Los Angeles Continuum of Care Votes on Replacing Lahsa in Federal Homelessness Roles

The Los Angeles Continuum of Care holds an unusual general membership vote Monday, October 26, that could formally designate Los Angeles County to take over two federal homelessness responsibilities currently managed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), the joint city-county agency that HUD suspended from federal programs in June. The vote, scheduled for 3 p.m. Pacific, covers management of the region's homeless services database and its housing matching system, roles tied to roughly $239 million in federal funds, LAist reported.

The selections will go to U.S. District Judge David O. Carter for review Tuesday, and the court will largely determine when and how the transition away from LAHSA happens in the coming months. The meeting, at 637 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles with an online attendance option, is open to the public, and under the Continuum of Care's charter, anyone who fits its broad definition of interested persons and entities may be eligible to vote.

HOW LAHSA LOST THE ROLES

LAHSA, created in 1993 as a joint powers authority between the city and county of Los Angeles, has managed the region's federal homelessness responsibilities for three decades. Since late 2024, the agency has faced a string of critical audits and scandals over its management of the region's growing homelessness crisis. L.A. County's Board of Supervisors voted last year to divert more than $300 million in county homelessness funding away from LAHSA, and the county's new Department of Homeless Services and Housing took control of those funds in July.

On June 11, HUD suspended LAHSA from federal programs, citing alleged failures in financial management, internal controls, grant oversight, and conflict-of-interest policies. The suspension meant LAHSA could not perform the jobs the Continuum of Care had delegated to it, including applying for the region's roughly $239 million in federal homelessness funds. HUD said at the time that it intended to have L.A. service providers apply directly, a move local officials warned would ignore regional priorities.

LAHSA sued. In August, Judge Carter issued a preliminary injunction blocking the suspension through October 27, which allowed LAHSA to submit the region's collaborative application for federal funds by an October 14 deadline; the agency has said it filed on time. Carter also ordered the Continuum of Care to begin taking applications to replace LAHSA as soon as possible. The group hired consultants and ran about a monthlong selection process beginning September 11. LAHSA's leadership chose not to compete.

THE VOTE'S MECHANICS

L.A. County applied for all four federal roles: running the region's homeless count, managing its federal funding application, operating the Homeless Management Information System database, and administering the coordinated entry system that matches people to housing and shelter. Earlier this month, the Continuum of Care voted to designate the county for the first two roles. On October 6, its 21-member board voted to recommend the county for all four, after independent reviewers scored the county's applications above the city's. Monday's general membership vote covers the two contested roles, the database and the matching system, and it is a yes-or-no proposition: if the county is not approved, no decision is made.

Because the county is the only candidate under consideration, county officials encouraged county employees not to vote to avoid potential conflicts of interest, according to an email from the county's homelessness department described by LAist. HUD told the court in an October 20 filing that the county's homelessness department is an acceptable applicant and that the department "prefers" the county over the city.

WHAT THE TWO SYSTEMS DO

The two roles at stake Monday are quiet but consequential pieces of infrastructure. The Homeless Management Information System, or HMIS, is the federally required database that records who is receiving which homeless services across the region; HUD requires every Continuum of Care to maintain one, and it underpins performance reporting, the annual homeless count's supporting data, and the region's applications for federal money. The coordinated entry system is the matching engine: it assesses people who need help, prioritizes them under the region's adopted criteria, and refers them to available shelter beds, rapid rehousing slots, and permanent supportive housing units. Whoever administers coordinated entry effectively controls the front door to thousands of publicly funded housing placements each year, which is why both the city and the county fought to hold it.

The Continuum of Care itself is a HUD-required regional planning body, not a government agency. Its charter defines membership broadly as persons and entities interested in collaborative, solution-oriented planning to address homelessness in Los Angeles County, excluding the cities of Glendale, Long Beach, and Pasadena, which operate their own continuums. That open membership is why Monday's meeting allows any attendee, in person or online, to potentially cast a vote.

THE CITY-COUNTY FIGHT AND THE TENTATIVE DEAL

The selection process turned contentious this month. City officials, including Mayor Karen Bass, argued that giving the county sole authority over federal responsibilities would hurt city residents. "The City of Los Angeles provides the overwhelming majority of housing for the region," Bass and several council members said in a statement. The L.A. City Council held a special meeting October 14, asked the city attorney to develop litigation options, and kept negotiating with the county.

Those talks produced a tentative agreement the council voted 10-0 to support on Friday. Under its terms, if the county wins both roles Monday, city staff would keep their current access to the database, and the city would receive all data in the system on unhoused people within city limits, including people enrolled in county-funded programs. For the matching system, the county would contract with the city to do matching in buildings funded by the city or its housing authority, a significant change, since the city funds the vast majority of permanent supportive housing in the city but does not currently manage matching for any of those units, according to a report from City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo's office. "We're going from nothing to something, and something substantial," said Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who chairs the council's homelessness and health committee. The deal is not final; its terms still must be converted into binding agreements approved by both the City Council and the Board of Supervisors.

Ben Kay, chair of the Continuum of Care board, warned in an October 14 letter to the mayor, council, and county supervisors that the dispute had shifted from "a united front against federal encroachment to splintered infighting," and said the board stands behind the integrity of its scoring and selection process.

WHAT IS AT STAKE FOR THE REGION

The region's homelessness problem has grown even as spending swelled. Since 2020, the homeless population has increased by nearly 10 percent in both the city and county, according to official counts, while budgets grew by hundreds of millions of dollars, boosted by voter-approved sales taxes and other local measures. The systems being voted on Monday determine who runs the data infrastructure that tracks that money and who answers to the public when results fall short.

Carter's August injunction has so far kept LAHSA nominally in charge of federal functions while the replacement process ran, but that protection expires October 27, one day after the vote and the same day as the court's review. The judge's order requiring the Continuum of Care to make its selections by Tuesday sets up a compressed week in which the membership votes, the county's designations are finalized or blocked, and the court decides the transfer schedule.

LAHSA employees, represented by SEIU Local 721, have urged both governments to protect their jobs through the transition, arguing that experienced staff should not be sidelined because of leadership failures. "We have spent years building relationships, learning these systems, and helping people move from homelessness into housing," said Heather Varden, a LAHSA employee who posted an open letter from the union. LAHSA leaders have warned that transferring the responsibilities is complex and could take up to a year.

The vote also lands in the middle of the national fight over homelessness policy. The Trump administration has pushed to assert more federal control over how homelessness funds are used, and HUD's June suspension of LAHSA was an early, aggressive use of its oversight authority against a major grantee. Local officials across the spectrum have described retaining regional control of the four roles as essential to keeping funding decisions aligned with local priorities, whatever they think of LAHSA itself. Monday's outcome will show whether the region's own selection process can settle the question before the courts or HUD settle it for them.

WHAT PROVIDERS AND OWNERS SHOULD WATCH

For service providers and property owners who work with the region's coordinated entry system, the immediate questions are operational: who controls referrals into permanent supportive housing units, who maintains the data that documents performance, and whether any transition interrupts placements. Under the tentative city-county agreement, matching for city-funded buildings would move to the city, so owners with city-financed supportive units should expect a new counterparty if the county prevails Monday and the deal is finalized. The court's Tuesday review and the transition timeline it sets will determine how quickly any of this changes on the ground. A "no" outcome Monday would leave the two roles in limbo: no decision would be made, and the court would have to weigh next steps with LAHSA's injunction expiring October 27 and the region's collaborative application already submitted. Either way, the transition timeline belongs largely to Judge Carter after Tuesday's review. NSPIRE Wire will report the vote's outcome and the court's response.