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Recent reporting exposes something that should make any taxpayer uneasy: a Los Angeles nonprofit that gets public money quietly paid for a luxury Santa Monica apartment and even leased a BMW for its CEO — a CEO who lives in Hawaii. The organization, 1736 Family Crisis Center, paid out roughly $1.6 million in compensation over two years to Carol Adelkoff, with a huge chunk coming from an unused vacation payout. Meanwhile, a statewide audit says billions meant to fight homelessness weren’t properly tracked. That’s not just bad bookkeeping — it’s a gravy train built on other people’s misery.
Luxury perks on the taxpayer tab
The nutshell: the nonprofit approved a Santa Monica unit at roughly $6,500 a month and leased a car used in Hawaii for the chief executive’s convenience. The board says the digs were cheaper and safer than hotels for the CEO’s visits to Los Angeles. Right — because nothing screams “security” like a beachfront rental paid for by taxpayers. The $1.6 million compensation over two years included an eye-popping payout for accrued vacation time that alone made up almost half the total.
Where did the homeless dollars go?
This local story lands on top of a statewide headache. The California State Auditor has already found that roughly $24 billion spent on homelessness and housing programs wasn’t consistently tracked for results. So while agencies hand millions to providers like 1736 Family Crisis Center — LAHSA grants among them — the public gets little proof those funds actually help people leave the streets. Add in gubernatorial vetoes of bills that would tighten reporting, and you have a system that rewards spending opacity and punishes accountability.
Perverse incentives and commonsense fixes
Here’s the ugly truth conservatives and liberals should both nod at: when the nonprofit funding model pays better for maintaining programs than for solving the problem, the problem never really gets solved. Big salaries, uncapped leave piles and luxury benefits create perverse incentives. Fixes are basic: demand board minutes and lease contracts, pull the nonprofit’s Form 990s, ask the California Attorney General’s charities division and federal grant auditors whether rules were broken, and cap payouts for accrued benefits. If outside-investigator reports cleared the CEO, show them. Transparency is inexpensive and effective. Secrecy is expensive and corrosive.
Taxpayers deserve answers, not excuses. If we keep writing blank checks to a “homeless-industrial complex” with little oversight, expect more beachfront apartments and Hawaiian getaways paid for with our money. Call it charity or call it corruption — either way, voters should insist that public dollars buy results, not lifestyle upgrades for nonprofit executives.
