Free Republic

A new Skid Row encampment popped up across the street from NYU dorms — with vagrants bragging that living on the streets of the Big Apple is “much better” under Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The 30-foot-long shantytown at East Ninth Street and Third Avenue sits just outside Ukrainian Village Park, with a long blue tarp covering office chairs, luggage and bicycles on the sidewalk, in plain sight of both passersby and the college students who live across the street, The Post has learned. “Some people are nice, some people think we invade their space,” Raymond, 45, who lives in the shelter,...

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced Sept. 16 that his agency had identified approximately $75 million laundered through homeless services, mostly in California. States and cities receiving federal taxpayer dollars to support homeless people funneled that money into nonprofit and non-governmental organizations, where the taxpayer dollars were spent on lavish vacations, private jets, luxury automobiles, opening nightclubs, and other personal ventures, according to the announcement. The “homeless industrial complex,” as Turner called it, involves nonprofits and non-governmental organizations that take federal taxpayer dollars, administered by states, and register non-existent identities as “homeless people” receiving aid, when no...

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) laundered more than $75 million for charlatans, cheaters, and thieves, at least one of whom used more than $1 million of the more than $110 million in homeless funds he received to open a nightclub. And it's no wonder that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who's running for reelection, smelled trouble and quit her membership in and control over LAHSA before the feds announced indictments on Wednesday. Karen Bass suddenly stepped down from LAHSA a few days ago. Today, HUD Secretary Turner just revealed that $75M of fraud was laundered through LAHSA.Probably nothing!...

A charity worker who allegedly took massive bribes in exchange for pouring millions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of a corrupt homeless service bigwig was busted by the feds in a sweeping operation that targeted infamous homeless services fraud in that’s crippling Los Angeles. FBI agents in a dramatic raid swarmed the South Los Angeles home of Lakiya Malone just before dawn, taking to bullhorns and yelling for her to “come out!” As the SSG worker emerged, she was placed in handcuffs by men in Kevlar vests, while others trained rifles on her house. FBI agents collared Malone, 48,...

A federal judge has ordered Berkeley officials to consider specific locations where unhoused people can move when the city closes the long-standing encampment at Eighth and Harrison streets. But Judge Edward Chen rejected homeless advocates’ request for a long-term postponement of the camp closure, and said Berkeley can clear the area “in short order.” Chen’s order Thursday states that homeless advocates must generate, and city officials must approve or reject, a list of proposed new campsites for 23 camp residents by Aug. 27. It is the latest concession homeless advocates have won in their legal challenges that seek to block...

A taxpayer-funded Southern California nonprofit that provides domestic violence shelters and homelessness services paid its longtime CEO more than $1.6 million over two years, including hundreds of thousands of dollars for decades of unused vacation time, according to multiple media reports. Carol Adelkoff, CEO of the Los Angeles-based 1736 Family Crisis Center, received $907,923 in total compensation in 2023 and another $742,181 in 2024, according to the Los Angeles Times. ... Her base salary has remained around $405,000 in recent years, she said, while roughly $824,000 in vacation time was paid out over 2023 and 2024. The 1736 Family Crisis...

A Southern California nonprofit that runs domestic violence shelters has paid its longtime chief executive officer, a Hawaii resident, more than $1.6 million in salary and vacation over two years — far more than local peers. Experts in nonprofit oversight say 1736 Family Crisis Center CEO Carol Adelkoff’s out-of-state residency and compensation raise questions about board governance and ‘reasonable’ pay. Adelkoff said her compensation grew significantly over the last couple of years because she was paid unused vacation time that had accrued over the 40 years she has worked at the nonprofit. As public spending on homelessness has come under...

At the end of January 2026, a colleague’s piece about a couple that was down on its luck was published in the Finger Lakes Times. They were apparently homeless, living out of an abandoned camper and their car for the previous 11 months. A short time later a connection was facilitated with the couple and Doris Wolf, 84. The longtime Junius resident offered a downstairs apartment in her home. The rent was made affordable since the couple lived on Social Security disability benefits with a combined income of $1,800 per month. Doris waived the first or last month’s deposit. For...

Taxpaying Angelenos write big checks every year. They dump billions into homelessness services –– and the tents, needles and suffering still turn neighborhoods into obstacle courses. Then Mayor Karen Bass drops her latest pearl of wisdom: Homeless folks use meth “to stay awake for protection on the city’s dangerous streets.” Bless her heart. This isn’t compassionate; it’s Olympic-level mental gymnastics that insults every working stiff paying the tab while watching their city circle the drain. It perfectly explains why Bass’s approval hovers in the 32%–36% range, with disapproval in the 57%–66% zone in recent polls. Let’s be real about how...

