Committee approves LAHD staffing plan to stand up Bureau of Homelessness Oversight with conditions

The Los Angeles City Council committee approved, as amended, a joint Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) and City Administrative Officer (CAO) staffing plan to create a Bureau of Homelessness Oversight that would add 10 new positions and reserve roughly $1,196,548 in General City Purposes funding for initial staffing.

Callie Hardy, Director of Strategic Engagement and Policy at LAHD, told the committee the joint report "includes the necessary actions to authorize and resource a total of 10 new positions for the new bureau," and outlines hiring timelines and resource needs. The report projects hiring of the new positions would take about two to four months after council and mayoral approvals.

Chair McCosker moved to approve the joint CAO–LAHD recommendations with amendments that (1) instruct the CAO to formally note the LAHD staffing plan in the attached report; (2) postpone any transfer of six regional outreach coordinator positions (one principal project coordinator and five senior project coordinators) from the CAO to the new bureau until completion of a council-reviewed report on funding and operational transition; and (3) direct the CAO, in consultation with LAHD, to identify ongoing funding for those positions and return to council with a detailed transition plan as part of FY26–27 budget deliberations.

Eve Bachrock of the CAO confirmed that, under the report, the regional outreach coordinators currently in the CAO would continue their existing functions for the remainder of the fiscal year. Several members said a fuller policy discussion is still needed about the bureau’s long-term role and how contract and operational responsibilities should be divided among LAHD, the CAO, and other offices.

Committee staff read additional appropriation language into the record that would rescind a prior reservation from the UB fund and replace it with General City Purposes funding, reserving about $1,196,548 for the homeless oversight budget and identifying line items and accounts for salaries and related costs in the joint report and council file. The joint recommendation also adds three positions (two senior housing planning and economic analysts and one data analyst II) to the request for LAHD budgets in future deliberations.

On the motion, the clerk recorded Council Member Oscar voting yes, Council Member Rodriguez voting no, and Council Member Sotto Martinez voting yes; the chair announced the matter approved as amended.

The committee’s action sends the amended staffing instruction and the direction to return with a detailed operational transition and funding plan into the FY26–27 budget process. The committee held additional policy conversation pending that report.