A Los Angeles City Council committee will hear a report Wednesday from city attorneys explaining why a contract for homeless prevention and eviction defense services has yet to be finalized despite being approved three months ago.
In March, the council authorized the distribution of $177 million in Measure United to House LA revenue to Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Liberty Hill Foundation, Strategic Action For A Just Economy and Southern California Housing Rights Center.
The council directed City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto to sign off on the contracts with the groups, which oversee a range of tenant-related services as part of the Stay Housed LA program.
Despite that approval and direction, Feldstein Soto has yet to finalize the contracts — and now some council members want answers.
The council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee will hear from city attorneys, as well as representatives for the Los Angeles Housing Department to learn about how delays have impacted operations and services.
On Monday, Feldstein Soto released a public report outlining what she described as “challenges” the city has faced in negotiating the contracts.
Feldstein Soto noted there was a strict requirement that all contract funding would terminate if the Legal Aid Foundation did not provide requested reporting by the council from 2021 through 2025 by April 15. The city attorney alleged the Legal Aid Foundation has refused to comply with reporting and oversight requirements under the contract.
Instead, LAFLA provided raw information and has redacted information such as ZIP codes and initials of individuals who registered for webinars and workshops, according to the City Attorney’s Office.
Feldstein Soto further alleged the organization has not produced any usable information on tenants who had been represented by a lawyer in court, in landlord negotiations or what the legal services of each such representation had cost the city.
Additionally, she said LAFLA has failed to agree to previous terms with the city and provisions set forth by the federal government for certain grants.
The City Attorney’s Office described these provisions as basic reporting, oversight, transparency and audit trails to ensure city funds are properly spent, that services paid for have been delivered, and that costs incurred conform to the city’s requirements.
Feldstein Soto alleged that the Legal Aid Foundation has taken its position because the city is not using federal funds for this award, and that reporting and oversight should not be as robust for city funds as they are for federal funds.
“Basic oversight, transparency and audit requirements are necessary to protect the residents of Los Angeles and the tenants that these programs intend to serve,” Feldstein Soto said in a statement. “This office will continue to work with proposed contractors until the concerns are sufficiently addressed. That is what the City Council required and that is what Angelenos deserve.”
In response, LAFLA officials maintained they have been negotiating in good faith over the last three months.
“LAFLA is shocked at the baseless misinformation the city attorney included in her so-called report,” Barbara Schultz, director of housing justice for the Legal Aid Foundation, wrote in an email Monday night to City News Service.
“Stay Housed L.A. has also continued to provide services these last three months in the belief that the city attorney would act in good faith to negotiate and execute the contracts that the City Council already approved,” Schultz added.
Schultz also alleged that Feldstein Soto has spent the past year interfering in how the city delivers eviction protections.
“But this newest tactic is truly over the line,” Schultz wrote in her email to CNS. “She seems to be targeting LAFLA in what we believe is retaliation for our work defending clients who are holding the city accountable on building affordable housing and its homelessness response.”
LAFLA officials said they have been repeatedly selected by the City Council and the L.A. Housing Department to implement the Stay Housed L.A. program, a city-county initiative aimed at helping tenants stay housed.
Schultz maintained that the Legal Aid Foundation has delivered exceptional services and provided the records to prove it, such as detailed invoices with staff time, salary information, program expenditures, and more than 25 data points for each case, including outcomes for cases where the organizations represents tenants.
The foundation noted staff cannot provide confidential client information, just like any other legal services organization.
“We have fulfilled the city attorney’s many data requests, however onerous and unusual they became, not to mention our comprehensive monthly reporting to the Los Angeles Housing Department,” Schultz told CNS.
“We stand by our work as good stewards of public funds that have helped reduce evictions and hope the City Council will see this transparent act of retaliation for what it is,” Schultz added.
The organizations are urging the City Council to advance the April allocation of funds to ensure services continue and workers get paid while they continue discussions with the City Attorney’s Office.
Feldstein Soto previously urged the council not to award the contract to the Legal Aid Foundation, raising concerns about allocating taxpayer dollars to organizations that have sued the city.
The Legal Aid Foundation and SAJE have lobbied the City Council for greater tenant protections.
In February, Shayla Myers, a lead attorney for LAFLA, won a court ruling that blocked Los Angeles from implementing plans to remove inoperable RVs from city streets. LAFLA and Strategic Action For a Just Economy have joined lawsuits challenging the city’s homelessness policies.
Representatives for the organizations have said that funding they receive from the city only supports tenant rights and eviction defense services.
The Housing Department had requested the City Council and Mayor Karen Bass to authorize a nearly $107 million contract with LAFLA for eviction defense and prevention, about $22 million for Liberty Hill Foundation for tenant outreach and education services, some $7 million for Strategic Action For a Just Economy for outreach and education regarding the city’s Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance, and $42 million for the Southern California Housing Rights Center for its short-term emergency assistance initiative.
Money from Measure ULA — the so-called “mansion tax” — would be used to fund the organizations and their respective work.
Additional dollars from the Senate Bill 2 Permanent Local Housing Allocation Fund is expected to support the Southern California Housing Rights Center for the first year of the contract term. Subsequent years of the contract would require dollars from Measure ULA.
The city began its eviction defense program on July 1, 2021, to create stability and ensure residents can remain housed. The same year, the city entered a contract with LAFLA, which has cost $90.8 million over the course of five years. It expired on March 31.
The subsequent contract, once finalized, is expected to expire on June 30, 2027.