COUNCILMEMBER RAMAN ISSUES STATEMENT ON THE COUNCIL’S VOTE TO EXPLORE REMOVING CITY CONTRACTS FROM THE LOS ANGELES HOMELESS SERVICES AUTHORITY (LAHSA)

For Immediate Release: March 25, 2025

Los Angeles, CA – Today, the Los Angeles City Council voted to request a report from the Chief Legislative Analyst (CLA), with assistance from the City Administrative Officer (CAO) and the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD), on how the City can directly contract with Service Providers on all programs currently funded for homelessness interventions and bypass the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA). 

Councilmember Raman, Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee, has issued the following statement in response to today’s vote.

“Whether or not contracting happens directly from the City or through LAHSA, concerns about transparency and accountability will persist unless we create real systems of oversight, backed by robust data. That’s why my focus has been to centralize this exact kind of performance management in the City.” 

Earlier this month, the Los Angeles City Council voted to move forward a proposal from Councilmember Raman to establish City oversight of Los Angeles’s myriad homelessness investments. Despite the City investing over $1 billion annually into its regional homelessness response, there is currently no entity within the City government tasked with monitoring the outcomes of this investment. Councilmember Raman’s legislation will create a Bureau inside the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) that will convene staff from across city departments working on homelessness under one umbrella. The Bureau will be explicitly tasked with performance management to ensure the City of Los Angeles is spending every dollar put toward homelessness as effectively as possible to bring people indoors into safety.  

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