LA County homeless spending under the microscope of newly appointed US attorney

LOS ANGELES – The freshly appointed, MAGA-aligned U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles County, has launched an ambitious new federal criminal task force aimed at forensically investigating how billions in homeless funding over the past five years was spent.  

"We will get to the bottom of it. And if we find that any federal laws are violated, we will arrest and prosecute those individuals involved," U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli told Fox News in his first television interview at his office in Downtown Los Angeles.

Essayli announced the launch of the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force, which will include federal prosecutors from the FBI, IRS and HUD. One of the items on the agenda is investigating the results of a recent audit that revealed $2.3 billion of homeless funding is unaccounted for in Los Angeles County alone.

"That is not a rounding error. That's a lot of money. So we want to get to the bottom of where that money went," Essayli said.

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U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli spoke with Fox News in his first television interview at his office in Downtown Los Angeles. (Fox News)

Los Angeles County has received nationwide criticism for being unable to fix its homeless population that is visible from the streets of Skid Row in downtown, to the VA Hospital on Wilshire Boulevard and tourist hot spots in coastal Santa Monica.  

"It's un-American what's happening there. You have people living on the streets and there's nothing around, there's no government services that are being offered," Essayli said about his recent tour of Skid Row.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she hoped Essayli’s investigation would not become a "fishing expedition" or a "distraction" to her homeless mission.

"Last year, Los Angeles bucked national increases with a 10% decrease in street homelessness and preliminary data points to another decrease for a second year in a row," a Bass spokesperson wrote in a statement. "These results are in part due to increased accountability and transparency around results and budgeting."

There is an estimated 75,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County, according to a 2024 survey.

A homeless encampment is seen along a roadside in Los Angeles on Dec. 6, 2022. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

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The chair of the LA County Board of Supervisors, Kathryn Barger, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom told Fox News they welcomed Essayli’s investigation.

"I believe this task force will add a much-needed layer of oversight that will help restore public trust and ensure resources actually reach those in need," Barger wrote in a statement.

Newsom’s office said the governor has called for spending accountability, including mechanisms to "claw back" homeless funding from local governments that failed to demonstrate progress. 

"Local governments must use state and federal homelessness dollars responsibly — and we expect them to deliver results. We share the federal administration’s goal of ensuring taxpayer funds are being used effectively to get people off our streets," a Newsom spokesperson wrote. 

Assemblymember Bill Essayli, left, who has pushed for parental notification policies from the legislature, speaks to a group of protesters in favor of the proposed transgender notification policy before the start of an Orange Unified School District meeting where the board will decide if the OUSD will implement a transgender notification policy in Orange on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. (Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

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Essayli, a former intern in the White House Counsel’s office during then-President George W. Bush’s administration, is a former federal prosecutor and, before being appointed U.S. attorney, was a Republican state assemblyman who frequently went head-to-head with Sacramento Democrats. The 39-year-old attorney has been publicly vocal about his alignment with President Donald Trump's MAGA policies.

"This is exactly what President Trump wants done," Essayli said about the task force. "He wants accountability for public officials, he wants accountability for taxpayers."