homeless

An audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority has found that lax accounting procedures resulted in the failure to reclaim millions of dollars in cash advances to contractors and to pay other contractors on time, even when funds were available.

At least one person is confirmed to have died from the storm — a woman in her 50s who was killed after a large tree fell on her homeless encampment — while hundreds of thousands of others in the affected area are without power.

One longtime homeless resident, Oudom Thammavong, said he would take shelter over being jailed.

Similar to L.A.’s Skid Row, Santa Clara Street has long been home to a heavy concentration of homeless campers because of its proximity to Poverello House, a nonprofit that offers three meals a day and access to services.

One speaker, a mother, said she was on the verge of being homeless again after timing out of the county’s shelters.