You would think the L.A. city government belongs in Chicago. It is as corrupt as any city in the country. Now we have the homeless being held hostage by a wife/husband team getting contracts.
“State conflict of interest laws ban public officials from any involvement in contracts in which they have a financial interest, including agreements that financially benefit their spouse or groups that pay their spouse.
Los Angeles’ top homeless services executive told LAist in December that she stuck to those rules, saying she had been walled off and “completely recused” from business relating to her husband’s employer.
Through a public records request, LAist later discovered records that contradict her assertion.
The documents show that Va Lecia Adams Kellum, chief executive of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), signed a $2.1 million contract and two other contract amendments with Upward Bound House, the Santa Monica-based nonprofit where her husband Edward Kellum works in senior leadership. The contract names Adams Kellum as the LAHSA official authorized to administer it.
By not firing the person who signed the contrast—and not nullifying the contract shows the Marxist Mayor Bass cares.
LA’s top homelessness official signed $2.1 million contract with husband’s employer
Government documents show Va Lecia Adams Kellum, who leads an agency that manages over $700 million in homeless services contracts each year, inked deals with the nonprofit where her husband is a senior staffer.
By Nick Gerda and David Wagner, LA1st, 2/11/25 https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/los-angeles-homeless-services-authority-lahsa-va-lecia-adams-kellum-contracts-upward-bound-house
State conflict of interest laws ban public officials from any involvement in contracts in which they have a financial interest, including agreements that financially benefit their spouse or groups that pay their spouse.
Los Angeles’ top homeless services executive told LAist in December that she stuck to those rules, saying she had been walled off and “completely recused” from business relating to her husband’s employer.
Through a public records request, LAist later discovered records that contradict her assertion.
The documents show that Va Lecia Adams Kellum, chief executive of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), signed a $2.1 million contract and two other contract amendments with Upward Bound House, the Santa Monica-based nonprofit where her husband Edward Kellum works in senior leadership. The contract names Adams Kellum as the LAHSA official authorized to administer it.
A LAHSA spokesperson told LAist the contracts had inadvertently ended up in front of Adams Kellum to sign.
LAist’s findings come amid mounting questions about oversight at LAHSA, the public agency tasked by the city and county with administering more than $700 million in annual contracts with nonprofits to provide homeless services. It is a creation of the city and county and jointly funded and overseen by both.
Upward Bound House is a longtime vendor of LAHSA that focuses on housing and services for unhoused families, as well as young adults. It began receiving public money from LAHSA years prior to Adams Kellum joining the agency in March 2023.
When employees sign LAHSA’s code of ethics they agree to avoid any activities that could be, or appear to be, conflicts of interest, according to a copy posted on LAHSA’s website. One of the examples given is immediate family relationships with the agency’s vendors.
The $2.1 million contract signed by Adams Kellum authorized federal taxpayer funds for Upward Bound House to pay rent for unhoused people in the region and help them find homes. The money also covered case management and administration costs at the nonprofit.
The records show Adams Kellum signed the three documents directly above the names of her husband’s employer and his boss.
The signature sections of two contract amendments (dated the same day) and a $2.1 million contract Va Lecia Adams Kellum signed between the government agency she leads and her husband’s employer. LAist obtained the documents through a public records request.
Details of the contracts
- In December, LAist asked LAHSA officials for copies of every contract between LAHSA and Upward Bound House that’s been in effect since Va Lecia Adams Kellum became LAHSA’s CEO in late March 2023.
In response, officials disclosed 13 agreements totaling nearly 1,000 pages, which LAist reviewed.
- The three LAHSA agreements Adams Kellum signed with Upward Bound House include a one-year contract, signed in May 2024, funding nearly $2.1 million to Upward Bound House in federal dollars, to pay rent for unhoused people and to help them find longer-term housing. The budget included about $356,000 for Upward Bound House’s case managers and about $102,000 for the nonprofit’s administration. The contract named Adams Kellum as the LAHSA official “authorized to administer” the agreement.
- She signed the two other deals in March 2024. They amended two earlier contracts totaling $2.24 million between LAHSA and Upward Bound House for housing and support services for unhoused youth. Both amendments state that they were “updating the budget through a Scope of Work Change,” though a LAHSA spokesperson said they didn’t have any financial impacts.
- The 10 other agreements were signed by subordinates of Adams Kellum. Eight of those agreements listed Adams Kellum’s name under the signature line for LAHSA.
- The latest available public tax filing for Upward Bound House shows its total revenue was about $9 million in 2023.
LAist found that Adams Kellum’s interactions with Upward Bound House extended beyond signing contracts.
She also spoke with her husband’s employer last year regarding complaints made during public comments alleging failures in Upward Bound House’s performance, according to the nonprofit’s chief executive.
Government ethics experts say conflict of interest laws forbid a wide range of involvement, including signing contracts.
“The laws are pretty specific that you can’t have any participation whatsoever,” said Sean McMorris, who manages the ethics program for California Common Cause. “You should not be putting your signature on any such contract. You have to completely recuse yourself from the matter.”
