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L.A. County officials are concerned that major cuts could be coming to federal money that houses people in the region following a meeting with a high-ranking Trump administration appointee and a new executive order from the president.<\/p>\n
This comes as county leaders say they’re already facing<\/a> a perfect storm of local, state and federal funding reductions to the social safety net.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump\u2019s order<\/a> last Thursday calls for prioritizing housing grants to states and local agencies based on whether they\u2019re enforcing \u2014 to the maximum level legally allowed \u2014 bans on urban camping, loitering, open use of illegal drugs and urban squatting.<\/p>\n A meeting two days earlier underscored that L.A.\u2019s housing funding is at risk, county officials say. At the meeting, a Trump appointee at the federal housing agency said he would be recommending the president \u201cdefund\u201d Los Angeles, according to Amy Perkins, a county official at the meeting. The appointee emphasized that he believes L.A. is failing to do enough enforcement, Perkins said.<\/p>\n In an interview with LAist, Perkins said the comments were by William Spencer, the regional administrator for California and other states at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The department funds billions each year in housing subsidies and services across L.A. County.<\/p>\n According to Perkins, Spencer told her, \u201cMr. Trump will make all the decisions here. But I just want you to know, when he asks me for my recommendation \u2014 and he will \u2014 I will tell him to defund Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n Spencer did express support for continuing funding for housing specific populations, Perkins said: veterans, women with children, people with disabilities and existing housing voucher programs for youth.<\/p>\n But Spencer said L.A. was housing people who don\u2019t need it, and disagreed with drug and alcohol use being considered a disability \u2014 saying drug use is \u201cbad choices\u201d and not a disability, according to Perkins.<\/p>\n Perkins, who is the top housing and homelessness advisor to L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, said two staff members from her office were taking notes during the meeting about what was said.<\/p>\n Spencer has not responded to voicemails from LAist requesting comment. A HUD spokesperson said the department \u201chas not made any official comment on the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Perkins said a theme in Spencer\u2019s remarks was his view that L.A. doesn\u2019t want to enforce laws. She said Spencer didn\u2019t specify what exactly he wanted to see L.A. do differently on enforcement.<\/p>\n Perkins said she noted that citations are being written in L.A. for people being on streets, and asked what enforcement would look like for Spencer. He did not have an answer, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere wasn’t something that he said, even when I tried to talk through enforcement,\u201d Perkins told LAist. \u201cI literally was waiting with [a] pen in my hand for one small suggestion. There was none.\u201d<\/p>\n Spencer was critical of housing subsidies for people who use drugs, according to Perkins, saying L.A. wants \u201cto house people who make bad choices and use drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Perkins, Spencer also said people need to work and L.A. keeps subsidizing housing for people who don\u2019t really need it.<\/p>\n Perkins said Spencer\u2019s remarks underscored the risk of federal funding cuts to local housing subsidies \u2014 on top of known cuts planned to programs \u2014 and that it\u2019s important to prepare.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it can be understated how much all of the cuts that we\u2019re seeing from this federal government will impact homelessness directly,\u201d she told LAist.<\/p>\n Early in the meeting, Perkins said, Spencer expressed a desire for a mutual understanding that the country is $36 trillion in debt and needs to balance the budget.<\/p>\n Perkins said she responded that \u201cwe don\u2019t think it should be balanced on the backs of the most oppressed, marginalized people in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Californians pay more in federal taxes than they receive in federal funding, according to an often-cited analysis by the public policy research institute of the State University of New York<\/a>. California paid $72 billion more than it received \u2014 the largest amount of any state \u2014 in the 2022 federal fiscal year, that analysis found.<\/p>\n