By Jorge Casuso
September 17, 2026 -- Two of three defendants charged in separate federal corruption and fraud cases involving the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) were arrested Wednesday after the beleaguered agency's board, in an unrelated move, voted Tuesday not to continue as the region's lead homelessness agency.
Michael Young, 46, of Baldwin Hills, a founder of the Culver City-based nonprofit Home At Last (HAL), was arrested for allegedly misappropriating more than $7.5 million in taxpayer funds, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Some of the affected programs were administered by LAHSA.
Young "used this money for commercial real estate and to finance the construction of a nightclub and adjacent bingo hall" in Inglewood, prosecutors said. He is charged with wire fraud, a felony that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
Also arrested Wednesday was Lakiya Malone, 48, of South Los Angeles, who is accused in a 21-count federal indictment of taking more than $180,000 in bribes and kickbacks from Alexander Soofer, 42, the executive director of the nonprofit Abundant Blessings.
Soofer was arrested in January and charged with fraudulently obtaining $23 million in public money intended to combat homelessness and using the money to "buy a $7 million house in Westwood, $125,000 Range Rover, private school tuition for his children, private jet travel, and stays at luxury resorts," prosecutors said. Of the $23 million, more than $5 million came directly from LAHSA.
The third defendant, Donye Mitchell, 55, a.k.a. “Danya Mitchell,” of Orange, is considered a fugitive, prosecutors said. The CEO and executive director of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit The Big Blue Umbrella (BBU), Mitchell is "charged in a federal criminal complaint alleging he was fraudulently awarded more than $1.2 million in grant money from a Los Angeles County-funded nonprofit."
The complaint alleges Mitchell claimed that BBU was a major homeless housing provider and misrepresented its work to a nonprofit "administering large amounts of LAHSA funds, despite having no contract and previously displacing" homeless mentally ill clients by failing to pay rent.
The arrests were announced one day after LAHSA's Board on Tuesday voted "not to submit an application to continue its role as the region's lead agency on homeless services," City News Service reported.
LAHSA's roles have included "coordinating the annual application for federal funding with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), overseeing the Homeless Management Information System, conducting the annual point-in-time homeless count and handling the coordinate entry system," according to City News.
The Board's vote comes after LA County officials on January 1 launched a newly created Department of Homeless Services & Housing (HSH) that assumed control of County-funded LAHSA contracts on July 1.
The funding was pulled after separate audit reports -- one ordered by a U.S. District judge, the other from the Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller -- found that LAHSA failed "to reclaim millions of dollars in cash advances to contractors and to pay other contractors on time, even when funds were available," according to the LA Times.
In June, HUD -- which had provided more than $1 billion in funding to LAHSA over the last five years -- announced it was suspending the funding, citing "wanton mismanagement of public funds," "severe and pervasive failures" and "obvious fraud."
LAHSA sued and last month announced it had won a key victory when the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued a preliminary injunction that granted the agency temporary relief and halted HUD's suspension of its funding.
Under the August 13 ruling HUD was ordered to "immediately execute all pending grant agreements for approved FY 2025 awards" and allow the agency to "submit its regional application and fairly compete for nationwide federal homelessness grants," LAHSA said.
HUD appealed the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued a temporary stay overruling the District Court's decision and prompting Tuesday's vote by LAHSA's Board.