L.A. County voters recently approved a sales tax increase to fund homeless services, affordable housing and resources to help low-income renters keep their homes. Now come the decisions on how it should be spent.
A spending proposal is scheduled to be discussed at a public meeting at 2 p.m. today (Thursday, Feb. 13), which allows public comment remotely or in person. (Here’s a link to the agenda.)
The money will start rolling in soon — the quarter-percent sales tax increase approved by voters under Measure A goes into effect April 1.
The county’s latest proposal for spending the first $656 million of that Measure A money is available here: [Click here to read the proposed spending plan, which starts on page 12.]
What’s in the plan
The plan includes a number of changes to funding, including:
- A $30 million annual increase for an intensive case management program for people in permanent housing, from $77 million to $107 million. Those services include eviction prevention and linking people to services for physical health, mental health and substance use disorders.
- Deep cuts — to about $1.8 million annually, from $8.4 million — to funding for the LA:RISE program, a city- and county-run program which helps unhoused Angelenos get and keep jobs.
- Cuts $1.5 million annually from a $3.5 million L.A. County Public Defender’s Office program that provides mobile legal clinics to help unhoused Angelenos expunge criminal records. As a result, county staff say the program’s outreach staff are expected to be downsized by one-third.
While Measure A raises the sales tax for homeless services and housing, the first spending plan has an overall cut…
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