Part 88: The LA Alliance Hearings Continue – Can The Homelessness Crisis Be Solved?

Published March 20, 2024. Updated March 21, 2024.

Photo of the Los Angeles U.S. Courthouse in downtown with L.A City Hall in the background and reflections by author (GoPro Hero 11 Black).

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By Ruth “Roofless” and Zachary “Obama” Ellison, Independent Journalists

On Friday April 1, 2022, former Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, former Mayor Eric Garcetti, Attorney Elizabeth Mitchell for the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, and Councilmember Kevin de León held a press conference in LA City Council chambers to announce a settlement to force the City to address homelessness through providing housing. “The L.A. Alliance started out as just a small group of fed up people, community members, residents, homeless, housed, business owners, factory workers, service providers, non-profit organizations, all coming together to say, this is enough, this crisis needs to end, people are dying,” Mitchell says after saying the group’s “message” had spread like “wildfire.” Kinda, you could say?

“It’s now a large group of fed up people,” Mitchell says joyously. The case was back in court on Monday March 18, 2024 after the Alliance failed in its initial effort to secure a $6.4 million dollar fine against the City and County of Los Angeles for failing to meet the terms of the settlement. Mitchell also made no mention of real estate developer Izek Shomof who co-founded the 501(c)(3) group and discusses hiring Mitchell in his new book Dreams Don’t Die from Simon & Schuster. According to a source report from whistleblower Patrick Wizmann, brother-in-law to Shomof who attended the latest hearing, that fine still isn’t happening, but Judge David O. Carter still said Mitchell’s firm Umhofer, Mitchell & King LLP “deserve to be paid for their work.”

A figure for the legal fees remains to be set, but headlining the proceedings was current Mayor Karen Bass presumably testifying to the fidelity of the City in meeting the terms of the settlement, which the Alliance has alleged was done in “bad faith.” In response to the Alliance’s claim, Deputy Mayor for communications Zach Seidl said: "Since Day 1, Mayor Bass has moved with urgency to save lives and bring unhoused Angelenos off the streets leading to thousands more Angelenos coming inside last year than the year before," Zach Seidl, the city's deputy mayor of communications, said in a statement. Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez who only months ago barged into a closed door meeting with Judge Carter and attorneys for the Alliance, presumably Elizabeth Mitchell and Matthew Umhofer, said "Until we can verify what each level of government is doing to solve the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time, I cannot say with certainty that we have an efficient and effective operation free of redundancies."

Where the money went is the big question, a reported $600 million dollars that invoices are not to be found in sight, as Carter has called not only Bass in for testimony regarding, but also Council President Paul Krekorian and Controller Kenneth Mejia. Representing City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto was Scott Marcus, a top deputy, and according to Patrick Wizmann, Scott Marcus seemed to want a smaller auditing firm. How fast that will happen, but Judge Carter was clear the agreement to house 60% of the unhoused in each council district would move forward, reportedly declaring that it’s “still valid” in seeking to balance the public interest with his prior ruling in favor of the Alliance’s claim to be acting in the best interests of the city. This has come amidst intense debate about whether this limited goal is even possible in Los Angeles. 

According to data charts titled “Alliance Project Pipeline” obtained using the California Public Records Act, the City is still short 4,365 housing units with 12,915 in progress, with the biggest deficits being in Rodriguez’s District 7, that of Kevin de León in District 14, and District 9 held by Curren Price. Similarly, the CPRA produced an exchange between Cristian Tafoya, homelessness deputy for Rodriguez inquiring presumably before she charged the judge’s chamber, only to be told that the “matter is still under discussion with the court.” According to Wizmann, Judge Carter may fear being overturned again if he were to take any broad strokes to shift the goals. Having previously controversially ordered everyone on Skid Row “offer everyone on skid row housing within six months” in April 2021 before being overturned by the Ninth Circuit. 

Judge Carter is famously known for his prior handling of the O.C. Catholic Worker (OCCW v. Orange County Cities case, which is the model for at least 20 similar related lawsuits. Shomof talks about this in his book, writing that he visited Bill Taormina’s “Life Rebuilding Center” and “When I walked through the facility with Bill and my sons Jonathan and Jimmy, the homeless people who were there getting help continuously thanked Bill for what he had done for them.” Shomof who hired Mitchell for the Alliance according to the book wants to transform the abandoned Sears Mail Order building into his own Life Rebuilding Center within KDL’s District 14. At the 2022 press conference announcing the agreement De León after quipping back to Mitchell who says “KDL” has been “reduced to an acronym” says that the “settlement should come as a relief to taxpayers” because of the lack of return on investments, particularly Measure H, which allocated “$355 million a year for the next 10 years.” 

