HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced Wednesday that new federal charges have been filed against two individuals tied to Los Angeles-area homeless nonprofits, revealing that the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) paid one contractor more than $75 million before much of the money was allegedly misused.

The Department of Justice announced the arrests on September 16, 2026. The complaint alleges that defendant Young, through a company called Home at Last (HAL), received over $118 million in public funds from LAHSA, the City and County of Los Angeles, and HUD. LAHSA alone directed $75 million to HAL for homeless housing services.

Prosecutors claim Young created shell companies and submitted fraudulent invoices to divert more than $7.5 million for personal expenses, including over $1 million to open and operate a high-end restaurant and nightclub in Inglewood. Young faces wire fraud charges that carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

The charges come months after HUD suspended all federal funding to LAHSA in June 2026 following an inspector general investigation. That earlier action cited repeated failures in financial controls, missing documentation for thousands of housing units, and the lack of a conflict-of-interest policy until late 2025.

"HUD and the Trump Administration will not tolerate the theft and the abuse of taxpayer dollars in our country," Turner said in the announcement.

Turner has repeatedly criticized the agency for receiving nearly $1 billion in federal homelessness funds over five years while homelessness in Los Angeles continued to rise sharply. The secretary stated that HUD would no longer fund organizations showing patterns of waste and self-dealing. Turner described the development as proof there is "deep rot and corruption in LAHSA."

"The days of blank checks are over and it’s time these fraudsters face the ultimate consequence," Turner wrote, "Law and Order."

These developments come soon after the recent resignation of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) from the governing commission of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority on September 9. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, sent a letter on September 3 calling on Bass to testify at a September 15 hearing intended to analyze potential fraud and abuse in LAHSA’s distribution of their federal grants. Bass’s office responded to the letter saying she was not able to testify before the panel due to scheduling conflicts.

According to public records, Bass missed 25 of the 47 LAHSA commission meetings during her time on the board. More than half of those missed meetings were in the most recent year analyzed.

Bass has faced immediate backlash online. Spencer Pratt, Bass' former opponent in the LA Mayoral race, pointed out the timing of her resignation in an X post.

In another post, Pratt further expressed frustration with Bass as well as city and state leadership as a whole. "This is what CA does with fed dollars. Leaders like Karen Bass just steal it," he wrote. He went on to say that Bass and Nithya Raman, a Los Angeles city councilmember and mayoral candidate that identifies with the Democratic Socialists of America, both "belong in Federal PMITA prison. They are destroying LA and stealing our money."

The DOJ charges against Young marks the latest development in ongoing scrutiny of LAHSA’s contracts and oversight of taxpayer dollars intended for housing and services. This also marks yet another scheme in California that was found to allegedly be fraud and misuse of taxpayer funds.

California is a heavily blue state with no Republicans currently elected to statewide office. The state has faced numerous allegations of fraud during the tenure of Gov. Gavin Newsom, including Nick Shirley's independent investigation that exposed roughly $170 million in alleged fraud within California's state-funded daycare system.