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A federal judge issued a blistering ruling Tuesday, finding Los Angeles officials failed in multiple ways to follow a settlement agreement to create more shelter for unhoused people.<\/p>\n
Judge David O. Carter also ordered stronger oversight by a court-appointed monitor to \u201cask the hard questions on behalf of Angelenos,\u201d as well as quarterly hearings to oversee compliance with the city\u2019s commitments to create nearly 13,000 new shelter and housing beds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the system fails, people die,\u201d Carter wrote in his 62-page<\/a> ruling, which comes as a result of a major, long-running homelessness lawsuit filed by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group of downtown business and property owners.<\/p>\n \u201cNearly seven unhoused community members die each day in the County of Los Angeles,\u201d the judge continued. \u201cThese deaths are preventable and represent a moral failure by all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n The judge stopped short of the most extreme option he was considering<\/a>: seizing control of the city\u2019s hundreds of millions of dollars in homelessness spending and handing control to a court-appointed receiver.<\/p>\n Carter noted that appointing a receiver would be a last resort after a court has given multiple opportunities for the city to comply.<\/p>\n How the judge says the city breached the agreement<\/p>\n The court found that L.A. breached the settlement agreement with L.A. Alliance in four ways:<\/p>\n The ruling comes after days of court testimony<\/a> and thousands of pages of documents<\/a> submitted to Carter on the issue.<\/p>\n What he\u2019s ordering<\/p>\n The judge ordered stepped-up reviews by a court monitor to check for compliance with the settlement agreement in the case. The monitor \u201cshall have full access to the data that the City uses to create its reports to the Court\u201d to show compliance with the agreements, according to the ruling.<\/p>\n Carter also ordered the city and L.A. Alliance to attend in-person court hearings each quarter to review compliance, starting Nov. 12. The hearings will continue for as long as needed to make sure the city honors its commitments under the settlements, Carter ruled.<\/p>\n He wrote that these steps are progress, not punishment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Court wants the City to succeed,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBecause when the system fails, people die. And when it works \u2014 even slowly \u2014 lives are saved.\u201d<\/p>\n Judge finds lack of accountability<\/p>\n Even so, Carter had harsh words for what he described as a glaring lack of accountability for how the city spends money on homeless services and housing.<\/p>\n \u201cUnhoused individuals hear about programs and promises. They hear that hundreds of millions are being spent, that homelessness is being addressed, that success is being claimed,\u201d Carter wrote. \u201cYet many still cannot find a bed, a bathroom, or a hot meal. Their lived reality does not match the headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed to the difficulty faced by court-appointed reviewers, and LAist<\/a>, in getting data from the L.A. Homeless Services Authority<\/a> \u2014 known as LAHSA \u2014 about how much was being spent for more than 2,000 housing subsidies the city was taking credit for to show compliance.<\/p>\n After LAHSA officials criticized LAist\u2019s reporting of concerns about the data, Carter ordered the city to turn over addresses for each housing site. The city then acknowledged that the data was inflating the true number: 130 subsidies were being wrongfully counted twice.<\/p>\n \u201cThe evidentiary record reflects a consistent lack of cooperation and responsiveness \u2014 an unwillingness to provide documentation unless compelled by court order or media scrutiny,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pattern is clear: documentation is withheld until exposure is imminent, public accountability is resisted until judicially mandated, and the truth of reported progress remains clouded by evasive recordkeeping,\u201d Carter wrote in his ruling. \u201cThese failures have undermined public trust and judicial trust alike.\u201d<\/p>\n Carter added that the court-enforced agreements in the lawsuit \u2014 the L.A. Alliance settlement and an earlier agreement known as the Roadmap \u2014 were intended to be a turning point in the homelessness crisis. But, he wrote, there have been major problems with the city\u2019s compliance.<\/p>\n \u201cThat neglect carries real consequences, borne most heavily by those with the least, by the people whose lives depend on those promises being fulfilled,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Referring to audits of the city\u2019s homelessness spending, he added: \u201cTaken together, these audits paint a consistent and deeply troubling picture of chronic operational failures in Los Angeles\u2019 approach to homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n What do city leaders say about the ruling?<\/p>\n LAist has reached out for comment from L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, City Attorney Heidi Feldstein Soto\u2019s office and the chair of the City Council\u2019s Housing and Homelessness Committee, Councilmember Nithya Raman.<\/p>\n We will update this story with comments if they\u2019re provided.<\/p>\n Carter said it\u2019s hard to trust the information coming from the city, and he noted the difficulties LAist and the court\u2019s reviewers faced in getting supporting data on homeless services.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout accurate data, the public is left to rely on the assurance of public officials who have already presided over repeated reporting failures,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThe City\u2019s compliance rests on shaky ground, upheld not by verifiable facts, but by the last-minute declarations of its own officials,\u201d he added. \u201cIf the Roadmap Agreement has taught us anything, it is that seeking accountability with the City of Los Angeles is like chasing the wind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keep up with LAist. 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