Los Angeles, CA – February 18: Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum
attends The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) press conference to start the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Va Lecia Adams Kellum resigned from her position as CEO of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Friday, following the county's decision to create its own department and take back control of millions in homelessness funding.
The decision to defund LAHSA came after an audit found a lack of transparency in tracking spending for the services provided. The LA County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 on Tuesday to proceed with the decision.
Adams Kellum's resignation comes two years after she joined the agency in 2023. In her resignation, the now-former CEO cites the city's shift of responsibilities from LAHSA to LA County as the reason for her departure.
“With the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors implementing the 2020 Blue Ribbon recommendations, shifting key responsibilities from LAHSA to LA County, now is the right time for me to resign as CEO,” said Adams Kellum.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
Adams Kellum will remain with the agency for a 120-day transition period while the agency finds a new replacement, according to LAHSA.
In a statement, Mayor Karen Bass wrote:
"Dr. Adams Kellum has saved thousands of lives in Los Angeles. She worked with my office to create Inside Safe – the first and only citywide program to resolve entire encampments and bring people inside. She tackled the challenges of the homelessness system – silos, services, accountability, cost – and despite knowing that LAHSA was broken, she answered the call of service to serve as CEO because she knows that above all else, we must work to save lives. Despite this broken system, while homelessness rises across the country, Los Angeles is bucking that trend – street homelessness declined for the first time in more than six years, and early reports show that this progress continues for a second year. This would not have been possible without Dr. Adams Kellum’s leadership and bold vision for what’s possible. She helped us move the needle to save lives, restore neighborhoods and show that homelessness can be solved. 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."
Tuesday's decision was met by opposition from Los Angeles city officials, with city council members crossing the street from LA City Hall to speak up against the vote during the board meeting.
While some council members said they are no fans of the homeless agency with Councilmember Monica Rodriguez saying LAHSA “is really good at cashing (LA’s) checks,” others said the timing is not right for the county government to quit LAHSA.
“When the federal government is taking everything away, we need to be united,” said Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsk,y who represents the West LA district.
Mayor Karen Bass and Councilwoman Nithya Raman also wrote a letter to board members asking them to reject the proposed new county department, insisting that progress has been made in the fight against homelessness in the past two years through the coordinated city-county agency, and “we must keep building on this and confronting our challenges, together.''
The county's vote came on the day the countywide sales tax increased by a quarter-cent to provide additional funding for anti-homelessness programs.
The increase was approved by voters in November with the passage of Measure A, a half-cent sales tax for homeless programs that will be in effect in perpetuity. The tax replaced a previous voter-approved quarter-cent sales tax that was set to expire in 2027.
The new county agency is expected to be in place by Jan. 1, with some $300 million pulled from LAHSA and transferred to the new county department by July 1, 2026.
