In recent years, the nonprofit A Step to Freedom has grown rapidly, collecting millions of dollars from the government to house and feed homeless people coming out of jail in L.A. County. <\/p>\n
What was a small organization providing 20 or so men shelter each year, with $25,500 in revenue in 2018, grew to operate six interim housing sites serving about 200 people at a time in 2024, with more than $5 million in revenue, largely from taxpayers, according to federal tax filings.<\/p>\n
The expansion enabled A Step to Freedom, run by chief executive Kenya Croom, to help far more people, but it also had another, less visible beneficiary: Croom herself. <\/p>\n
According to a Times review of public and internal records, over three years, the nonprofit paid more than $1.7 million to Croom\u2019s two for-profit businesses that provided food for the shelters and, in its most recent tax filings, did not disclose her ties to them as required.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit\u2019s most recent tax filing shows Croom made roughly $120,000 in 2024 for a 40-hour workweek leading A Step to Freedom. She said she earns an additional $100,000 salary from one of the for-profit companies.<\/p>\n
Nonprofit experts interviewed by The Times raised concerns that someone in a position like Croom\u2019s could profit to the detriment of both taxpayers and the people the money is meant to serve.<\/p>\n
In interviews, Croom defended the contracts, saying her companies provided meals, snacks and beverages to the nonprofit\u2019s roughly 200 residents at a lower cost than what outside vendors would have charged. She said the failure to disclose her role in the companies on the nonprofit\u2019s tax filings was an oversight. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t check a box. We made a mistake,\u201d she said, adding that the nonprofit is undergoing an audit. \u201cWe just have work to do. And our work to do here is really to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her chief of staff, Larry Earl, said in written answers to The Times that Croom did not participate in any discussions or votes about the board\u2019s decision to contract with her companies, in accordance with its conflict of interest policy. <\/p>\n
Government spending<\/a> on homelessness, which relies largely on nonprofits to operate shelters and other housing sites around L.A. County, is under immense scrutiny. Multiple audits have flagged a lack of oversight<\/a>, while a task force of federal prosecutors have brought at least three fraud cases over the use of funds intended to help the homeless. Even after pouring billions into ending the crisis, it remains one of L.A. County\u2019s most intractable problems<\/a>. Although the number of people living on the streets went down the last two years<\/a>, the levels are still higher than they were in 2022.<\/p>\n Most recently, the head of a Hyde Park-based nonprofit, Abundant Blessings, was accused<\/a> of spending millions of dollars awarded to his nonprofit to house and feed the homeless on luxury vacations, designer clothing and other personal expenses. Prosecutors said Alexander Soofer falsified invoices claiming he was serving fresh meals to residents while actually serving breakfast bars and microwavable ramen noodles. In another case, the former chief financial officer of affordable housing developer Shangri-La<\/a> was accused of using millions that the state provided to create homeless<\/a> housing toward his American Express bills, including transactions at luxury retailers. Both pleaded not guilty to the charges. <\/p>\n No such allegations have been made against A Step to Freedom. <\/p>\n Federal tax filings show that A Step to Freedom paid Croom\u2019s companies nearly $500,000 \u2014 $275,259 went to R&K Mgmt Firm Inc. in 2023 and $214,725 to ASF Solutions LLC in 2024, the most recent filing available. A transaction report provided by the nonprofit shows it paid ASF Solutions nearly $1.3 million in 2025 to serve three meals a day.<\/p>\n State business records show Croom filed paperwork to create both entities and holds roles at each. Croom told The Times she has an ownership stake in the two companies.<\/p>\n After The Times inquired with A Step to Freedom about its contracts with Croom\u2019s companies, the nonprofit disclosed \u201cthe potential issue\u201d to one of its major funders, the county\u2019s Department of Health Services, according to a statement from Dr. Clemens Hong, the director of the department\u2019s Office of Diversion and Reentry.<\/p>\n County officials reviewed A Step to Freedom\u2019s payments to outside vendors during fiscal year 2024-25 and determined that meal services were part of its approved scope of work and that the cost per meal was reasonable. It did find that the contract with ASF Solutions constituted a conflict of interest, but did not elaborate.<\/p>\n The county identified three other companies that the nonprofit paid for unapproved work and deemed those payments conflicts of interest. Officials have asked the nonprofit to repay $82,800 to the county. The Times asked the county for further explanation but hasn\u2019t received it. <\/p>\n Croom and Jimar Wilson, the president of the nonprofit\u2019s board of directors, did not respond to an email seeking comment on the county\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n In an earlier interview, Croom said A Step to Freedom previously prepared the meals in house, but with food and workers\u2019 compensation costs rising, the nonprofit\u2019s board of directors tasked her with finding a cheaper way. <\/p>\n Croom said the nonprofit initially contracted with an existing company that records show she had incorporated in 2021 \u2014 R&K Mgmt \u2014 to provide food as \u201cproof of concept\u201d that she could reduce costs before she established ASF Solutions in 2023 to take over food service in August 2024. She said she serves as president of ASF Solutions, from which she takes her salary, and that R&K Mgmt doesn\u2019t currently have any revenue and she doesn\u2019t collect a salary from the firm. <\/p>\n \u201cThe board and I came together to find solutions,\u201d Croom said. \u201cOne of those ways was to move our kitchen staff out of A Step to Freedom and to create an entity that could manage the food solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n A Step to Freedom declined to answer how much it cost to provide meals when it handled food service in house. But in an email, it said workers\u2019 comp costs were lowered because Croom\u2019s company is small and lower risk than the nonprofit.