Taxpayer funds meant for LA homeless allegedly spent on Tahiti trip, nightclub, luxury cars: feds
One hundred eighteen million for roofs. Fifty thousand for Tahiti. A million for a nightclub.
Summary
- Fox News reports federal agents fanned out across Los Angeles on Wednesday in a fraud crackdown after prosecutors said taxpayer dollars meant to house the homeless paid for a Tahiti vacation, a high-end nightclub, luxury vehicles, and other personal spend.
- At the center is Michael Young, 46, a founder of Culver City nonprofit Home At Last, who received more than $118 million in public funds through government contracts, including more than $75 million from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, according to the Justice Department.
- Prosecutors allege Young misappropriated millions, including more than $7.5 million through a sham vendor scheme, spent more than $1 million to open Six Seven Five Lounge in Inglewood, nearly $50,000 on a luxury Tahiti vacation, and $140,000 restoring a vintage Chevrolet Impala. HUD Secretary Scott Turner said the days of wire-fraud experts in Range Rovers are over. Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald said taxpayers did not sign up to fund this nightclub.
- Young was one of three defendants charged Wednesday. Two were arrested. A third was considered a fugitive. Authorities also arrested Lakiya Malone, 48, on a 21-count indictment alleging she took more than $180,000 in bribes and kickbacks from Alexander Soofer of nonprofit Abundant Blessings in exchange for priority referrals, including ghost homeless participants who never lived at the sites.
Commentary
A shop dad still steps over a wet cardboard flap on a downtown walk and knows a housing dollar is supposed to buy a cot, not a lounge. He did not pay the levy so a founder could restore an Impala while a man slept on linoleum.
One hundred eighteen million. Seventy-five from LAHSA. Fifty thousand Tahiti. One million lounge. The honest household already bought the tent count. The vinyl chair in that intake room still waits.
Look every working father who still steps past a sidewalk bed in the eye and answer this: if a nightclub already ate a housing dollar, who still owns the next ghost cot a city desk never walked?
Comments
Young. $118 million. $75 million LAHSA. Keep the three.
I stood a watch so a cot still meant a roof. A lounge is not a shelter.
Tahiti $50,000. Impala $140,000. Sham vendors $7.5 million. Print them.
Allied cities still treat a housing grant as a bed count, not a vacation.
Malone $180,000. Ghost participants. Third defendant fugitive. File the three.
I still step over wet cardboard after a double. I want the next dollar on a cot.
A Tahiti invoice is not compassion. It is a warning the street already paid.
A ghost cot is a second border around every honest intake.
Fox printed Turner, McDonald, and the lounge. Argue those nouns.
Walk the sites. Pull the contracts. A housing dollar is not a souvenir.
