Issue Position: Housing & Homelessness

Issue Position

For decades, the rising cost of housing and lack of funding for supportive services have left the most vulnerable citizens and families of LA County without shelter, or jobs, or help to harbor them during rough times. With the Great Recession of 2008 and the housing crisis of today, we have more people living on the streets than ever before.

Since 2015 the State, County, and City governments have come together with the voters to create the funding mechanisms needed to address our lack of affordable housing and services which create a pathway out of homelessness here in LA County.

Within the first six months of July 2017 -- December 2017:

Outreach teams contacted more than 4,000 individuals experiencing homelessness;
More than 3,300 homeless families and adults were placed in permanent housing; and
More than 7,000 participants entered crisis, bridge, and/or interim housing.
In Sacramento, our State Legislature's 2017's State Housing Package included more than $100 million for programs to help the homeless, which will roll out in at the end of 2018. Additionally, California's cap-and-trade program has been assisting, with 20 percent of profits reserved for affordable development near transit stops. To date, $443 million has been used to fund 58 developments and creating 4,500 new affordable homes across California, with $97 million in funding awarded to projects in Los Angeles which helped create over 1,270 affordable unites for individuals and families in need.

Additionally, I commend LA County voters for overwhelmingly passing Proposition HHH in 2016 and Measure H in 2017, ensuring we will have funding for housing and services for the next decade. During the 2017-2018 fiscal year, just the first year of the 10 year Measure H campaign, LA County spent approximately $200 million dollars on Homeless Services. So far LA County has put $8 million toward homeless prevention for individuals and families; $68 million toward subsidized housing; $9 million toward income assistance; $24 million toward case management and services; and $90.6 million toward creating the coordinated entry system.

As of early April 2018 there are: 24 Total Prop HHH projects in predevelopment consisting of 1,793 total units and 1,291 total supportive housing units built; and 3 HHH developments planned here in the San Fernando Valley.
Even with all these efforts, we are still a far away from housing all the homeless and getting them the help they need to get back on their feet, but we are making progress.

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