The City of LA has no mental health department of its own, instead it’s LA County that’s needed and so despite Judge Carter ordering an MOU be created between the two governmental agencies, the status of that remained unclear.  According to the City News Service report by Fred Shuster, an “April 4 hearing was also set to discuss the county's efforts to meet its deadlines.” Carter is assisted by Special Master Michele C. Martinez, who is the former Mayor Pro Tem of Santa Ana in Orange County, whose efforts with the OCCW case against Orange County and its Cities has now led her to work for Carter, for which she refuses to accept a salary according to a 2021 Forbes Magazine story by journalist Allison Noralian. Martinez has listed on her public LinkedIn profile, another position as “People First Project Management Consulting Firm” for Emergent P4 Advisors,” and teaches government as an Adjunct at Santiago Canyon College.

Lawsuits like these have the potential to corner local governments and force them with litigation to take bold and decisive actions. Settlement demands are presumed to be fulfilled under the threat of returning to court and hashing out disagreements in an actual jury trial, should any party fail to keep up their end of the bargain. In this case, it’s not really clear what the standing L.A. Alliance has to make these demands, but nothing they asserted really got challenged. Discovery won’t happen without a trial, and the case is settled for now. Shomof writes in Dreams Don’t Die that in 2019 he approached then Mayor Eric Garcetti and “his team looked at me and told me that they had no answers” about homelessness before declaring, “You are leaving me no other option than to file a lawsuit against the city to make you deal with the homeless.” Garcetti and his staff don’t discourage Shomof from creating the Alliance and hiring Mitchell to litigate it out. 

In his April 2022 remarks in City Hall chambers, Garcetti says he put together a “billion dollars together into a budget, a justice budget, to say will look for every dollar we can find, but we don’t want any other money, whether it’s mental health money at the County, whether it’s State surplus, whether it’s Federal ambitions, to lie there in a bank account, while people are lying on our streets.” Garcetti now serves as U.S. Ambassador to India after a long confirmation process following President Joseph R. Biden’s nomination. Perhaps Judge Carter should recall Garcetti from abroad for questioning about the missing funds, that might be even faster than an audit. From California Public Records Act requests, we know that Michele Martinez sets phone and in-person meeting appointments with L.A. City Council members like CD4’s Nithya Raman over Signal App, and that “He doesn’t like zoom . [sic]” from a December 2019 invitation to meet the judge extended following her election.

It appears that Nithya Raman was almost late for a meeting on March 10, 2022 to discuss the litigation. Raman is known for being critical of the City’s approach to the crisis. Michele Martinez messages her: “Great chatting with you. I know you have not spoken to the LA Alliance for Human Rights but if you want to connect with them . I am sure, I can connect you with them or your COS.” Martinez continues, “Many of your other colleagues have spoken with them” having explained that Judge Carter “makes himself available as he has to other members of the city council.” It’s not clear if Kevin de León has had a closed door meeting with Carter, or if the Judge would even want to see him. Izek Shomof certainly doesn’t, their relationship having soured over KDL’s late objections to his homeless shelter conversion proposal for the Sears Building. Michele Martinez did not return an email request for comment by Rooflesser.

According to Shomof in his book Dreams Don’t Die, “the lawsuit and the Life Rebuilding center were completely separate issues and had nothing to do with each other, though they both centered on the city’s homeless problem.” Shomof clearly has met with Judge Carter from the book, so it’s unclear why he’s so despondent except that he doesn’t like the robust debate because he writes about how after hearing KDL on the LA Fed Tapes, “the end result was that those who opposed the Life Rebuilding Center had a loud voice, and our elected officials were listening to them more than to reason.” Shomof further writes in explaining his view, “that is why it appears that the Life Rebuilding Center is unlikely to see the light of day.” Shomof reportedly needs $200 million more to renovate the building, if there’s $600 million dollars in suspect spending, perhaps he should be investing in the city’s audit. It’s unclear if Shomof agrees with the allegation made by the Alliance that the city has operated in “bad faith.”

While it may be easy to be cynical about politics, and whether the probable billions of dollars spent to address homelessness in Los Angeles are well-spent, the LA Alliance Hearings if nothing else promise at least the idea of good government. Respected legal journalist Meghann Cuniff was more doubtful at the courthouse to cover the trial of former Garcetti Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan who conspired with former Councilmember José Huizar to accept $1.5 million dollars in bribes from developers. Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, Cuniff wrote bluntly that “The biggest accomplishment of the homeless lawsuit hearing today seems to be angering the courthouse security who have to cater to that power-soaked ego party all day.” Cuniff then declares that, “Ray Chan’s corruption trial is absolutely a much better use of federal taxpayer dollars.”

The trial of Raymond Chan is supposed to last for a few weeks. According to journalist David Zahniser of the Los Angeles Times, Assistant U.S. Atty. Brian R. Faerstein told jurors that “[Chan] got bribes for himself, and he got bribes for other public officials.” Counsel John Hanusz representing Chan in his second trial, and the final expected one from Operation Casino Loyale says in Chan’s defense that “‘He rolled out the red carpet’ for real estate development, the lawyer said. ‘And this city benefited.’” The amount of unaccounted for money being spent on homelessness programs dwarfs the bribes that Huizar and his friends took. The FBI has declined a Freedom of Information Act request for files related to Izek Shomof and the investigation, who according to Patrick Wizmann was interviewed as part of the investigation. Shomof was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Adaptive Reuse, which permitted the conversion of historic buildings into modern retail, lofts and penthouse apartments.

