WASHINGTON — President Trump is singling out the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority as a warning about Democratic mismanagement of publicly funded programs, using it to justify proposed cuts to homeless services across the country.
Trump’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year, released on Friday, asks Congress to end the Continuum of Care – a government program that provides housing and services to homeless Americans – citing concerns about “fraud and corruption” among local governing bodies.
The White House points to LAHSA, which manages many homeless services in the city and state, as an example of why the program needs to go.
The agency has faced local criticism for years for a lack of proper oversight and the district is in the midst of transitioning to an interior department.
“LAHSA has a poor record of reducing the highest number of homeless people in the United States, and an independent audit released in March 2025 found that the agency has failed to accurately track billions of state and local dollars,” the budget said.
The local agency backtracked on the statement after the budget was released.
“Cutting this funding or weakening the Continuum of Care program will lead to more tents on our streets, not less,” said Gita O’Neill, the organization’s interim chief executive, adding that under her leadership, homelessness in Los Angeles has decreased by 15% and that 90% of the program’s funding goes “directly”.
Local officials are already facing cuts to homeless services at the state and county level given budget constraints and LAHSA warned Trump’s proposal would make things worse.
“If anything, we need more money to cover rising costs, not less, to maintain our current momentum,” the agency said Friday.
The funding dispute over homelessness services is one of the reasons for the broad budget attack on California programs by the Trump administration.
Trump’s proposal also asks Congress to remove millions in funding from federal programs that the White House deems wasteful, ineffective or “woke”.
The cuts, if implemented, would cancel $4 billion in unspent funding for the state’s high-speed rail project, which the White House has called a “boondoggle,” and take away grants from Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California, a budget that has criticized as “actively working to dismantle systems of power and privilege that favor whiteness.”
Smaller things are also headed for the White House’s crosshairs: a gelato festival in Los Angeles, a dance hall in Santa Cruz — the White House calls it “one of the wealthiest cities in the nation” — and a $3-million grant for a playground tied to an unspecified performing arts center in California.
Trump’s proposed cuts to California projects are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to realign government spending priorities, particularly by trading telecommunications systems to integrate large military forces.
The president is asking Congress to approve $1.5 trillion for defense and cut $73 billion from domestic programs, a major restructuring that could leave states, including California, holding costs that Washington no longer wants to bear.
Trump made that point clear at a private Easter lunch at the White House on Wednesday, telling guests that the federal government should no longer be responsible for funding the telecommunications systems that many Americans rely on.
“We can’t take care of kindergarten. We’re a big country,” Trump said. “We are fighting wars. We can’t take care of the kindergarten.”
If states want to provide those services, Trump said, they should raise taxes to pay for them.
“Medicaid, Medicare, all of these individual things, they can do on a federal basis,” he said. “We have to take care of one thing: military protection.”
His proposed budget reflects the priorities, which lawmakers will have to face as they face the rising costs of the Iran war and the economic collapse caused by military operations that have left Americans paying for many things, including the gas pump.
Under the proposed budget, Trump also wants to invest in California projects.
The White House, for example, is seeking $152 million from Congress to turn Alcatraz into a maximum security prison, an idea the president has talked about for several years.
He also asked Congress to establish the National Center for Warrior Independence at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center.
Times staff writer Andrew Khouri, Los Angeles, contributed to this report.
