Fresh fury as Karen Bass skips more than HALF of LA’s homelessness board meetings
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is facing criticism for missing more than half of the recent meetings of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Commission, the body responsible for overseeing homelessness policy and funding in the city. The absences are notable because Bass made herself the first LA mayor to sit on the commission, positioning it as central to her efforts to tackle the city's homelessness crisis, yet her attendance record has raised doubts about how closely she is engaging with the issue.
Bass has missed 13 of 21 commission meetings since mid-August last year, and 25 of 47 since joining in October 2023, according to LAist. The agency's bylaws state members "may be subject to removal" after four absences within a year, though LAHSA says it has not flagged her attendance because the commission has still achieved quorum. The criticism comes as LA council members voted to lift a ban on 12 homeless encampments in areas including Hollywood, Silver Lake and Echo Park, and as LAHSA data records 72,195 homeless people in the county as of 2025, with polling showing most residents view homelessness as a serious problem.
- Bass has missed 25 of 47 LAHSA Commission meetings since 2023.
- Bylaws allow removal after four absences yearly, but none imposed.
- Comes as LA lifts ban on 12 homeless encampments citywide.
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Fresh fury as Karen Bass skips more than HALF of LA's homelessness board meetings
Karen Bass is the Mayor of Los Angeles, a city grappling with one of the largest homeless populations in the United States. In late 2023 she chose to join the commission overseeing the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), the agency that coordinates the city and county's response to homelessness, becoming the first LA mayor to sit on that body. She did so to signal that tackling homelessness was a personal priority of her administration.
The LAHSA Commission meets regularly to oversee policy and funding decisions on homeless services across the city, so members' attendance is seen as a marker of how engaged officials are with the issue. LAHSA's own rules note that members can potentially be removed after missing four meetings within a year, though the agency says it has not acted on this because meetings have still had enough members present to proceed.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Critics argue that accountability requires more than symbolism: Bass chose to join the LAHSA Commission and cast herself as personally leading the city's response to a humanitarian crisis, so missing well over half its meetings undermines that claim and sends a message that oversight of billions in homelessness spending is not a priority. They contend that direct, regular engagement by the city's most powerful elected official is precisely what a commission overseeing a 72,000-plus person crisis needs, and that residents who rank homelessness as a top concern deserve visible, consistent leadership rather than delegated attention.
The case against
Supporters of the mayor would argue that a mayor's real influence on homelessness comes through budgeting, staffing, interdepartmental coordination and policy decisions made outside the commission room, not through attendance at a single advisory body, and that the commission has continued to function and reach quorum without her presence. They would note that Bass carries an unusually broad portfolio of citywide responsibilities, that her office can and does send senior representatives to substitute, and that judging engagement on homelessness by one meeting's attendance sheet risks overlooking the substantive work happening elsewhere in her administration.