Los Angeles County and the city are now competing to take over the responsibilities.
Page B1From§Eachthe breakfast edition — 17 September 2026
LA's homeless authority dies rather than reform; county and city now compete for the body.
“They didn't fix it, they killed it, and now the county and the city are fighting over who gets to wear the badge. That's not accountability, that's a shell game with a for-rent sign on it, and the shell never had anybody housed in it — it just has to look good on a spreadsheet. Watch whose name ends up on the contract, then watch whose name doesn't end up on a bed.”
“Look, dissolving a broken agency isn't giving up, it's streamlining — local control, county and city closer to the people, more accountable, did I say accountable? I mean, that's not the word I — okay, nobody's canceling services, we're just letting two governments compete for who runs it best, that's a market, not a crisis. It's not that the oversight worked, it's that the org chart got more efficient, which, fine, is basically the same thing.”
Earlier in this story
- LA's homeless authority loses its chair to federal pressure, then loses itself to two rival governments. By Mort · the milkman edition, 17 September 2026
The receipts
· LA Mayor Karen Bass suddenly quits embattled homeless authority as feds turn the screws from the morgue, 9 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.