Critics raised eyebrows when Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was invited to testify before a House subcommittee Sept. 15 about federal homelessness spending but declined, setting up a dispute with Republican investigators examining potential mismanagement at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
Bass’ legal counsel, David Michaelson, said in a Sept. 4 letter that the Democratic mayor “is not available on that date.” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., requested her appearance as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency.
The panel is investigating whether federal money distributed through the authority reached its intended recipients and whether officials maintained adequate protections against improper contracting, conflicts of interest, and misuse of taxpayer funds. The committee said the authority received more than $1 billion in federal funding since 2021, including $220 million in 2024.
“It’s a shame Mayor Bass is afraid to come testify about her policies that have increased homelessness in Los Angeles and enabled a culture of corruption,” a committee spokesperson said.
Bass’ office collected records the panel requested. It expects to provide relevant documents and information by Sept. 14. Michaelson cautioned that gathering the material could “take some time” because the request reaches back to January 2020.
Now, after a week of declining the invitation, reports say Bass will formally step down as a member of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Commission, the governing board overseeing the agency’s budgetary, funding, planning, and program policy decisions.
The Mayor’s Office said in a statement that Bass will be appointing a new appointee to fill her spot. In an interview last week, Bass told KFI’s Gary and Shannon that she would be leaving the LAHSA Commission because of scheduling conflicts and other time constraints.
“The mayor’s first-hand experience at LAHSA reinforced her understanding that our current system is broken and in need of major overhaul, which is why she is developing a transition plan to build a city-led homelessness response system committed to delivering results for the city of Los Angeles,” according to a statement from the Mayor’s Office.
Under Bass, street homelessness has declined by 11 percent since 2023, with city officials crediting the Bass Inside Safe initiative.
The authority’s 2026 count released in July estimated 45,194 homeless people in the city, up 3.4 percent from the previous year. Countywide homelessness increased 1.2 percent to 73,040. The agency said neither overall change was statistically significant.
Bass told KFI Friday in a live interview that she appointed herself to the commission to learn much more about homelessness and the agency.
Bass said she was resigning because of “time and all.”
“And I came to the conclusion that the city needs to have its own system,” she said.
Bass faced criticism last week after LAist reported that she skipped more than half of LAHSA Commission meetings since she joined the board in 2023. Bass missed 13 of 21 LAHSA meetings over a year, which exceeded the four absences that could trigger removal under LAHSA’s bylaws, according to LAist.
