LA County voters face huge decision on homeless services funding

Los Angeles voters’ decision about a new sales tax next month will have a significant effect on the resources dedicated to California’s largest homeless population: Either the county will be set to receive about $1 billion annually, or it will have until 2027 to find a new funding stream.

Measure A would repeal an existing quarter-cent sales tax and replace it with a half-cent sales tax, slightly increasing what consumers pay for everything from clothes to sporting equipment. If it passes, it’s expected to raise more than $1 billion a year for shelters, housing and other services in a county where more than 75,000 people have nowhere to call home. If the measure fails and nothing else replaces it, the existing tax that funds much of the county’s homeless services will expire in 2027. Officials and service providers worry that would gut LA County’s homeless response system at a time when it’s most needed.

“To not have those services at our disposal to address the crisis that we’re seeing on our streets would be an absolute travesty,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said.

Supporters of the measure include local nonprofits such as the Los Angeles-area branches of United Way and Habitat for Humanity. As of late September, 49% of likely voters surveyed in a poll co-sponsored by the LA Times said they would vote for Measure A — just short of the majority the measure needs to pass. Another 33% said they would vote no, and 17% remained undecided.

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But with few obvious signs of improvement on the streets, even after seven years of taxes, some critics wonder whether putting more money into existing programs is the right approach.

“We pour too (many) tax dollars into a system that is broken,” said Lance Christensen, vice president of education policy and government affairs for the California Policy Center, a conservative fiscal watchdog group. The group hasn’t taken an official position on Measure A.

What would Measure A do for homelessness in Los Angeles County?

Los Angeles County voters in 2017 passed a quarter-cent sales tax dubbed “Measure H.” That tax helped the county ramp up its fight against homelessness and today helps fund many of the area’s programs, including Pathway Home, which launched last year to move people out of encampments, into hotels, and ultimately into housing. This year, it will make up about a third of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s total budget, said Paul Rubenstein, deputy chief external relations officer for the authority.

In all, funds raised by the 2017 tax have helped move more than 42,000 people into permanent housing and 80,500 into temporary housing, according to the county’s Chief Executive Office.

If the original tax expires in 2027 without a replacement, and housing programs funded by that tax close, the county’s Chief Executive Office estimates unsheltered homelessness could increase by 28%, or nearly 15,000 people.

Measure A would repeal and replace that tax with one that is larger and would fund a wider variety of resources. For example, the prior tax paid for shelters and services, but not for new housing. If Measure A passes, money also would be set aside to build new affordable housing.

“Services alone don’t solve the problem,” Horvath said. “We need both.”

Nearly a third of the money raised by the new tax would go to the LA County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, to be spent on new homes and services aimed at preventing people from going through eviction or foreclosure. Most of the rest would be spent on homeless services.

Measure A also would come with some guardrails built into the spending process. Two new oversight bodies are tasked with setting specific goals for programs that spend Measure A dollars. The first is the Executive Committee, which includes two county supervisors, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Newsom homelessness advisor Hafsa Kaka, and officials from other cities around the county.

The second is the Leadership Table, which includes service providers, people from the business community, city and county staffers and three people who have experience being homeless themselves. The inspiration for both groups came from Houston. A delegation of LA County leaders visited the Texas city in 2022 and came back wanting to replicate the way its city, county, business, faith and service leaders work together, according to Peter Laugharn, president and CEO of the nonprofit Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, which led the trip.

Together, the two groups will set goals for Measure A-funded programs, track their outcomes and potentially reallocate funds away from underperforming initiatives.

“I think we’re going to come up with some very good stuff,” said Laugharn, co-chair of the Leadership Table.

Proponents hope those two oversight bodies will add an extra layer of transparency and accountability at a time when homelessness spending at the state and local levels is under intense scrutiny.

A scathing audit released earlier this year found California fails to track both how much it spends on homeless services, and whether that spending is effective. And the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (one of the main agencies that distributes homeless funding in Los Angeles County) is currently being audited as part of a legal settlement between advocates for the rights of unhoused residents and the city and county of LA. A federal judge overseeing that settlement recently blasted the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority for failing to make records of its spending available, according to LAist.

Critics of Measure A aren’t convinced the new oversight bodies will help the county spend the tax dollars more wisely.

“This is too much administration. Too much bureaucracy,” said Susan Shelley, spokesperson for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which wrote the official statement in opposition to Measure A that will appear on voters’ ballots.

But the association’s main complaint is even simpler: A tax increase is not the way to fund the county’s fight against homelessness.

Los Angeles County already has some of the highest sales tax rates in California, with some cities above 10%.

“This is very harsh on people,” Shelley said, “especially with inflation pushing prices up.”

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This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.