McMorris said in the eyes of the law, a conflict of interest violation can take place even if the breach was unintentional. He told LAist that Adams Kellum’s signatures appear to violate California’s Political Reform Act and the state’s Government Code Section 1090.
Following ethics expectations, he added, is “extremely important because it speaks to the integrity and character of our representatives.”
Adams Kellum said her conflict was disclosed
Adams Kellum previously told LAist she had steered clear of anything to do with her husband’s employer.
“This issue was disclosed when I was hired,” Adams Kellum wrote in a Dec. 9 email, prior to LAist requesting public records that showed she had signed LAHSA contracts with her husband’s employer.
“LAHSA’s [legal] counsel has put procedures in place that have been followed and these procedures ‘walled me off’ from any involvement in matters concerning Upward Bound House,” she added. “I am completely recused from matters that involve or impact Upward Bound House.”
Adams Kellum has not responded to follow-up questions and interview requests from LAist about the contracts she signed, including questions about whether conflict of interest laws may have been violated.
Edward Kellum, her husband, did not respond to LAist’s requests for comment. He is featured as one of six people on the “senior staff” section of Upward Bound House’s website, where his title is director of operations and compliance.
Also listed is the organization’s president and CEO, Christine Mirasy-Glasco. She acknowledged to LAist that Adams Kellum, in her role as LAHSA’s top executive, spoke with her once regarding complaints from public commenters alleging Upward Bound House failed to provide required services and falsified documents.
In an email, Mirasy-Glasco wrote that Adams Kellum “shared that LAHSA would follow up with UBH,” and said a subordinate of Adams Kellum was assigned to work with the vendor to get the complainants into permanent housing. Mirasy-Glasco provided LAist with written responses to several of the complaints.
Paul Rubenstein, a spokesperson for LAHSA, also said follow-up on the complaints was handled by a subordinate of Adams Kellum.
Spokesperson says signatures were an ‘oversight’
As for the three agreements with her husband’s employer, Rubenstein said Adams Kellum “mistakenly signed” them after staffers inadvertently sent them to her. When the CEO has a conflict of interest, LAHSA’s standard practice is for contracts to instead be signed by the agency’s top programs officer, Rubenstein wrote.
“Dr. Adams Kellum has not been involved in any discussions regarding Upward Bound House contracts,” Rubenstein wrote in an email to LAist. He added that Adams Kellum “has never been involved in overseeing any programs or agreements with UBH.”
“LAHSA is taking steps to further ensure this does not happen again, including requiring additional staff training,” he added, noting that all contracts go through multiple reviews and require “three staff signatures before being sent to the CEO or her designee.”
Rubenstein did not respond to an email asking how Adams Kellum’s signatures could be a mistake, given their close proximity to Upward Bound House’s name.
He also did not answer why, if Adams Kellum was completely recused, she was named in the $2.1 million contract with Upward Bound House as LAHSA’s representative “authorized to administer” the agreements.
What the oversight commission knew
The 10-member LAHSA Commission is responsible for overseeing the agency and its CEO. Half of the commission is appointed by county supervisors, and half are appointed by L.A.’s mayor with confirmation by the City Council.
“The LAHSA Commission was fully informed and consulted with legal counsel about potential conflicts prior to Dr. Adams Kellum being offered the position,” Rubenstein said.
But LAist found that members of the LAHSA Commission had varying degrees of awareness of Adams Kellum’s conflict — and gave different instructions over time at the recommendation of staff.
In August 2023, LAHSA’s governing commission specifically excluded Adams Kellum from signing the $2.1 million contract when it came up for a vote, according to the meeting’s minutes. Instead, the commission authorized its chair to enter into the agreement. The meeting record shows Adams Kellum recused herself and stepped out of the room during the vote.
Despite the prohibition, she signed that contract months later.
In other instances later on, the LAHSA Commission apparently changed course. Despite Adams Kellum’s conflict of interest disclosure forms, commissioners voted to follow staff’s recommendation to authorize her to enter into contracts with Upward Bound House.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass was among the commissioners who voted unanimously last year to allow Adams Kellum to sign other contracts with the service provider, according to meeting minutes and agendas. (Bass was not yet on the commission for the August 2023 vote.)
Asked for comment about the conflict of interest, Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass, said work is underway to “make LAHSA more transparent and accountable,” including “initiating additional protocols to prevent future issues.”
The mayor’s relationship with Va Lecia Adams Kellum
- L.A. Mayor Karen Bass directed LAHSA to hire Adams Kellum as a consultant, embedded in the mayor’s office, in early 2023 leading up to Adams Kellum becoming LAHSA’s CEO, according to an agreement LAist obtained through a public records request.
- Adams Kellum was to be paid $60,000 across a month and a half via the no-bid contract to advise Bass on building the mayor’s signature homelessness program Inside Safe.
- A no-bid contract is one where a funder, such as LAHSA, does not hold a competitive process where multiple organizations submit proposals that are compared.
- The advisory role was described in a statement as Adams Kellum joining Bass’ administration before transitioning to the LAHSA CEO role.
