LAHSA Took Its Computers Offline. How to Protect Your Information.

A free credit freeze blocks new accounts in your name, but lift it before a landlord runs your credit.

"URGENT: Log Off and Shut Down for the Week" was the subject line of an email that went to staff at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority last Friday, according to a copy LAist obtained. It told workers to stop working, turn off their machines and stay off agency systems, email included, until they got an all-clear.

LAHSA calls it a potential security issue. Interim CEO Gita O'Neill told LAist on Friday that the agency didn't "yet have enough information to say definitively whether any sensitive or confidential personal information was accessed." A LAHSA official told LAist the shutdown order was still in effect Monday evening.

You're wondering if your information was taken. LAHSA says it doesn't know yet. Here's what's at stake: the agency runs the Homeless Management Information System, or HMIS, which holds unhoused people's names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and disabilities. It also holds people's own accounts of their mental health, drug or alcohol use, income and any history of domestic violence. Nobody has said HMIS itself was affected.

The agency's Monday statement described the shutdown of its internal systems as a precaution, said outside cybersecurity specialists were investigating and said the agency was taking steps to maintain essential operations. It also said LAHSA remains open. LAist has asked whether the shutdown is getting in the way of services for unhoused people, and O'Neill hasn't said.

Don't count on hearing about it from a caseworker, either. Leaders of three LAHSA-funded providers that use HMIS told LAist on Monday afternoon that LAHSA hadn't contacted them about the problem.

There's local history here. The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, known as HACLA and run separately from LAHSA, says a 2022 intrusion into its network may have exposed people's medical information, financial account numbers, Social Security numbers and names. An official notice says hackers got in again two years later. So the steps below aren't paranoia, and none of them have to wait for LAHSA.

1. Freeze your credit at all three bureaus. That means Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, each one separately. The Federal Trade Commission's guidance, last updated August 2025, says a freeze is free, doesn't touch your credit score and stays on until you lift it. The FTC also says you don't need proof your number was exposed first.
2. Lift it before a landlord checks your credit. This is the mistake that costs people. A freeze blocks everyone from opening credit in your name, you included, and the FTC says to lift it temporarily when you rent an apartment, apply for a job or buy insurance. Ask which bureau the landlord uses, lift the freeze at that one only, then put it back.
3. If you're in the middle of a housing search, a fraud alert is the lighter option. Contact just one bureau and it has to pass the alert to the other two. Lenders then have to confirm it's really you before opening new credit. A landlord can still pull your report while an alert is on; a freeze would stop that. It's free, lasts a year, and it gets you a free copy of your report from each bureau.
4. Freeze your kids' credit too. The FTC says a freeze for a child under 16 is free, but the process is different from an adult's, and each bureau posts its own instructions.
5. Watch for a notice. Under California law, a business or a state or local agency has to tell Californians when an unauthorized person got, or is reasonably believed to have gotten, their unencrypted personal information. When a notice goes to more than 500 Californians, a sample copy goes to the state attorney general, who posts it on a public list you can search by the organization's name. As of Wednesday, LAHSA isn't on it.

Source: LAist, retrieved November 11, 2026. Other sources: consumer.ftc.gov, State of California.