RFK Jr. and HUD secretary rip L.A. homeless agencies and endorse faith-based alternatives
As a federal judge weighs whether to block the Trump administration’s suspension of the region’s lead homelessness agency, two members of the president’s cabinet came to in Los Angeles to plead their case.
At a press conference Tuesday, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. excoriated the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority as an agency beset by mismanagement and abuse.
“Our aim is that LAHSA does not receive another dollar until it has accountability,” Turner said, framed by American flags and jumbo TV screens blaring the words “Cancel Corruption.”
As an example of money wasted by LAHSA’s lack of financial controls, Turner cited the recent federal indictment alleging a homeless services provider fleeced the system of $23 million in fraudulent billings.
Kennedy said his agency is rooting out “billions and billions of dollars” of Medicare fraud inherited from the Biden administration.
Their appearance fell on the day U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter was expected to issue a ruling in a lawsuit filed by LAHSA challenging HUD’s suspension that prevents the agency from filing applications, due August 26, for about $240 million in federal homelessness funds on behalf of service providers across the region. In a follow-up letter, HUD said that because LAHSA was suspended, those providers would have to apply directly to HUD.
LAHSA’s lawsuit alleges that the suspension was a pretext for HUD’s plan to overhaul homeless policy. The administration wants to spend more on recovery-based transitional housing and less on programs known as housing first, which provide permanent subsidized housing with no pre-conditions or requirement to receive treatment.
A federal court in Rhode Island has blocked the funding shift for now, ruling that HUD made the changes in its 2025 funding offer without a required review process. On Friday, the same judge set aside HUD’s 2026 funding offer, an action that may invalidate the August 26 deadline that is driving the Los Angeles case.
Asked about the lawsuit during questioning, Turner said, “We’re working on that right now,” then shifted to a brown lunch bag pulled from the lectern from which he extracted several items.
“This is a bag that I learned they’re giving our homeless neighbors with American taxpayer dollars,” he said. “This is drug paraphernalia that’s in this bag. This brown bag that’s handed to people, homeless people addicted to drugs.”
The bag, he said, was an example of why the administration considers housing-first a failed model.
“The playbook that they’ve been running, that’s a bad playbook,” Turner said.
Both Turner and Kennedy endorsed faith-based recovery programs as alternatives prefered by the administration over housing first.
To underscore the message they held the press conference at the LA Dream Center, a former hospital converted into a faith-based residential treatment center, touting it as an example of the type of program the Trump administration backs as a more effective solution to homelessness than expensive permanent housing.
“I’ve been to about nine or ten faith-based agencies that help out homeless neighbors around the country, that do tremendous work and have results, real results,” Turner said. “And that’s what HUD is about. We’re about funding results, not just funding the amount of people that are in beds.”
As he left, Turner gave a brief faith-laced pep talk for a group of young Dream Center residents in the audience.
“The Lord got your back,” he said.