EDITORIAL HOPELESS AUTHORITY FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT MAKES IT TOUGH FOR AGENCY TO HELP THE HOMELESS.

THE Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority doesn't appear to offer much hope to the homeless of Los Angeles.

While the joint county-city agency has spent years on pointless studies and funding internal bureaucracy, it has done little in the way of meeting its goal of addressing the region's homeless problem. In fact, as its own $350,000 study found, the ranks of those living on the streets have grown to more than 82,000 during its watch.

Now we may know why so little has been done to keep people off the streets, thanks to officials at the city's Housing Department, which has been working with LAHSA on budgeting since concerns about its financial management first arose. According to the head of the Housing Department, the agency has mismanaged its budget and spent hundreds of thousands of its funds on things other than programs for the homeless.

One clear example is the $350,000 the agency spent on this study. That's a lot of money to spend to tell city officials what anyone who has been paying attention already knew: The city's homeless population is growing, and not enough is being done to house it.

Meanwhile, while LAHSA is spending questionable amounts on this study, it has been failing to pay its subcontracting agencies - agencies that do actual work with the county's homeless - in a timely manner. Also, LAHSA has delayed development of a shelter in the San Fernando Valley for no good reason.

The board's chairman, Owen Newcomer, explained away the accusations as just ``poor bookkeeping,'' and blamed a former financial officer who apparently wasn't capable in financial management.

Instead of being reassuring, that excuse only serves to underscore the concerns about LAHSA's abilities to help the homeless. If it can't balance its books, how will the agency solve the complicated and complex social ill of homelessness in Los Angeles?

This agency is about as hopeless as it can get. City and county elected officials - namely the county Board of Supervisors and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - owe it to those estimated 82,000 homeless people to take immediate action.