<\/p>\n Croom said the nonprofit sought quotes from outside meal preparation vendors but determined ASF Solutions could do the job for a lower price. <\/p>\n On a given day, she said, ASF Solutions provides three meals and snacks for the 200 people in the shelters for $18 per person.<\/p>\n The nonprofit prepared a vendor analysis for The Times comparing prices it said it received from the three other companies: It said Factor would have charged $30 per person for three meals a day, Thistle $24.55 for three meals and two snacks, and Everytable $18.45 for three meals. <\/p>\n Representatives for Factor and Thistle said they had no record of providing any quotes to A Step to Freedom. Everytable did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n One nonprofit says it can provide food cheaper than ASF Solutions \u2014 when it keeps operations in house. Tyler Renner, a spokesperson for the homeless housing provider PATH, said the organization handles meals in house for about 200 people at a daily, per-person cost of $16.23 for three meals, snacks and beverages, relying in part on donated food.<\/p>\n The Times visited a PATH shelter for lunch recently, where it served Mediterranean chicken bowls with black beans, turmeric rice, cucumber, tomato, pickled onions, feta cheese and spring greens. <\/p>\n Under A Step to Freedom\u2019s contract with the Department of Health Services, the nonprofit is obligated to provide residents with a minimum of three nutritious meals per day. <\/p>\n Laurie Styron, chief executive of CharityWatch, said there can be an incentive for Croom\u2019s company to produce fewer or less-quality meals to have a higher profit margin. She and others questioned who would guard against such a scenario.<\/p>\n \u201cThe driver of a for-profit company is to maximize profit and the driver of a charity CEO is to provide the best services and to fulfill its mission,\u201d she said. \u201cThose conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have chosen a vendor which is closely related to the CEO of the nonprofit, then who\u2019s the party that\u2019s ensuring that that vendor is living up to their end of the bargain?\u201d said Brian Mittendorf, a nonprofit accounting expert at Ohio State University. \u201cYou would hope the nonprofit CEO isn\u2019t the one charged with that.\u201d<\/p>\n In a case like this, experts said, the nonprofit\u2019s board should solicit competitive bids from outside companies, and factor in price and quality to make sure the charity gets the best value.<\/p>\n A Step to Freedom declined requests by The Times to release minutes of any board meetings where contracts with Croom\u2019s companies were discussed or approved. Its conflict of interest policy notes that Croom \u201cstands to benefit financially\u201d from contracts between the nonprofit and the two companies, and calls on the board to conduct an annual review of the relationship to ensure the nonprofit is getting the best deal. <\/p>\n According to A Step to Freedom\u2019s website, Croom\u2019s sister, Kendel Croom, serves as the board\u2019s treasurer. Kendel Croom could not be reached for comment. <\/p>\n Tamara Robinson, who moved into one of the nonprofit\u2019s sites last year, said the organization has provided a \u201csafe haven\u201d that\u2019s changed her life, including by getting her on medication to treat her depression.<\/p>\n She described the meals as decent, but \u201cthey can be better.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t eat here often,\u201d Robinson said. <\/p>\n The Times spoke with eight other current and former residents of A Step to Freedom, who all said they don\u2019t eat every meal at the nonprofit. Two people described the meals as \u201ctasty\u201d and \u201cabove average.\u201d Others were less impressed, with reviews ranging from \u201caverage\u201d to \u201cnasty.\u201d<\/p>\n Toby Keith, who lives at the North Hollywood location, said that \u201cit\u2019s not the greatest quality of food\u201d and that a few times he\u2019s found mold in his sandwich bread. <\/p>\n At the request of The Times, Keith documented the meals for a few days in texts and photos. One day last month, he said, lunch was a plain chicken patty sandwich, with no vegetables. Another day was sloppy joes and chips, he said. <\/p>\n Keith said twice he had shown up to eat dinner during the hourlong meal time to find the meals had run out. Once, he said, workers gave him a peanut butter sandwich instead, and the other time they had to go off-site to get another meal from their food provider. <\/p>\n Sopha Yem, also a resident of the North Hollywood location, said he too has shown up a few times to find meals had run out, but he tries to avoid eating there in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cThe food sucks,\u201d Yem said. \u201cIt\u2019s dry and bland.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent years, the nonprofit A Step to Freedom has grown rapidly, collecting millions of dollars from the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":951591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[383051,3387,1582,276,638,12192,3059,383049,990,22196,54659,17819,2961,224,5337,12812,8622,22209,42156,383050],"class_list":["post-951590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-asf-solutions-llc","tag-board","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-company","tag-contract","tag-county","tag-croom","tag-food","tag-freedom","tag-homeless-people","tag-house","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-meal","tag-nonprofit","tag-shelter","tag-step","tag-times-review"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116963098400481385","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}