LOS ANGELES — Today, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) formally notified its labor union, SEIU Local 721, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the Mayor of Los Angeles, and the State of California, in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, of its intent issue layoff notices to 284 employees on April 30 (216 union-represented staff and 68 non-represented staff). For impacted employees, the final day of employment is projected to be June 30, which coincides with the end of the current fiscal year.
"I want to profoundly thank our staff for their unwavering dedication and hard work serving people experiencing homelessness across Los Angeles County," said Gita O’Neill, Interim CEO of LAHSA. "Our staff has been the driving force behind the historic reductions in street homelessness we've seen over the past two years. Though our agency’s structure is changing, the monumental impact of their work—housing nearly 80,000 people over three years—speaks for itself."
These notifications result primarily from impending funding cuts following the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors’ decision to establish the new County Department of Homeless Services and Housing. LAHSA’s restructuring will eliminate 414 positions in total, 130 of which are currently vacant. The timing of the staff notifications aligns with LAHSA’s Memorandum of Understanding with SEIU Local 721, which requires 60 days’ notice to affected employees.
Depending on the final details of the City of Los Angeles budget—expected to be finalized at the beginning of June—it remains possible that a portion of the notified LAHSA staff may be retained to continue their critical work with the agency after June 30.
The dedication of LAHSA’s workforce has driven significant, measurable progress across the region. Over the last three years, LAHSA staff have been central to the rehousing system, achieving several historic milestones, including:
"The historic milestones we have achieved are a direct result of the relentless dedication of LAHSA's workforce, but the changing funding landscape requires us to right-size and calibrate our agency for the future," said Amber Sheikh, Chair of the LAHSA Commission. "My fellow Commissioners and I are committed to this necessary restructuring to ensure system continuity. What matters most right now is reshaping LAHSA to provide uninterrupted support for the service providers on the frontlines every single day, working to end homelessness across Los Angeles."
A New Vision for Regional Impact
As articulated by O’Neill during the February 2026 LAHSA Commission meeting, LAHSA is preparing to become a fundamentally different organization starting in July 2026. Moving forward, LAHSA will transition into a highly specialized entity.
As the largest Continuum of Care (CoC) leader in the country, LAHSA’s strategic focus will be more narrowly tailored toward macro-level system operations and governance. Key responsibilities will include:
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Operation of the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and the Coordinated Entry System (CES).
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CoC governance and system performance measurement.
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Execution of the annual Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count.
As part of this transition, LAHSA’s contracting and program oversight role will be refocused primarily on serving the City of Los Angeles. To strengthen its oversight processes, LAHSA has engaged KPMG, whose experts are currently on the ground helping to successfully rebuild and optimize the agency’s financial infrastructure.
“This restructuring marks a necessary evolution for LAHSA,” continued O’Neill. “By narrowing our focus to macro-level governance, data management, and securing federal funding, we are stepping into our true role as a strategic architect of the region’s homelessness response system. This shift allows us to operate with greater precision and deliver stronger, more measurable system-wide performance. Our work with KMPG and the restructuring we’ve already put in place for contracting will help us be a strong partner to the City as well.”
LAHSA remains committed to transparency and supporting its workforce through this difficult transition while aggressively pursuing its newly refined mission to strategically guide the region's response to homelessness.