By Jayden Park
On August 11, two top officials from the Trump administration, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, visited Los Angeles to criticize how the city handles homelessness. They held a news conference at the Dream Center, a faith-based recovery and housing program in Echo Park. The officials argued that faith-based groups like the Dream Center were doing a better job than government-funded programs run through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). Kennedy said he had seen the Dream Center’s work himself and believed it was “doing it better than us.” The visit added to the growing disagreement between the federal government and LAHSA over how homelessness funding should be used.
That standoff dates to June 2026, when HUD suspended LAHSA from federal grant activity pending a fraud investigation, a move that effectively bars the agency from applying for a share of up to $240 million available this year through a HUD grant competition. Turner reaffirmed at the Dream Center that the suspension would continue, saying LAHSA “does not receive another dollar until there’s accountability and transparency, and the right partners have come around for us to work with.” LAHSA has sued to overturn the suspension, arguing that letting individual providers apply directly to HUD without an agency to coordinate and prioritize requests would be unworkable, and that the disruption could put roughly 11,000 people at risk of losing publicly funded housing. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter held a hearing on the matter the week before the Dream Center visit and, according to reporting from the hearing, signaled he found LAHSA’s history of dysfunction concerning while also wanting to avoid a disruptive funding gap. As of the officials’ Tuesday visit, Carter had not ruled on LAHSA’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking the suspension.
HUD has also allowed homelessness groups in the area to apply for federal funding directly instead of going through LAHSA. This is part of HUD’s effort to give more funding to faith-based groups, which have usually relied less on government money. One example is the Dream Center. Its CEO, Pastor Matthew Barnett, said the 14-story former hospital now provides recovery and temporary housing for about 600 people and mainly relies on private donations. About 70% of its residents have completed the center’s recovery program. Barnett said he believes the homelessness system in Los Angeles has stopped believing that people can change. However, he also said that because the Dream Center does not accept government funding, it has struggled to keep up with rising costs.
No local elected officials attended the Tuesday event. L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath responded afterward by pointing to the county’s own effort to move away from LAHSA, noting that the Board of Supervisors voted last year to shift more than $300 million in annual homelessness funding out of the agency and into a newly created county homelessness department. “Publicity stunts are no substitute for the hard work the County has already done to move away from the broken LAHSA system, establish new and accountable oversight of taxpayer dollars and change how we measure success from dollars spent to outcomes achieved,” Horvath said in a statement.
The Dream Center visit is part of a larger effort by the federal government to change how money for homelessness is spent. In April 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Central California created a task force to investigate possible misuse of federal homelessness funding in Southern California. This came after an audit found that billions of dollars in county homelessness spending were not properly tracked. HUD has also been trying to move away from the “Housing First” approach, which focuses on giving people housing before requiring treatment or other services. Instead, HUD has pushed for more transitional housing and treatment programs. Courts have blocked some of these changes. Just days before the Dream Center visit, a federal judge in Rhode Island struck down HUD’s 2026 funding plan because of how it was created. That decision could also affect LAHSA’s separate case against HUD.
For now, the future of homelessness funding in Los Angeles is still unclear. A judge has not yet decided whether to pause LAHSA’s suspension, while HUD continues to let groups apply for funding without going through LAHSA. The final decision could determine whether LAHSA continues managing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding and how much of that money goes to faith-based groups like the Dream Center.
References:
Essayli, B. (2025, April 8). United States Attorney Bill Essayli announces criminal task force to investigate fraud and corruption involving homelessness funds [Press release]. U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California. https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/united-states-attorney-bill-essayli-announces-criminal-task-force-investigate-fraud
Schrank, A. (2026, August 7). Court strikes down Trump administration bid to shift homelessness funds away from ‘housing first’. LAist. https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/rhode-island-court-trump-administration-homelessness-funds-housing-first
Schrank, A. (2026, August 12). Federal officials decry LA’s ‘drug-fueled homelessness crisis’ in visit to faith-based program. LAist. https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/federal-officials-decry-las-drug-fueled-homelessness-crisis-in-visit