A single Los Angeles nonprofit pulled in nearly $264 million last year, with a staggering 98.5 percent of that cash coming directly from government grants, The Federalist reports.
Special Service for Groups, one of more than 100 nonprofit agencies funded by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, has transformed from a modest operation into a quarter-billion-dollar enterprise over the past two decades. The growth accelerated dramatically after LA County voters approved sales tax increases meant to address homelessness.
The numbers tell a damning story. In 2006, SSG received about $23 million in government grants. By 2016, that figure climbed to roughly $53 million. Then came 2017’s Measure H sales tax increase, and SSG’s government funding exploded to approximately $108 million by 2019. After voters passed the even larger Measure A sales tax increase in 2024, SSG’s annual revenue jumped by more than $50 million in a single year.
Of SSG’s $264 million in fiscal year 2025 revenue, approximately $260 million flowed from taxpayer-funded government grants. About $60 million of that originated as federal grants, much of which was passed through state and local governments before reaching SSG’s accounts.
This arrangement creates what amounts to a shadow government agency. SSG provides government-funded services as a private corporation, meaning it operates without any obligation to comply with California’s Public Records Act or the state’s open meeting laws for local governments. Public money, private rules.
The organization was created in its current form in September 1993 from the restructured remains of an older nonprofit. Today it operates numerous divisions serving vastly different purposes. The Asian and Pacific Islander Forward Movement addresses community health and environmental justice issues within that population. Another division called Access to Prevention Advocacy Intervention and Treatment provides services to people at risk for or living with HIV and AIDS, including events like its Trans Pride Gala.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the joint city-county entity that funnels money to SSG and other nonprofits, has itself faced serious scrutiny. County officials have largely abandoned the authority over concerns about effectiveness, financial transparency, and basic operational competence. Yet the money keeps flowing to its network of more than 100 nonprofit partner agencies.
This massive system of taxpayer-funded organizations represents what critics describe as an endless network where enormous sums of money simply diffuse and disappear. Voters approved tax increase after tax increase with promises that the homeless crisis would be addressed. Instead, nonprofits grew rich while encampments spread.
SSG’s Form 990 filings, the annual financial disclosure documents required of nonprofit corporations, reveal compensation figures for top employees. The organization maintains some transparency requirements as a nonprofit, though nothing approaching what would be required of an actual government agency spending equivalent sums.
