LA homeless services CEO resigns days after County votes to effectively defund agency
LAHSA CEO resigns
Days after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to strip millions of dollars and move hundreds of workers away from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, its CEO announced her resignation Friday.
LOS ANGELES - Va Lecia Adams Kellum, the CEO of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, announced her resignation on Friday. The announcement comes just days after LA County voted to establish its own homeless agency.
LAHSA CEO resigns
What we know:
Adams Kellum sent her letter of resignation to LAHSA Chair Wendy Gruel and the agency's commissioners on Friday.
In her letter, Adams Kellum called her work with the department "my life's mission." But, with the LA County Board of Supervisors voting earlier this week to establish its own homelessness agency, Adams Kellum called it "the right time for me to resign." Adams Kellum said she will stay with the department for at least four months, while they search for her replacement.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: 100 days in, new LAHSA CEO says housing homeless isn't moving fast enough
The backstory:
Adams Kellum was hired in 2023, at a time when homelessness in the greater Los Angeles area was going up consistently. The 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count saw a nearly 10% increase in both the city of LA, and LA County as a whole. It was the sixth straight year of increases.
Numbers from the last two years have shown homelessness in the region going down. Early data from the 2025 homeless count released in March, predicted a 10% decrease in Los Angeles County.
The final results of the 2025 count are expected to be released in late spring or early summer.
What they're saying:
"I joined LAHSA two years ago to help lead change after decades of challenges within the system and agency," Adams Kellum said in her resignation letter. "I knew change wouldn't be easy, but I eagerly took this opportunity to tackle the humanitarian crisis on our streets."
LAHSA Commision Chair Wendy Greuel praised Adams Kellum's tenurs, saying "The Commission hired Dr. Adams Kellum to be a change agent, and she has delivered significant improvements in such key areas as transparency, contracting, provider payments, and accountability. We appreciate her leadership over the last 24 months, which has contributed to the region’s first reduction in unsheltered homelessness in years."
RELATED: LA homeless count: Early data shows decline in unsheltered homelessness
LA Mayor Karen Bass said Adams Kellum "saved thousands of lives," in her time as CEO.
"She helped us move the needle to save lives, restore neighborhoods and show that homelessness can be solved," Bass said in a statement. "She is an agent of change. I thank her for her work and wish her the best in all that she will do moving forward."
LA County audits City's homeless services
The city of Los Angeles spends millions of dollars to try and house the homeless, but after an audit of the city's services, the County Board of Supervisors is proposing the services move to the county's jurisdiction.
Transparency concerns
But, the department has come under criticism for years over things like a perceived lack of transparency for things like poor record keeping.
An audit by the LA County Auditor-Controller last year found that the city gave more than $50 million to nonprofits for homeless services from 2017-18, without having repayment plans in place.
While Adams Kellum said in her resignation letter that many of these issues "stem from years of needed reform," she expressed pride in the fact that her department has "not shied away from the hard work of reshaping our system because we know lives depend on it."
LA County taking over homeless services
Dig deeper:
Adams Kellum's announcement comes just days after the LA County Board of Supervisors voted to establish a county department to coordinate homelessness services across the region, effectively defunding LAHSA.
RELATED: LA County defunds LA Homeless Services Authority, creates its own department
The new agency is expected to be in place by Jan. 1. Funding will be pulled from LAHSA to go to the county department by July 2026.
The other side:
Supervisor Janice Hahn said "problems with LAHSA (like contract delays & unaccounted funds) have been roadblocks, adding that it was "time to make a change."
The Source: Information in this story is from a statement from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Va Lecia Adams Kellum's letter of resignation and City News Service.