"When the special master overseeing a city court-ordered agreement to provide thousands of homeless shelter beds made a spot check at a South Los Angeles shelter she was disappointed in what she found. The shelter in the parking lot of the historic but shuttered Lincoln Theater in South Los Angeles is a bare-bones affair: gray tents pitched on wooden platform in rows on two parking lots. The homeless services provider Urban Alchemy has a $2.3-million contract to provide 88 beds there."
"During a court hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who is overseeing the agreement, said he sensed fraud, and chided the city for what he perceived as a lack of curiosity over the discrepancy. "Is the city's position when the special master notes obvious fraud and that the documents don't match, that you are bringing forth to this court that Ms. Martinez should disregard that and not report this to the court?" he asked the attorneys representing the city."
A South Los Angeles shelter on the Lincoln Theater parking lot was contracted for 88 beds under a $2.3 million agreement with Urban Alchemy but had tents on only one lot and 44 bare platforms on the other. The site opened in 2022 under Project Homekey and is now emblematic of alleged weak financial controls in the city's homeless services system. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter expressed suspicion of fraud and criticized the city for not probing the discrepancy. Urban Alchemy said it removed tents after a city notice about budget cuts in April 2024.
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