Two other commission members who joined the LAHSA Commission after Adams Kellum was hired — L.A. County Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Lindsey Horvath — were not formally notified of the conflict prior to voting to allow her to enter agreements with Upward Bound House, according to their spokespeople.
Barger didn’t find out about the family tie until after she left the LAHSA Commission in October 2024, according to her spokesperson. Horvath was not officially notified about the conflict, though it was known among many who work in homeless services, according to Horvath’s spokesperson.
LAist reviewed those later contracts, and found Adams Kellum did not ultimately sign them. Instead, subordinates signed with Adams Kellum’s name printed below most of the signature lines.
What’s next
Questions about transparency and how LAHSA is handling hundreds of millions in public dollars have been a growing concern for local lawmakers.
Adams Kellum faced controversy recently over her hiring of Lilly Simmering for a top-level LAHSA leadership position that oversees all homelessness programs. Simmering oversaw an Orange County government department that paid out millions of dollars to an out-of-compliance nonprofit now embroiled in a fraud scandal involving former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do. Simmering left after less than two weeks on the job, following questions about her history in Orange County.
LAHSA officials have removed the agency’s list of leaders and organization chart from its website. For at least two weeks, those pages have been replaced with a graphic labeled “under construction.”
In response to a request from LAist, Rubenstein provided a copy of the organization’s organization chart, dated Feb. 1. He said the website will be updated soon with the new info. The site was not updated as of Tuesday.
In November, Horvath called for the county to pull its funding from LAHSA after an audit found failures in the agency’s oversight of service providers. The county provides about half of LAHSA’s $875 million annual budget. The Board of Supervisors approved Horvath’s call for county staff to create a plan to have the county manage the spending directly.
Horvath, in response to LAist’s latest reporting, said she is scheduling a discussion on conflict of interest disclosures at an upcoming meeting of LAHSA’s governing commission.
L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who chairs the council’s housing and homelessness committee, said in an email to LAist: “At a time when there is a great deal of distrust in government and in the homeless services system, I think it is particularly important to ensure that we avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
In response to LAist’s reporting, Raman said she contacted Wendy Greuel — L.A.’s former controller and current chair of the LAHSA Commission — who assured Raman that conflict of interest policies would be rigorously enforced to prevent future lapses.
Greuel did not address concerns about the conflict when asked for comment by LAist.
L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, a frequent critic of LAHSA’s oversight practices, called Adams Kellum’s signing of contracts with Upward Bound House “really problematic” and “absolutely unacceptable.”
Adams Kellum was hired at a base salary of $430,000 a year — nearly double the pay of elected City Council members and about 42% more than the mayor of L.A.
With such a high salary and responsibility over taxpayer dollars, Rodriguez said, LAHSA’s CEO should be adhering to high ethical standards.
“There need to be greater guardrails,” Rodriguez said.
Financial disclosure rules
- Public officials must fill out annual disclosures — known as form 700s — about their personal financial interests, to provide public transparency and help avoid potential conflicts of interest.
- Previous LAist reporting in December found that out of roughly 700 current employees at LAHSA, only the CEO had been required by the agency to file the disclosures, despite the agency acknowledging more than two years earlier that more of its staff needed to file the disclosures. (More LAHSA employees are scheduled to be required to file such disclosures, under a proposal up for final approval this month.)
- Adams Kellum’s latest disclosure reports her share of her husband’s income from Upward Bound House, during the roughly nine months from when she started her job at LAHSA in late March 2023 to the end of that year. The dollar amount selected for her share was between $10,000 and $100,000. (Form instructions state that for income to the official’s spouse, the dollar amount disclosed on the form is half of the total income. California community property laws split income 50-50 between spouses.)
- Last fall, Adams Kellum’s administration hired a new chief executive strategist who, according to state business filings, co-owns a consulting business with the leader of one of LAHSA’s largest contracted service providers. The new LAHSA executive is among the agency’s administrators who haven’t been required by the agency to file the forms in recent years.
Other local governments require many of their staff to file these disclosures. The L.A. city Housing Department has fewer staff than LAHSA, though its list of who has to file form 700s includes 72 position types — including finance officials and project managers.
LAHSA’s spokesperson has not responded to questions about what ethics training, if any, Adams Kellum received. State law requires ethics training for officials at cities, counties, special districts and the state. The spokesperson said that law doesn’t apply to LAHSA because the agency is a different type of local government body called a joint powers authority.
How to watchdog local government
One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention.
Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.
- Read tips on how to get involved.
- The next scheduled LAHSA Commission meeting is Friday, Feb. 28, at 9 a.m. You can check out the commission’s full calendar here.
- You can find the address to attend in person or attend the meeting virtually here.
- You can speak to the LAHSA Commission during any agenda item, or at the end of the meeting during general public comments, by submitting a “Request to Speak Form” to the commission’s secretary before the agenda item starts.
- You can see the list of all LAHSA commissioners here (note one of the seats is currently vacant). LAHSA’s website for the commission does not include a way to contact the commissioners.
