal prosecutors<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week, LAist reported<\/a> that LAHSA approved at least $3.5 million in taxpayer contracts to that group \u2014 Abundant Blessings \u2014 even after LAHSA\u2019s compliance team flagged it as \u201cHigh-Risk\u201d for failing to do its job.<\/p>\n \u201cThe failures that [LAist has] been exposing\u2026Justin [Szlasa] has been trying to fix those things since he got appointed,\u201d said Cole, who was high up at the City Controller\u2019s Office when it launched a fraud investigation<\/a> into a tip that Abundant Blessings was failing to provide the required three nutritious meals per day in Bass\u2019 Inside Safe progra<\/a>m. <\/p>\n The Controller\u2019s Office investigators found that \u201cthe only food items at these sites were things like Ramen noodles, cans of beans, and breakfast bars,\u201d according to the federal criminal complaint filed this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not a grandstander,\u201d Cole said of Szlasa. \u201cHe\u2019s not holding press conferences. \u200aHe\u2019s not exposing individual people to ridicule. He\u2019s trying to implement basic systems of data and financial management that a billion-dollar agency desperately needed, and which were grossly lacking.<\/p>\n \u201cTo isolate, ignore or punish Justin is so short-sighted.”<\/p>\n Commissioner Justin Szlasa at a LAHSA Commission meeting on Friday, April 25, 2025. <\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Samanta Helou Hernandez<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n LAist<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Szlasa said there\u2019s a big difference between being chair of the audit committee and being just a member.<\/p>\n \u201cThe chair sets the agenda. And the responsibility and the power to set the agenda sets the tone of the committee activity,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u200a\u201cIf you’re a member of a committee you can make recommendations for what you’d like to see on the next agenda,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it’s at the chair’s prerogative to decide whether or not to put those items on the agenda. So it makes a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Szlasa was appointed to the LAHSA Commission by L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. His replacement as audit committee chair is Charles Stringer, a Bass appointee.<\/p>\n Stringer has not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Pushing for accountability<\/b><\/p>\n One habit that has set Szlasa apart: checking things out for himself.<\/p>\n Last year, the commission was asked to renew a contract with a nonprofit to provide meals, security and other services for people at an approved camping site in a parking lot. The morning of the vote, Szlasa visited the site and discovered that for over a year it had only half the capacity LAHSA was paying for<\/a>. <\/p>\n That judge, David O. Carter, later called the situation<\/a> \u201cobvious fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n Szlasa asked multiple times for a full commission discussion of what happened with those payments, and that LAHSA\u2019s last two commission chairs did not schedule it.<\/p>\n The two prior chairs \u2014 Wendy Greuel and Amber Sheikh \u2014 have not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n \u200a”We have to really make sure that we’re getting what we’re paying for, and I want to see more accountability in that area,\u201d Szlasa told LAist. \u201cWhen it doesn’t work, I want to look at it carefully to understand why it’s not working.\u201d<\/p>\n Szlasa raised similar concerns last summer about “master leasing,” which Bass championed<\/a> as an approach to help move unhoused people inside quickly. It involves leasing an entire apartment building \u2014 making LAHSA the lease-holder \u2014 and then subleasing those units to people who have lived on the streets.<\/p>\n Szlasa said he visited a newly-built site where he was told<\/a> disabled residents were carried up and down stairs because of broken elevators, with no clear responsibility for who should fix them.<\/p>\n He said<\/a> he asked LAHSA executives for an accounting of the program, but they never provided one. <\/p>\n It later emerged that more than 250 taxpayer funded units \u2014 a third of the total \u2014 were sitting empty<\/a>.<\/p>\n When he hasn\u2019t gotten answers to his questions from LAHSA\u2019s management, Szlasa has filed public records requests<\/a>.<\/p>\n A February request \u2014 into whether LAHSA has been improperly using one funder\u2019s money to cover another\u2019s bills \u2014 got no real answer. Six months later, LAHSA said<\/a> it was still checking whether records exist about the practice, which auditors flagged in 2024 as \u201cmisuse\u201d of funds.<\/p>\n LAHSA can\u2019t \u201cproduce what I would consider basic financial statements,\u201d Szlasa said.<\/p>\n LAist asked<\/a> LAHSA management why the records haven\u2019t been provided, and has not received a response.<\/p>\n A spokesperson said LAHSA checks if funds \u201care available from an appropriate funding source” before paying bills without saying whether the money-mixing has stopped.<\/p>\n Questions continue<\/b><\/p>\n At a meeting last week, Szlasa asked LAHSA Interim CEO Gita O\u2019Neill why he hadn\u2019t been told of a $1.2 million settlement last fall with Abundant Blessings<\/a> \u2014 until LAist reported it last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill responded that she\u2019d answer later.<\/p>\n She and her chief of staff have not responded to LAist\u2019s questions about whether commissioners authorized the deal.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788548598_77_.jpeg\")
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