LA Housing Department Manager Calls On Another Audit of LAHSA

The L.A. Times reports today that LA Housing Department General Manager, Mercedes Marquez, sent a letter last Tuesday to Mayor Villaraigosa requesting a management audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). Here's the article.

LAHSA oversees government funding of homeless services for both the City and County of L.A.

LAHSA was audited by City Controller Laura Chick last summer, when her office discovered that LAHSA owed $5 million of back payments to homeless service providers, and didn’t have the money to cover the accounts payables. Since then, the city and the county have stepped in to supposedly remedy the situation.

Marquez has been the Mayor’s point person for LAHSA since last summer’s audit. She claims that LAHSA didn’t know they had $1.54 million of funds that could be used for homeless services.

The article quotes her letter, “Unfortunately, LAHSA's report of unexpected balances is not reliable, because for the last two program years, they have not adequately tracked expenditures by funding source.”