Bass appointed herself to L.A.'s homelessness board. LAist counted 25 missed meetings.

An LAist review of three years of Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Commission records found the mayor absent from 13 of 21 meetings between mid-August 2025 and August 2026 — past the bylaws' removal threshold, which the agency says it chose not to invoke.

Mayor Karen Bass has missed 25 of 47 board meetings at the region's lead homelessness agency since appointing herself to its commission in late 2023. The tally comes from an LAist analysis of three years of Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority meeting records, published August 24, 2026. Bass' self-appointed three-year term expired June 30; LAHSA and a spokesperson for her office told LAist she is still a member, but neither confirmed whether she had formally reappointed herself.

The seat is not ceremonial. The people who sit in it decide where the money for shelters and outreach goes, in the middle of a mayoral race in which homelessness is the central argument.

What the commission decides

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Commission approves the agency's budget of nearly $500 million and its contracts with shelters and nonprofit service providers, LAist reported. About 86% of LAHSA's funding is directed to those providers. Voting seats are split evenly between the city and the county, with L.A.'s mayor choosing half of them and each of the five county supervisors choosing one. At least six of the 10 members must be present to open a public meeting or take a vote.

In the narrower window, Bass missed 13 of 21 commission meetings held between mid-August 2025 and August 2026, the outlet reported. She also sat on the commission's audit committee, which directs internal reviews of LAHSA spending and performance, until January. She recorded five straight absences there and attended none of its meetings before another commissioner replaced her.

The bylaws, and the notice nobody sent

Under the agency's bylaws, a commissioner absent four times within a year may be subject to removal, and the elected official who made the appointment is to be notified that a vacancy needs filling. LAHSA told LAist it has not sent that notice about Bass or any other commissioner, and reads the bylaws as leaving the decision to its discretion. Communications director Ahmad Chapman said in a statement to the outlet that the commission and its committees have consistently reached quorum and met their responsibilities.

The Mayor's Office told LAist that Bass stayed current on the agency's work regardless of her attendance, and that her four other appointees alerted her when her attendance was needed. Spokesperson Ilanna Morales said in a statement that it is unprecedented for a mayor to sit on the LAHSA board, and that Bass joined to take part in decisions affecting the city.

Commissioner Justin Szlasa, who has argued the unpaid commissioners should be offered an optional stipend, told LAist that showing up is the point of having a commission at all.

"It's not just about achieving a quorum. It's about people who are focused on considering the issue, tracking the things as they unfold and being part of that deliberative process."

Commissioner Wendy Greuel, the former L.A. city controller, told LAist the record has not been a problem: "There's never been a mayor that has understood more the issue of homelessness and been as engaged as Mayor Bass."

Not the only empty chair

Bass appointee Tanisha Saunders missed 12 of 21 commission meetings between August 15, 2025 and August 15, 2026, and 18 of 53 since her appointment in May 2023, per the outlet's review. Saunders did not immediately respond to LAist's interview requests. She missed one of 13 audit committee meetings. Bass reappointed her in May to serve through 2029.

Last month, county Supervisor Holly Mitchell replaced her appointee, Culver City Council member Yasmine-Imani McMorrin, who had missed half of the 22 meetings held over the previous year. Whether attendance was the reason is unclear, and neither responded to LAist's requests for comment.

Why the seat matters now

The agency's future is unsettled. The Board of Supervisors voted to divert more than $300 million in annual funding away from LAHSA after Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who had also appointed herself to the commission, resigned from it; her last meeting was November 15, 2024. In June, the Trump administration suspended LAHSA from federal grant activity, citing financial mismanagement. LAHSA sued to overturn the suspension, a judge paused it, and trial is set for April 2027. The city of L.A. now supplies 73% of the agency's budget.

Bass is on the November ballot, and this year's count found street homelessness up 8% in the city. At a debate hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, she said the system needs transforming and that the city should be in control, LAist reported. At the same debate she accused her rival, Councilmember Nithya Raman, of skipping City Council meetings and missing thousands of votes; Raman said some absences were for other boards she serves on as a city representative, several by Bass' own appointment.

The next LAHSA Commission meeting is scheduled for Friday, August 28 at 9 a.m. at 637 Wilshire Blvd. in downtown Los Angeles.

A note on sourcing: the attendance figures here are LAist's, drawn from its review of public meeting records. This desk did not conduct its own count of the commission's rolls.

Source: laist.com, retrieved August 26, 2026.