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Measure A proposes funding more services for people experiencing homelessness

(Lindsey Murto/Design director)

By Gabby Jamall

Oct. 28, 2024 5:11 p.m.

This post was updated Nov. 3 at 11:13 p.m.

This November, Los Angeles County voters will vote on raising the LA County sales tax to increase funding for services targeted at people experiencing homelessness and affordable housing initiatives.

Measure A, a citizen initiative, states that it will raise approximately $1.1 billion annually, with about 60% of the revenue to be allocated toward services and solutions for people experiencing homelessness and about 36% to affordable housing and homelessness prevention initiatives. According to the measure’s language, comprehensive homeless services include provisions of mental health care, substance use treatment and case management.

Measure A plans to replace the current Measure H, which was proposed by the LA County Board of Supervisors and became effective in March 2017. Measure H instituted a quarter percent sales tax in the county, though it was set to be in effect for only 10 years and will expire in 2027. Measure A seeks to raise the sales tax implemented by Measure H to half a cent for every dollar spent.

Homelessness in the county could increase by 28% if Measure H funding disappeared without being replaced, according to a fact sheet by the county’s Chief Executive Office.

Because Measure A is a citizen-raised initiative, it only requires a simple majority vote of 50% to pass. Once passed, it can only be repealed if citizens vote against it.

The measure received more than 410,000 signatures, which exceeded the minimum requirement of 238,922 needed for the measure to make it onto the ballot.

People Assisting The Homeless endorsed Measure A and was involved in its drafting process, said Zeke Sandoval, PATH’s Associate Director of Public Policy, in an emailed statement. PATH is a nonprofit organization that provides supportive services and housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness.

“It is really stark to look side by side about a post-Measure A future or the future if Measure A doesn’t pass,” he said. “On the one side, we finally have the tools that we need to combat this crisis holistically, and on the other side, we are totally underwater and we are ripping the rug out from tens of thousands of vulnerable people.”

Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry Dr. Enrico Castillo added that Measure A offers an opportunity to improve upon Measure H.

“I think there are lessons learned from that prior experience that the advocates for Measure A have taken into account and have tried to build in safeguards so that this is a better way forward,” he said. “Bottom line is, we have to do something, and I think that this has a lot of positive potential.”

Voting stations in Los Angeles are pictured. LA has a measure on the ballot this November proposing a larger sales tax to pay for increased resources for people experiencing homelessness. (Daily Bruin file photo)

But the measure is not without its critics.

Susan Shelley, vice president of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association – which opposes the measure – said it will make permanent an already flawed and ineffective system of mitigating homelessness and affordable housing problems.

She added that an additional sales tax will burden LA County citizens who are already spending money on their daily necessities, an issue exacerbated by inflation.

“Sales taxes are the most regressive kind of taxes,” Shelley said. “They hit people who are spending the largest proportion of their income on the daily needs of life the hardest. ”

The measure specifies that items including gas, groceries, medication, rent and diapers will be exempt from the sales tax.

The lack of transparency about where the funding from Measure H went and where the prospective revenue from Measure A will be going also dissuaded Lisa Chapman, president of the Westwood Neighborhood Council and co-chair of the Westwood Homeless Count, from supporting the measure, she said.

“Normally, I wouldn’t be against this, but the way things stand now with how the people in charge are not talking about the Measure H money, I am against it (Measure A) this time,” she said. “If it comes back later on the ballot in a couple of years after more transparency has happened, then I would be all for it.”

Castillo added he wants to see a more centralized approach to providing homeless services than what is outlined in the measure, and would prefer more of the funding gets allocated toward affordable housing.

Two new oversight bodies will ensure that programs and initiatives receiving funds from the measure are effective. One will be an executive committee, consisting of elected officials, and the other is a leadership table, made up of government officials, business leaders, service providers and individuals with lived experiences of homelessness.

Sandoval said it is important for LA County citizens to be able to hold these programs accountable.

“We know that folks deserve answers, that folks deserve transparency, and we want to be held to that account,” he said. “Ultimately, the folks that we have to be most accountable to are the 75,000 or so people who are sleeping outside.”

Shelley said she does not believe that the two oversight bodies will add any accountability or transparency, adding that she believes their creation is a disingenuous attempt to convince voters that Measure A will be better than Measure H was.

Before deciding which way to vote on Measure A, Shelley said she would encourage voters to consider the effectiveness of homelessness and affordable housing services so far.

“Judge what we have done with this tax so far before voting to make it permanent because that’s what Measure A does,” she said. “It makes this tax permanent and it doubles it and it’s a broken system.”

However, Sandoval said voting on this measure is a significant opportunity for voters to decide whether or not to give LA County the resources it needs to tackle the homelessness and affordable housing crisis.

“This is the most important vote on homelessness that you will ever take,” he said. “This is the choice between having the tools to address not just the immediate crisis about shelter and homelessness but the ongoing crisis that all of us feel of housing affordability. We have a choice.”

Los Angeles residents can vote in-person Nov. 5 at the Ackerman Student Union, the Hammer Museum or De Neve Plaza, among other locations across the county. Voters can also submit a vote-by-mail ballot as long as it is postmarked by election day.

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