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Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto launched an audit this week of a legal aid nonprofit that provides city-funded eviction defense and rental assistance to tenants at risk of losing their housing.<\/p>\n
The audit is centered on the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, or LAFLA, the city\u2019s lead contractor for a program called Stay Housed L.A.<\/a><\/p>\n Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stay Housed L.A. has received about $54 million in city funds. The organization\u2019s leaders say the money has gone toward representing more than 4,700 tenants in eviction proceedings, providing limited legal assistance to more than 16,000 others, and distributing more than $11 million in rent relief.<\/p>\n In a statement, city attorney spokesperson Karen Richardson said her office \u201cis reviewing this sole source contract to determine the extent to which funds paid by the City to LAFLA have served their intended and stated purposes and benefited tenants of Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n Barbara Schultz, who oversees Stay Housed L.A. in her capacity as the Legal Aid Foundation\u2019s director of housing justice, said her organization has provided monthly reports to the L.A. Housing Department as required under the contract.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are extremely proud of the work that we have done,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cAnd it’s important to know that Stay Housed L.A. is much bigger than LAFLA. It is over 25 non-profit law firms or community based organizations, all doing amazing work for and with tenants.\u201d<\/p>\n How did we get here?<\/p>\n The audit comes after Feldstein Soto refused to sign<\/a> a new five-year contract with LAFLA in June. She argued that despite approval from the L.A. City Council and Mayor Karen Bass, the contract should have been put through a competitive bidding process.<\/p>\n The city attorney\u2019s decision to reject the contract caught other L.A. officials by surprise, coming just weeks before the Stay Housed L.A. contract was set to expire on July 1. The city\u2019s Housing Department had previously determined that the sole-source contract was appropriate.<\/p>\n In a March 28 internal memo obtained by LAist, housing officials told the City Attorney\u2019s Office a competitive bidding process would be \u201cundesirable, impractical, and impossible.\u201d They noted that Stay Housed L.A. was chosen to roll out L.A.\u2019s new program to give free eviction<\/a> attorneys to low-income tenants.<\/p>\n That program is seen by city leaders as crucial for stemming the rise of homelessness.<\/p>\n According to the memo: \u201cThe City\u2019s commitment to a Right to Counsel program is dependent upon the StayHousedLA Coalition\u2019s continued contracting and implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n The document also noted that L.A. County pays Stay Housed L.A. to provide similar services outside city limits. Choosing a different provider within the city would create additional costs and inefficiencies, housing officials said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no other providers with the combination of expertise, history, and staffing capacity to compete with StayHousedLA,\u201d the memo states.<\/p>\n Short-term extension, long-term questions<\/p>\n