Karen Bass Refuses to Testify Before Congress on $1 Billion in Missing LA Homelessness Funds

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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will not appear before Congress to answer questions about more than $1 billion in federal homelessness funding that has flowed through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority since 2021. The House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, chaired by Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., had called on Bass to testify at a September 15 hearing; her office declined the invitation on September 5.

Bass’s attorney, David Michaelson, gave no substantive reason for the refusal, telling the subcommittee only, “unfortunately the mayor is not available on that date,” and adding that staff had “contacted the Subcommittee staff to discuss this issue.” The city did commit to turning over requested documents, including internal communications between the mayor’s office, LAHSA, and county supervisors dating back to 2020.

Details & Background

Burchett opened the investigation on September 3, citing what he described as a pattern of waste, fraud, and abuse in how LAHSA has spent its federal grant money. LAHSA has received over $1 billion in federal funds since 2021, including $220 million in 2024 alone, even as Los Angeles County’s homeless population climbed to roughly 73,000 people, with the city itself accounting for about 45,000 of them — a 3.4% increase over the prior year.

Among the specific concerns Burchett’s subcommittee is examining: a $2.1 million contract that former LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum signed with her own husband’s employer, and the case of the 1736 Family Crisis Center, a nonprofit that has received $36 million in federal grants since 2008 while its chief executive collected $1.6 million in compensation and lived in Hawaii, thousands of miles from the Los Angeles clients the organization is funded to serve.

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“Many nonprofits to which those funds have been allocated are not using them for their intended purpose,” Burchett said in announcing the investigation, a claim he says is backed by the committee’s review of LAHSA’s grant records and contracting history. The subcommittee’s request for Bass’s testimony was meant to give the mayor a chance to respond directly to those findings in a public hearing.

Conservative outlets seized on the refusal almost immediately, with RedState running pieces headlined “Bass in the Hot Seat” and “Talk to the Hand,” framing the decision as a mayor who is too busy to explain where a billion taxpayer dollars went even as the crisis those dollars were meant to solve keeps getting worse. Bass has not personally addressed the subcommittee’s findings about the Adams Kellum contract or the 1736 Family Crisis Center’s spending in any public statement since the investigation opened.

Why This Matters to You

Angelenos have watched their city pour more than a billion federal dollars into homelessness programs since 2021 only to see the number of people living on the street continue to rise year over year. When the mayor responsible for overseeing that spending won’t sit down with the congressional committee asking basic questions about where the money went, taxpayers both in Los Angeles and nationally are left with little more than the same unanswered questions Burchett’s subcommittee has been raising since September 3.

The September 15 hearing date is still on the calendar, and it remains to be seen whether Bass changes course before then or whether the subcommittee moves forward without her testimony. Los Angeles voters were promised that sustained federal investment would meaningfully bring down street homelessness in the city; instead, the subcommittee’s own figures show the opposite trend even as the dollar amounts involved keep growing, and this story is likely to stay alive well past September 15 regardless of whether Bass ultimately appears.