A new Los Angeles County public entity will soon collect an estimated $400 million annually in taxpayer money to fund low-income housing developments across the county.
Ryan Johnson, interim chief executive of the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, is tasked with spending those dollars to finally make a dent in the region’s unrelenting homelessness crisis.
Johnson was selected in September from 28 applicants.
The agency’s board members—L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, all five county supervisors, other local elected officials, and nonprofit leaders—touted Johnson for bringing a fresh perspective, someone who could identify creative ways of funding low-income housing.
His resume laid out a history in finance, capital markets, and real estate development and investment through a career spent mostly outside of government.
However, interviews conducted by The Times with board members and a past employer have raised concerns about Johnson’s background and the vetting that led to his assumption of the job as interim head.
Johnson claims that in his last job as founder and CEO of Fulham Square Capital, he acquired 2,600 apartment units and converted them from market-rate to affordable housing within 14 months.
After The Times raised questions about those transactions, the outside consultant who handled LACAHSA’s CEO search stated that it did not research individual deals, which it mentioned was beyond the scope of its responsibilities.
Citing confidentiality agreements with his investors, Johnson has also refused to provide any specific information about the transactions.
In his job before Fulham, Johnson worked as a vice president for a Bay Area nonprofit housing developer, and in his five months there, he claimed to help save the firm from bankruptcy.
However, a spokesperson for the company disputed that claim, stating it was never at financial risk.
Before moving to California, Johnson held a vice president position for a South Carolina nonprofit investor.
During his 15 months in that role, he alleged that he grew the firm’s assets from $5 million to $220 million.
Johnson explained the inconsistency of those data, saying that some of the deals were joint ventures with assets on other companies’ books.
In a late March interview, Johnson indicated that he planned to stay with the agency for the “long haul.”
Less than two weeks later, he announced he would not pursue LACAHSA’s permanent CEO position when his one-year contract expired this fall.
Johnson cited a desire to return to the private sector for more flexibility to care for an ailing family member.
His decision means LACAHSA will have to embark on its second national search for a CEO in two years, unsettling an agency that is just getting off the ground.
Miguel Santana, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation and vice chair of the LACAHSA board, stated that the need to find another leader and questions about Johnson’s background check indicate the agency should overhaul its hiring process.
LACAHSA is paying Illinois-based KEES Alford Executive Search up to $175,000 over two years to lead the search for both an interim and permanent CEO.
The firm explained that it adhered to industry standards and conducted an appropriate search.
Santana emphasized that the agency should consider contracting with a new consultant.
“Any partner that we engage to support our selection has to do a thorough vetting of the experience that is being stated in a resume,” Santana remarked.
LACAHSA will receive over a third of the estimated $1.1 billion raised annually by the half-cent sales tax increase approved by county voters in November, which took effect in April.
The agency, founded through state legislation in 2022, is charged with creating affordable housing by financing new low-income developments and paying to convert market-rate properties, among other methods.
Proponents argued that a new agency was necessary to make housing decisions that benefit the whole region rather than relying on piecemeal funding from the county’s 88 cities.
“We need an innovative and entrepreneurial-minded CEO that is prepared to find solutions to address the region’s most complex challenge and deliver results, and we’ve found that in Ryan Johnson,” said Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, LACAHSA’s board chair, in the September news release announcing Johnson’s hiring.
Johnson’s salary is $245,000.
In the decade before his appointment at LACAHSA, Johnson held eight different jobs, including positions at firms he founded.
He averaged less than 18 months in each role.
Johnson defended these job changes as necessary for climbing the ladder in the real estate industry.
“My whole body of work is prominent,” said Johnson, 42.
“It’s a multi-decade career.
A lot of it has been doing financial innovation in the affordable space.”
Bob Simpson, a former executive at mortgage giant Fannie Mae, selected Johnson for an advisory board on a national nonprofit that seeks to increase private capital for affordable housing.
Simpson expressed admiration for Johnson’s creative financing programs when he was at the South Carolina nonprofit, Greenville Housing Fund.
“I’ve always been impressed with the thought process he brings and how he approaches pretty tough issues,” Simpson stated.
However, Simpson admitted that he was unfamiliar with the specifics of Johnson’s most recent work.
In June 2023, according to his resume, Johnson founded Fulham Square Capital, an investment firm that owns and operates affordable housing.
Johnson said this firm operated out of an office in a WeWork co-working space in West Hollywood.
He claims that Fulham raised over $120 million in equity from sovereign wealth funds and other investors, acquired over $350 million in distressed assets from lenders, and converted more than 2,600 units from market-rate to mixed- and low-income housing.
Johnson stated that his firm operated in five states: Arizona, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
When asked for a list of Fulham projects during an interview, Johnson agreed to provide one.
However, ten days later, on April 3—the same day he announced his departure—Johnson said his investors would not permit him to disclose any information about the deals.
