In summary
Internal reports on deaths, disease, abuse and overdoses will give the public a rare glimpse inside taxpayer-funded shelters.
Los Angeles officials have begun releasing thousands of internal records related to conditions inside homeless shelters in response to a CalMatters lawsuit challenging their repeated public records denials.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, better known as LAHSA, agreed to a settlement with CalMatters in Superior Court last month, committing to release at least 175 incident reports every other week until the public records request is fulfilled. The agency estimates there are 5,000 such reports.
CalMatters filed the legal complaint in the fall, after LAHSA repeatedly denied our requests for copies of internal shelter incident reports — documents designed to track serious issues inside taxpayer-funded homeless shelters, including deaths, assaults, domestic violence and medical emergencies.
We first requested the reports in January 2024. LAHSA refused to release them and argued that the reports fall under “attorney-client privilege,” though the documents are created by contract shelter operators, not attorneys. CalMatters and our attorneys at Covington & Burling pressed the agency to justify its claim and provide evidence that attorneys receive the reports. The agency did not.
Five months after we requested the records, LAHSA updated its incident report form, adding “attorney client communication/attorney work product” to the bottom.
In December, the agency and CalMatters agreed to a stipulation in court that calls for the records to be released. “Without admitting liability, which is expressly denied, LAHSA agrees to produce the redacted copies of the requested incident reports in exchange for a dismissal of the petition and mutual waiver of attorneys’ fees and costs,” the agreement states.
The new shelter records that LAHSA is providing to CalMatters detail incidents inside closed-door facilities, giving the public a rare glimpse into taxpayer-funded shelters that serve as the state’s first line of defense against street homelessness. They will not include personally identifiable information about shelter residents.
“LAHSA’s concern in this matter was protecting the privacy of the vulnerable people the rehousing system serves,” said Paul Rubenstein, deputy chief of external relations officer for LAHSA, in an email to CalMatters. “We are gratified that we could come to an agreement to share useful data in a way that safeguards people’s confidentiality while maintaining LAHSA’s commitment to transparency.”
CalMatters requested the records as a part of our reporting on allegations of brutality by shelter private security guards, dysfunctional homeless housing programs and poor oversight of homeless shelters. The LAHSA records will help the public understand what’s happening inside shelters, and how those incidents are being monitored by public officials.
In LA, politicians are under especially intense pressure to justify current homeless services spending after scathing recent audits. A December audit found that a quarter of the city’s shelter beds have been going unused, costing taxpayers $218 million from 2019 to 2023. That’s in addition to several lawsuits filed over violence in shelters and widespread concern about lacking accountability.
The shelters are supposed to provide temporary housing and services and connect residents with more permanent housing, but watchdogs say that’s often not happening as intended.
“Fewer than 1 in 5 people enrolled in city-funded shelters have been able to secure some sort of permanent housing,” City Controller Kenneth Mejia wrote in the December audit, adding that, “LAHSA should revamp its contract and performance monitoring program to ensure the agency can promptly identify underperforming homeless service providers.”
County officials are considering going even further. One proposal by two county supervisors would strip funding and responsibility from LAHSA — an $875 million-a-year agency created in 1993 to coordinate regional responses to homelessness — and shift many functions to a new county entity.
“LAHSA plays an important role,” Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said after a November audit, “but the current structure is not meeting the scale of this crisis.”
The agency and its defenders counter that shelters are hamstrung by the state’s broader housing crisis, and that LAHSA is still best positioned to coordinate resources in the region with the nation’s largest homeless population.
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