EXCLUSIVE: A top Trump agency is cutting off funding to the Los Angeles agency responsible for coordinating billions in homelessness spending after accusing it of "obvious fraud," "wanton mismanagement" and repeated failures to safeguard taxpayer dollars, Fox News Digital has learned. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which is a member of the White House fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance, is immediately suspending the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority's (LAHSA) federal funding while HUD’s inspector general investigates potential offenses by the agency and its leadership, according to a letter sent to LAHSA's board chair...

By focusing on the physical search for a home, it can be easy to overlook the quiet, internal crisis that happens when a Veteran feels they no longer belong to a community. It is a specific kind of isolation—a feeling that their values, their purpose and their spirit have been sidelined while they struggle to survive. Some of the most common challenges Veterans experiencing homelessness may face include: Abandonment: A deep sense of isolation and loneliness that can leave a Veteran feeling forgotten by their country and their community. Disconnection from self: A loss of self-identity that occurs when a...

The Atlanta train passenger who was slaughtered in a shocking daylight weekend attack was reportedly stabbed nearly two dozen times in what cops are calling a horrific random assault. John Elijah Matthews, 25, was caught on chilling surveillance footage boarding a Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s (MARTA) Saturday morning and hovering over 66-year-old Margaret Swan before allegedly pulling out a knife and slitting her throat, according to a warrant obtained by 11Alive. The unwitting passenger, sitting alone, began screaming and trying to escape as the violent brute allegedly held her down and stabbed her 18 to 20 times in an...

In Los Angeles, City firefighters are lashing out at Mayor Karen Bass' neglect to sufficiently budget for fire safety. Councilwoman Traci Park, the lone dissenter on the City Council's priorities for spending said "here we are a year and a half after the worst disaster in our city's history, and our fire department investments are being deferred. Our firefighters are being asked to do more with less. Response times have lengthened. Work shifts have become longer and some paychecks have been missed." The Mayor insisted that "the fact that Park is consistently one vote against the fifteen other Council members...

Los Angeles District 4 City Councilwoman and socialist candidate for L.A. mayor, Nithya Raman, has gotten a small taste of what Angelenos have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, and she does not like it one bit. An advocacy group called Safe Cities USA decided to stage a full-on homeless encampment at Raman's doorstep over Memorial Day weekend, and she was shocked that the campaign for mayor has come to this. She thought she'd be spouting World Economic Forum (WEF) garbage about bike lanes, transportation, and 15-minute cities. Instead, she's being confronted with what the majority of Los Angeles...

The Los Angeles Police Department are funding homeless encampments completely crawling with rats LAPD is calling this a health and safety hazard and making it impossible for people with disabilities to use sidewalks 5 medieval diseases are having resurgences in Los Angeles linked to homelessness and poor sanitation conditions Flea-borne Typhus (Murine Typhus) Spread by fleas on rats and other animals in trash-filled areas. LA County has seen repeated outbreaks, with record highs in recent years Tuberculosis (TB) A bacterial lung infection historically associated with crowded, unsanitary conditions. Outbreaks have been reported in Skid Row and among homeless populations in...

Los Angeles hosts the nation’s largest unsheltered homeless population. In recent years, despite billions in city and county spending, L.A.’s once-pristine streets have become littered with tents, drugs, and feces. City leaders have made elaborate promises about managing the homeless problem, but few seem to have asked a simple question: Where, exactly, are these people coming from? There is a reason for that. In 2020, the city-county Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) found that one-third of “unsheltered Angelenos” became homeless outside of Los Angeles County. In 2024, the nonprofit RAND Corporation reported that 41 percent of the street homeless...

Last week, filmmaker Charles Curran posted a viral AI-generated video that now looks less like satire and more like prophecy. In the video—boosted by Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt—Mayor Karen Bass is transformed into a full Joker—green hair, purple suit, permanent grin—presiding over a burning, chaotic Los Angeles.

Los Angeles public libraries are being overwhelmed by violence, drug use and homelessness with frightened families and librarians saying once-safe community spaces are often no-go zones. Even enforcement measures designed to control disruptive behavior are now buckling under the strain. Temporary Suspension Letters — which ban unruly patrons from all library branches — have surged nearly 90% from 369 in 2023 to 700 suspensions in 2025. A California Post review of 911 logs obtained through a public records request found the emergency call outs were for assaults, criminal threats, drug use, theft, mental health crises and trespassing. And reported incidents...

It’s been a long time since I have done an update on the homelessness situation in San Francisco. The reason is that I have avoided the issue until sufficient evidence had accumulated to make the obvious conclusion completely definitive and undeniable. It was all the way back in 2018 that some of San Francisco’s foremost do-gooders, led by billionaire Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, organized a referendum to implement a new payroll tax to raise the revenue to solve the homelessness problem once and for all. The referendum was designed to raise some $300 million per year, on top of San...

Two bodies were discovered inside a burning underground utility vault beneath a Fresno overpass Monday morning after firefighters navigated a hazardous confined space packed with live electrics. The deadly blaze sparked a massive technical rescue response after smoke was seen rising from the bunker, which investigators say had been converted into a makeshift homeless encampment that may have existed for months.