LOS ANGELES, California — U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli told Breitbart News exclusively on Tuesday that it was “unacceptable” that state and local officials could not account for homeless funds.
As Breitbart News and the Westside Current reported last month, an audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) found that $2.3 billion, including federal, state, and local funding, could not be accounted for.
On Tuesday, Fox News reported that Essayli was establishing a “Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force” within the U.S. Attorney’s office to investigate whether any laws were broken involving the urgently needed funds.
In an exclusive statement to Breitbart News, Essayli said: “It’s unacceptable that local and state officials are unable to account for billions of taxpayer dollars meant to deal with homelessness. I’m creating this task force to get to the bottom of what happened and where the money went. If federal laws were broken, we will prosecute any and all involved wrongdoers.”
Va Lecia Adams Kellum, the CEO of LAHSA, resigned last week after Los Angeles County reacted to the audit by establishing its own homeless services agency, essentially taking over what were meant to be LAHSA’s functions.
There have long been concerns with LAHSA’s management, and Kellum “inked deals with the nonprofit where her husband is a senior staffer,” including multi-million dollar contracts, according to a recent report by LAist.com.
Essayli had been a Republican members of the State Assembly, and led the fight for parental rights in Sacramento, until he was appointed by President Donald Trump to the U.S. Attorney post in Los Angeles just last week.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
