Town of Los Angeles has quietly steered $1.4 million in taxpayer funds to a “social justice” group that wishes to abolish the LAPD, cancel the 2028 Olympics, halt lease and mortgage funds — and has even sued town.
Strategic Actions for a Simply Financial system (SAJE) is not only an activist group protesting on the steps of Metropolis Corridor, it’s a paid contractor for town of LA. The group has been employed to carry out tenant outreach, schooling and housing-related mapping work.
SAJE has acquired at the least $1.43 million since 2020, primarily via contracts with the Los Angeles Housing Division, which is below metropolis management, and extra grants from the Division of Water and Energy, based on metropolis information reviewed by The California Put up.
The activist group has an extended historical past of maximum views, calling for the police to not solely be defunded however “abolished,” urging boycotts of metropolis inns and opposing the 2028 Olympics.
The group held rallies, posted on social media and coordinated with lefty Metropolis Council members to defund or abolish the LAPD, cancel the LA28 Olympics and impose broad lease and mortgage freezes.
SAJE is basically funded via town’s Systematic Code Enforcement Program, a fee-based system paid by tenants and landlords and stored exterior town’s normal fund.
“There have been instances I truthfully didn’t know if I may preserve the doorways open,” Venice landlord Craig Ribeiro instructed The Put up. “And then you definately notice you’re paying into teams which are combating individuals like me — that’s infuriating.”
“I see how a lot work police do in our group, after which I see teams paid by town saying we don’t want them,” he added.
SAJE holds a number of contracts with LAHD, together with a three-year, $600,000 contract to supply tenant outreach and schooling providers tied to housing enforcement packages such because the Lease Escrow Account Program (REAP) and the Utility Upkeep Program (UMP), based on information.
In 2023, town additionally accepted a sole-source contract price as much as $125,000 for SAJE to supply a displacement threat evaluation and interactive mapping software tied to town’s Housing Aspect.
“Having a bunch like SAJE being paid by town appears like one other nail within the coffin,” mentioned Megan Briceño, a small mom-and-pop housing supplier who says she’s doing all the pieces she will be able to to maintain her tenants housed — whereas taxpayer {dollars} bankroll activists working in opposition to her.
“This isn’t some summary coverage debate. It’s private. It’s destabilizing. And it feels deliberate.”
SAJE has additionally acquired a number of LADWP grants, increasing its public funding past housing enforcement.
However SAJE has additionally sued the Metropolis of Los Angeles — though it funds the group — over approvals for a luxurious lodge undertaking on public land, prompting closed-door settlement talks by Metropolis Council in 2023.
That very same yr, the metropolis up to date an current SAJE contract initially awarded in September 2020. Administered by the LAHD, the contract covers SAJE’s displacement-risk evaluation and mapping software tied to implementation of the 2021–2029 Housing Aspect.
The replace was formally attested on June 6, 2023. Regardless of the lawsuit, the funding relationship remained intact.
Publicly obtainable filings don’t present an itemized accounting of how Systematic Code Enforcement Payment income is spent — on inspections, tenant schooling, staffing, or different enforcement. The price sits exterior the final fund and lacks the transparency usually related to taxpayer-backed packages.
SAJE can be exempt from town’s lobbying ordinance, that means it doesn’t file disclosures detailing who it meets with at Metropolis Corridor, what laws it pushes, or how a lot it spends influencing metropolis coverage — even because it stays deeply concerned in a number of the metropolis’s most divisive debates.
SAJE disputes any suggestion that public funds are misused.
“SAJE has grants and contracts from each non-public and public sources, every of which have completely different reporting necessities,” mentioned SAJE’s deputy director of communications and growth Elizabeth Hamilton.
“We monitor bills so we will hyperlink funding sources to the initiatives and actions for which the funding was granted. We don’t use funding for issue-based advocacy if that exercise is prohibited by the funder.”
Hamilton acknowledged that SAJE generally works with town and, in different instances, has sued it.
“We frequently work with town when our targets are aligned with metropolis program targets, however our targets usually are not at all times completely congruent, and in a number of instances we now have engaged in litigation in opposition to town,” she mentioned.
Hamilton additionally mentioned SAJE doesn’t at the moment have a monetary relationship with lefty nonprofit LA Ahead, although the group has served as a subcontractor up to now. She mentioned SAJE is updated on audits and tax filings.
LA Ahead is intently aligned with Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidates who assist set metropolis housing coverage and management funding choices — elevating questions in regards to the overlap between taxpayer-funded advocacy, political organizing and Metropolis Corridor energy.
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Nonetheless, none of that is unlawful. Metropolis guidelines enable nonprofits to obtain public funds whereas participating in advocacy, and exemptions within the lobbying ordinance imply some organizations face much less disclosure necessities than conventional lobbyists.
The association nonetheless leaves a obvious transparency hole: A city-funded contractor with sturdy ideological targets, direct entry to Metropolis Corridor, no lobbying disclosures — and restricted public accounting of how fee-backed {dollars} are spent.
The California Put up contacted the Metropolis for remark however it didn’t reply.
