Los Angeles loves to pretend it’s solving homelessness. But behind the photo ops and the tear-jerker speeches is a billion-dollar shadow economy, a place where “nonprofits,” developers, and political insiders shuffle public funds like poker chips while veterans, seniors, and the unhoused are left sleeping on concrete. And just weeks after The Current Report unraveled the Shangri-La Industries debacle, a sprawling pay-to-play racket that turned $114 million in Project Homekey grants into a personal ATM for private jets, Birkin bags, and chronic construction delays, another scandal blows open. This one circles the Weingart Center Association, and the stench is unmistakable.
What Weingart pulled off looks like the Shangri-La playbook with a fresh coat of municipal paint: inflated appraisals, secrecy clauses, questionable political appointments, and a multimillion-dollar real estate flip greased with taxpayer-funded homelessness dollars. And now, federal investigators are quietly piecing together the trail.
The $27 Million Flip That Blew the Lid Off
Begin with the property on Shelby Drive in Cheviot Hills, a modest 76-unit senior complex purchased in April 2024 for $27.3 million, paid entirely with public homelessness funds from California’s Homekey program. The seller? A company tied to developer Steven Taylor, who had snagged the exact same building months earlier for $11.2 million. No major renovation. No improved amenities. No added units. Just a breathtaking overnight markup of $16 million, paid by you, me, and every taxpayer in Los Angeles.
The secrecy was baked in from the start. A confidentiality clause buried the seller’s identity. An appraisal from BBG ignored recent sales data and escrow timelines. And the mayor’s office, yes, Karen Bass’ shop, steered the project selection and fast-tracked $20 million in city grants, with another $7 million arriving from the state and millions more in federal COVID relief funds for promised renovations.
Now, those documents are sitting on federal investigators’ desks as part of a widening probe into potential fraud and procurement manipulation. And in a cosmic twist of déjà vu, Steven Taylor was indicted just months later on a series of unrelated but eerily similar fraud charges. Different project, same pattern.
And That’s Where the Political Machinery Enters the Chat
The Weingart Center didn’t just “fall” into this deal. The person who greenlit that wildly inflated purchase agreement in July 2023 was none other than Kevin Murray, former California state senator, licensed real estate broker, attorney, and a man who knows exactly how government spending works.
Murray didn’t just run Weingart. Bass appointed him to the board of the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA), the powerhouse governing body that controls roughly one third of the billion dollars in annual Measure A tax revenue. Measure A, the supposedly reform-driven sales tax increase passed in 2024, was sold to voters as the solution to affordability, homelessness prevention, and tenant protections. And yet, here we are, watching a major nonprofit with a failing federal audit history position itself to eat from one of the biggest new troughs in county history.
While veterans languish on the VA campus and families line up at shelters each night, Murray has been sitting at the intersection of public money, nonprofit contracting, and political appointment, a trifecta screaming conflict of interest.
A Nonprofit Swimming in Taxpayer Cash — With Zero Accountability
Weingart has taken in more than $100 million in public funds through LAHSA alone, even as federal audits red-flagged them for failing to meet reporting and compliance requirements. Yet year after year, the Board of Supervisors — Kathryn Barger, Lindsey Horvath, Hilda Solis, Janice Hahn, and Holly Mitchell — keep approving budgets that funnel money into the same unmonitored ecosystem.
These are the same supervisors who accepted campaign contributions from Shangri-La’s executives while approving Homekey contracts, bond issuances, and oversight rollbacks. The same supervisors who cut $300 million from LAHSA over “accountability concerns” while simultaneously approving massive homelessness budgets that feed the same vendors.
Patterns don’t lie. They just circle until someone connects the dots.
The Ben Rosen Curveball — A Nomination Gone Up in Smoke
The plot tightened again this September when Bass nominated Ben Rosen — Weingart’s chief of real estate development and the man who handled logistics for the Shelby Drive acquisition, to become Murray’s alternate on the LACAHSA board. Rosen would have had direct influence over hundreds of millions in Measure A funds.
Bass praised him as “especially qualified.”
Then federal investigators announced their probe into the property flip.
Days later, Rosen withdrew. A quiet exit, no explanation. Damage control disguised as discretion.
Both Rosen and Murray are now on administrative leave. Weingart has hired a law firm to perform an “internal review” of the valuations — a sentence guaranteed to send chills down the spines of anyone who remembers how Shangri-La attempted to cover itself before the indictments landed.
Weingart also abruptly pulled out of another Homekey+ bid in Torrance after receiving $12 million in county commitments. Once again, money was flowing, and once again, the project vaporized just as scrutiny intensified.
The County Connection the Political Class Wants You to Ignore
The Board of Supervisors oversees LACAHSA’s structure, spending priorities, and Measure A allocations. They appoint alternates. They approve budgets. They interface with LAHSA. And they sign off on homelessness expenditures countywide.
Supervisors Barger and Horvath have both publicly decried “opacity” in funding, yet allowed nonprofits with shaky audit histories to remain in the pipeline. Solis, Hahn, and Barger all accepted campaign donations from Shangri-La affiliates while approving projects. Sheriff Robert Luna accepted contributions from Shangri-La’s indicted executives, even as corruption units were quietly disbanded under his watch.
Now the same political constellation surrounds Weingart, with Bass at the center, Murray and Rosen in key financial and policy positions, and county supervisors overseeing the very agency set to distribute billions with almost no functional oversight.
Los Angeles isn’t experiencing a homelessness crisis, it’s experiencing a crisis of political will, financial honesty, and institutional integrity.
The Real Losers: Veterans, Seniors, and the Unhoused
The Shelby Drive site, originally pitched as a lifeline for seniors and unhoused residents, has instead become a symbol of what happens when political insiders treat humanitarian emergencies like real estate arbitrage. That $16 million markup alone could have built dozens of new units. Instead, it lined pockets, triggered investigations, and left vulnerable residents waiting.
At the VA campus, Shangri-La’s unfinished motels still sit half-rehabbed, veterans stranded in limbo. In Torrance, Weingart’s Homekey+ project collapsed before it started. And across L.A., Measure A’s promised billions risk being siphoned off by the same network of insiders who turned homelessness funding into a professional sport.
The Dominoes Are Falling, And This House of Cards Is Starting to Shake
With Taylor’s indictment echoing Holmes’ fall at Shangri-La, and investigators circling Weingart’s Shelby Drive flip, the ground beneath Los Angeles’ homelessness industrial complex is shifting. Civil suits are coming. Federal subpoenas are circulating. Political appointees are suddenly “withdrawing” and taking leaves of absence. Public outrage is building.
But while the county scrambles to protect its own, one truth remains unchanged:
Taxpayers are footing the bill. Veterans are still waiting. The unhoused are still outside. And the political class is still playing monopoly with real human suffering.
Los Angeles deserves better. And this investigation is far from over.
Read my original Shangri-La exposé: https://thecurrentreport.com/shangri-la-political-pay-off-scandal
Latest on Weingart & LACAHSA: https://laist.com/news/la-homelessness-nonprofit-got-over-100-million-from-taxpayers-despite-failing-audit-requirements
Mayor Bass’ appointment documents: https://cityclerk.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2025/25-1117_rpt_mayor_09-25-25.pdf
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