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LASHA is under-staffed to manage Measure H funds

by City News Service • April 4, 2018

[File]
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority is under-staffed to handle Measure H funding and historically routinely failed to pay service providers on a timely basis, according to a review by the Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller released Tuesday.

The fiscal operations review was requested by Los Angeles County Chief Executive Officer Sachi Hamai because LAHSA is expected to increase operations from $94 million in fiscal year 2016-17 to $234 million in 2017-18 due to Measure H funding, according to the report.

More than $5 million of the agency’s accounts payables were between one and 120 days past due as of Oct. 25, the auditors found. About one-third of that total was more than 30 days beyond the due date.

The agency has since put a new process in place that resulted in 97 percent of payables being current as of January, according to a letter in response to Auditor-Controller John Naimo from LAHSA Executive Director Peter Lynn. Lynn told Naimo that paying providers on time is one of the agency’s highest priorities.

However, some of the auditors’ other findings seem to indicate that LAHSA is struggling to catch up with a growth spurt in revenues as a result of new Measure H funding to deal with the homelessness crisis.

Lynn said LAHSA is working to transform the way it does business, in part through hiring independent management and business processes consultants and buying a new contract management system.

However, auditors noted insufficient staffing and high turnover in the agency’s finance department and called for more management oversight of those employees to make sure they clearly understand their responsibilities.

In other cases, the reviewers called for fewer layers of bureaucracy to speed payments and operations efficiency.

Another recommendation was that the agency seek a line of credit to access adequate cash flow for its service providers while awaiting receipt of its own revenues. LAHSA is a pass-through agency that does not generate its own revenue, but says it has solved that problem and now has adequate cash on hand.

LAHSA officials say they plan to make 13 new finance hires and are engaged in a national search for a new chief financial officer.

Both LAHSA and the audit letter referenced “significant improvements” since the time of the review, which was based on sampling during some portion of the 2017-18 fiscal year.

The report was not on the agenda or discussed during the Board of Supervisors’ meeting and no action was taken.

Program services under Measure H include providing shelter, assistance with housing and social services to homeless families and individuals.

Filed Under: Politics

15 comments for "LASHA is under-staffed to manage Measure H funds"

  1. no response says

    August 16, 2018 at 11:32 pm

    I have applied for LAHSA employment for the past 2 years and not one call. They discriminate and yes you must know someone

  2. Really says

    April 9, 2018 at 11:27 pm

    Liberals love to champion all these types of measures. The reality is they are money pits that do little to change anything. Go on youtube and look up Ronald Reagen The Speech. Same exact issues all these years later. The other truth is that most rich people are liberals because they want the government to be the one people look to for money. Bill Gates for example, truth is he is a charlatan. Consider this…
    “Let’s pretend Bill Gates was to magnanimously give all 206 million adult American non-millionaires $1 million. As a percentage of his one year’s income, that would amount to 3.4 percent. As a percentage of his total wealth, that would represent only 0.3 percent.”

    • Tim Scott says

      April 10, 2018 at 12:50 am

      Doing some quick math…

      So, giving away 206 million times a million…divide by .034…

      That would mean his annual income is over six TRILLION dollars.

      Divide by .003…

      That gives him a net worth of over sixty trillion dollars.

      Gates net worth is somewhere around a hundred billion, with a B.

      How about before you parrot stupid nonsense you at least give it a cursory examination for plausibility.

    • Laughing says

      April 10, 2018 at 7:18 am

      Bill Gates has done quite a bit around the world and continues with his ‘charity’ work.
      Though you did bring up an interesting thought with the idea that if he donated $1M to each non-millionaire it be but a blip. Imagine if each of the billionaires did this? Oh wait, that would be socialism… and of course, then no one would be working since they have so much money… for a time.

      • Tim Scott says

        April 10, 2018 at 8:11 am

        Before you follow him too far down his rabbit hole, check Really’s math.

        • Alexis says

          April 10, 2018 at 9:14 am

          A long and winding exploratory path with many offshoots and connections.

      • Really says

        April 10, 2018 at 10:10 am

        Im not advocating that bill gates do this. Its more of an illustration that his money has the power to effect insane amounts of change. He has said that all his money will go back to social projects. Good for him but if he is serious you better see some amazing things. The reality is bill gates alone could end homelessness theoretically. But it is all hyperbole anyways because vast majority of homeless have mental health issues and/or are addicted to drugs. They need to be scooped up and committed. We need to bring back asylums

        • Tim Scott says

          April 10, 2018 at 11:00 am

          Good thing you aren’t advocating for it, since your math is so wildly wrong that you would look totally stupid if you did advocate for it.

        • Alexis says

          April 10, 2018 at 11:32 am

          I was with you until you got to the homeless. I was homeless for ten years, and now I am a functioning part of society, giving back what was given to me. What was given to me was compassion without judgment, and the wisdom of those that helped me with love, to bring me to a point of changing my mind. Changing minds is critical, in order to see another way to live, and being given the tools. Scooping people up and forcing people into asylums would never work, because it is people like you that just want human beings that you perceive as less valuable, out of your sight!

        • Alexis says

          April 10, 2018 at 2:54 pm

          As someone who was once homeless, I am thankful for the compassionate loving people that showed me another path. Now I am giving back with compassion, and without judging. Many homeless are women, children, veterans. You have the same mind-set as Hitler, just change “asylum” to “concentration camps.”

          • Tim Scott says

            April 10, 2018 at 4:19 pm

            Same mind set, less intellect. Hitler could do math.

  3. Barry says

    April 9, 2018 at 5:52 pm

    … no, the problem isn’t that LASHA is understaffed. Trouble is, it’s overstaffed, with stupid, lazy, do-nothing people –

  4. Kdcali says

    April 4, 2018 at 7:42 pm

    Wish my brother was here tp allocate funds.It seems like these people are not qualified to do this.So you have money bit cant get what needs to be done done.RIP bro

    • Joe says

      April 5, 2018 at 11:58 am

      They’re the kind of jobs you can’t get unless you know someone or are related to someone. I graduated from one of the Top 5 accounting programs in the country and have on my resume some of the biggest & well known companies in the world. When I apply to county/government jobs in my field, I never hear back.

  5. Cesar Carrero Palafox says

    April 4, 2018 at 6:44 pm

    Hello my name is Cesar Carrero Palafox and I am looking for work.

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