“The investors want to keep it private,” Johnson explained.
“That’s part of the responsibility of raising private capital.”
Legal experts informed The Times that it is typical for real estate companies to shield their investors.
Nonetheless, they added that there was no prohibition against disclosing basic information about their deals and mentioned that private firms and local governments often publicize their low-income housing efforts.
“I don’t understand why he can’t tell you what the projects are,” remarked Deepika Sharma, director of the housing law and policy clinic at USC’s Gould School of Law.
Interviews and public records have raised questions about Johnson’s record in earlier positions.
From September 2023 to January 2024, Johnson worked at Community Housing Opportunities Corp., a nonprofit developer based in Fairfield, California.
While he claimed in his resume to have restructured $20 million of the firm’s debt to avoid bankruptcy, a spokesperson for the developer asserted that the company was never in financial jeopardy and noted that Johnson worked there for only a brief period.
Johnson was adamant that he assisted in keeping the firm solvent.
He shared emails from his time at Community Housing Opportunities Corp. hinting at efforts to mitigate financial trouble at a planned Coachella Valley low-income housing development.
“A company is not going to say, ‘We’re in bad shape,’” Johnson noted.
“They’re never going to admit it.”
Hoyt recognized that the project faced funding challenges, but she remarked that those issues had been resolved.
Today, the development is built and fully leased, she stated.
“Ryan Johnson says a lot of things,” Hoyt added.
When asked if they would hire Johnson again, she responded with a clear “no.”
Before working in the Bay Area, Johnson was vice president of capital markets and real estate for Greenville Housing Fund from April 2022 to June 2023.
Stephanie Graves, spokesperson for LACAHSA, mentioned that board members were impressed with Johnson’s efforts on a $31-million deal to utilize nontraditional funding and a public-private partnership to acquire and renovate a 212-unit apartment building.
Johnson claimed in his resume that he did much more in that role.
He asserted that he increased the firm’s assets from $5 million to $220 million.
However, a LACAHSA news release detailing Johnson’s background repeats that claim, while stating that the growth was from $5 million to $247 million.
Tax forms for the nonprofit indicate a much smaller asset increase, showing totals rose from $12 million at the beginning of 2022 to $81 million at the end of 2023.
Johnson justified this discrepancy by saying that his higher figure included joint ventures in which the fund was a minor investor.
“Other partners are going to take the majority of that onto their balance sheet,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Johnson admitted that the lower figure of $5 million might have been an error.
“I may have put down the wrong number in that particular instance on accident,” he told the publication.
Johnson indicated that Bryan Brown, CEO of Greenville Housing Fund, served as a reference for his LACAHSA position.
However, The Times could not reach Brown for comment.
When initially contacted by The Times, Johnson asked for an interview to be held jointly with Richardson, the Long Beach mayor and LACAHSA board chair.
Richardson expressed confidence in the vetting process for the interim CEO role, mentioning that the agency contracted with KEES, the outside search firm.
“KEES did a full process of reference checking,” Richardson asserted.
KEES CEO Heather Eddy clarified that the firm confirmed Johnson’s background and employment credentials, relying on industry-standard methods, including speaking with references, to evaluate performance at prior jobs.
However, she noted that the firm did not look at individual deals made by Fulham Square Capital.
“A condition of Ryan’s employment was relinquishing his leadership role in Fulham Square Capital,” Eddy asserted.
“It is not customary practice to verify transactions of a private company in a background check.”
Eddy defended her firm’s methods.
“We conducted a robust process that delivered a strong pool of candidates to the board to make their decision,” she stated.
“We believe Mr. Johnson is well qualified for this position.”
Richardson has not responded to requests for follow-up interviews after Johnson declined to disclose any details on Fulham Square Capital’s deals.
Zerita Jones, a tenant advocate and LACAHSA board member, said she held no concerns about Johnson’s performance as CEO and noted that he had been responsive to her requests.
Nonetheless, she admitted that the questions surrounding his resume would lead her to evaluate him with extra scrutiny.
“I’m on guard,” Jones said.
“I’m going to be watching.”
Other LACAHSA board members who were contacted by The Times—including Bass, L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, and county Supervisor Lindsey Horvath—either declined or did not respond.
Supervisor Holly Mitchell and L.A. Councilmember Nithya Raman provided general statements about LACAHSA and the need for accountability in homelessness programs without addressing Johnson’s background or the hiring process.
Bellflower City Council Member Victor Sanchez, a member of the LACAHSA board who chaired the agency’s ad hoc search committee, defended the selection.
“Through the interview process, we asked a broad range of questions to try to understand both past experience and—just as important—how each candidate would maximize LACAHSA’s tools and role,” Sanchez remarked.
“Ultimately, the decision was a unanimous one.”
image source from：https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2025-04-16/amid-questions-about-his-resume-leader-of-new-los-angeles-housing-agency-plans-to-depart