According to the Zahniser report, Ray Chan and José Huizar “used the downtown real estate boom of the prior decade to enrich themselves and their allies.” Part of that meant moving the significant homeless population away from the commercial core of downtown Los Angeles and back fully into Skid Row, which has the nation’s highest concentration of unhoused people. Izek Shomof says that “If the Life Rebuilding Center had still been a viable option, it could have provided most of these services and even saved the city a ton of money.” In a television interview with Siyamak Khorrami from November 3, 2023, Shomof said about homelessness on “California Insider” that "It’s wild, it’s bad, it’s getting out of control, and it needs to be addressed. So I came up with a solution.” Shomof further says, “I’m a successful human being but it's time to give back to society, give back to the people.” Presumably Shomof means the Life Rebuilding Center here and not the LA Alliance, and of course Huizar or Nury Martinez is never mentioned in Dreams Don’t Die, nor is Ray Chan. Martinez was essential to the Shomof Groups’ real estate portfolio growth

A 2016 Real Deal interview by journalist Cathleen Chen with outgoing Central City Association founder Carol Schatz mentions Ray Chan, crediting him with the “Restaurant and Hospitality Express [Program]” and also summarizing the presumptive financial situation on downtown investment redevelopment boom. “We had wonderful developers: Tom Gilmore, Izek Shomof, Cedd Moses, Andrew Meieran, Homer Williams, Geoff Palmer — all these people spent millions not knowing whether they’d get it back,’ Schatz tells Chen about the dynamic. Shomof isn’t planning to retire anytime soon from the real estate business, in his interview with Siyamak Khorrami, he declares that “people are asking me when I’m going to retire, when I’m going to die.” Undoubtedly, Shomof will keep pushing for the Boyle Heights project!

It’s unclear how much time Izek Shomof has spent working with the unhoused, and other than his tour with Taormina it’s hard to know if he understands just what he’s getting into other than getting them off the streets and away from businesses. The frustration with the overall situation is evident throughout the interview. Perhaps though the solution isn’t to be found in litigation, or government planning, sweeps, services or even in Judge Carter’s courtroom. Unsurprisingly, Patrick Wizmann hasn’t seen Shomof at the Courthouse recently, but he believes that Shomof is acting under “false pretenses” in pushing for both the LA Alliance and the proposed Life Rebuilding Center. Patrick Wizmann plans to return with more copies of Izek Shomofs’ book Dreams Don’t Die in the hopes that people will see the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Can everyone be taken off the streets? Probably not, but doing so humanely matters, and in moving forward the books need to not only be checked by the judge, but the conversation needs to be expanded from more people than Izek Shomof and the LA Alliance to include more representatives of the unhoused community. Advocates shouldn’t be ignored, nor does everyone want to move into a shelter, and how we get to having permanent housing for everyone, and not just shelters is bigger than any one mega-project could ever handle. The next LA Alliance Hearing is scheduled with Judge David Carter for April 4. Proposition 1, Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature proposal to address the crisis, remained too close to call, with 166,000 votes remaining to be counted by April 5. The Los Angeles Times called the race with 50.2%, but the results won’t be certified until April 12. What happens next?

Link: LA Alliance Press Conference 4-1-22

Link: Dreams Don't Die

Link: Los Angeles offers independent audit of homelessness programs

Link: City Faces Independent

Audit of L.A.'s Homelessness Programs Spending

Link: Los Angeles settles sprawling lawsuit over homelessness crisis

Link: To Help End Homelessness In Her City, She Had A Radical Idea: Sue Us

Link: Meghann Cuniff Tweet

Link: Former L.A. deputy mayor goes on trial a second time in bribery and racketeering case

Link: How Housing Without Rehab Fails Los Angeles's Homeless

Link: Carol Schatz talks urban planning, oversupply and Downtown’s metamorphosis at large

Link: Link: Why does it take California so long to count votes?

Link: Voters approve Proposition 1, Newsom’s overhaul of the California mental health system

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Zachary Ellison is an Independent Journalist and Whistleblower in the Los Angeles area. Zach was most recently employed by the University of Southern California, Office of the Provost from October 2015 to August 2022 as an Executive Secretary and Administrative Assistant supporting the Vice Provost for Academic Operations and the Vice Provost and Senior Advisor to the Provost among others. Zach holds a Master’s in Public Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Policy and Planning from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. While a student at USC, he worked for the USC Good Neighbors Campaign including on their newsletter distributed university-wide. Zach completed his B.A. in History at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon and was a writer, editor, and photographer for the Pasadena High School Chronicle. He was Barack Obama’s one-millionth online campaign contributor in 2008. Zach is a former AmeriCorps intern for Hawaii State Parks and worked for the City of Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation. He is a trained civil process server, and enjoys weekends in the great outdoors.