The city of Los Angeles has quietly steered $1.4 million in taxpayer funds to a “social justice” group that wants to abolish the LAPD, cancel the 2028 Olympics, halt rent and mortgage payments — and has even sued the city.
Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) is not just an activist group protesting on the steps of City Hall, it’s a paid contractor for the city of LA. The group has been hired to perform tenant outreach, education and housing-related mapping work.
SAJE has received at least $1.43 million since 2020, primarily through contracts with the Los Angeles Housing Department, which is under city control, and additional grants from the Department of Water and Power, according to city records reviewed by The California Post.
The activist group has a long history of extreme views, calling for the police to not only be defunded but “abolished,” urging boycotts of city hotels and opposing the 2028 Olympics.
The group held rallies, posted on social media and coordinated with lefty City Council members to defund or abolish the LAPD, cancel the LA28 Olympics and impose broad rent and mortgage freezes.
SAJE is largely funded through the city’s Systematic Code Enforcement Program, a fee-based system paid by tenants and landlords and kept outside the city’s general fund.
“There were times I honestly didn’t know if I could keep the doors open,” Venice landlord Craig Ribeiro told The Post. “And then you realize you’re paying into groups that are fighting people like me — that’s infuriating.”
“I see how much work police do in our community, and then I see groups paid by the city saying we don’t need them,” he added.
SAJE holds multiple contracts with LAHD, including a three-year, $600,000 contract to provide tenant outreach and education services tied to housing enforcement programs such as the Rent Escrow Account Program (REAP) and the Utility Maintenance Program (UMP), according to records.
In 2023, the city also approved a sole-source contract worth up to $125,000 for SAJE to produce a displacement risk analysis and interactive mapping tool tied to the city’s Housing Element.
“Having a group like SAJE being paid by the city feels like another nail in the coffin,” said Megan Briceño, a small mom-and-pop housing provider who says she’s doing everything she can to keep her tenants housed — while taxpayer dollars bankroll activists working against her.
“This isn’t some abstract policy debate. It’s personal. It’s destabilizing. And it feels deliberate.”
SAJE has also received multiple LADWP grants, expanding its public funding beyond housing enforcement.
But SAJE has also sued the City of Los Angeles — even though it funds the group — over approvals for a luxury hotel project on public land, prompting closed-door settlement talks by City Council in 2023.
That same year, the city updated an existing SAJE contract originally awarded in September 2020. Administered by the LAHD, the contract covers SAJE’s displacement-risk analysis and mapping tool tied to implementation of the 2021–2029 Housing Element.
The update was officially attested on June 6, 2023. Despite the lawsuit, the funding relationship remained intact.
Publicly available filings do not provide an itemized accounting of how Systematic Code Enforcement Fee revenue is spent — on inspections, tenant education, staffing, or other enforcement. The fee sits outside the general fund and lacks the transparency typically associated with taxpayer-backed programs.
SAJE is also exempt from the city’s lobbying ordinance, meaning it does not file disclosures detailing who it meets with at City Hall, what legislation it pushes, or how much it spends influencing city policy — even as it remains deeply involved in some of the city’s most divisive debates.
SAJE disputes any suggestion that public funds are misused.
“SAJE has grants and contracts from both private and public sources, each of which have different reporting requirements,” said SAJE’s deputy director of communications and development Elizabeth Hamilton.
“We track expenses so we can link funding sources to the projects and activities for which the funding was granted. We do not use funding for issue-based advocacy if that activity is prohibited by the funder.”
Hamilton acknowledged that SAJE sometimes works with the city and, in other cases, has sued it.
“We often work with the city when our goals are aligned with city program goals, but our goals are not always perfectly congruent, and in a few cases we have engaged in litigation against the city,” she said.
Hamilton also said SAJE does not currently have a financial relationship with lefty nonprofit LA Forward, though the group has served as a subcontractor in the past. She said SAJE is up to date on audits and tax filings.
LA Forward is closely aligned with Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidates who help set city housing policy and control funding decisions — raising questions about the overlap between taxpayer-funded advocacy, political organizing and City Hall power.
Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters
California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn
California Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X
California Post Opinion
California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!
California Post App: Download here!
Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!
However, none of this is illegal. City rules allow nonprofits to receive public funds while engaging in advocacy, and exemptions in the lobbying ordinance mean some organizations face less disclosure requirements than traditional lobbyists.
The arrangement still leaves a glaring transparency gap: A city-funded contractor with strong ideological goals, direct access to City Hall, no lobbying disclosures — and limited public accounting of how fee-backed dollars are spent.
The California Post contacted the City for comment but it didn’t respond.
Read the full article here