The author of the semi-cent Homeless Sales Tax Measurement, which came into effect on April 1, injected a wide range of goals, including reducing the number of people who become homeless each year and increasing the number of people leaving business.
After county voters approved the measure in November, it included a process of adding specific targets and timelines to provide public tools to measure its success or failure.
This is now completed by the Leadership Table with a panel of former homeless people created by the local homeless alignment, service providers, experts and the County Board of Supervisors.
A survey by UCLA’s California Policy Lab combined data from several county agencies that track service provider contacts with homeless people. From that data, Policy Lab drew statistics that gave the most clearest image of some basic facts about homelessness and its trends in recent years.
For example, we discovered that in 2024 more than 60,000 new people entered the homeless system. Most of this left myself.
These statistics have now reached baseline. The Leadership Table then set five-year targets for improvement. In contrast to the drastic language of ending homelessness, which led to disillusionment with previous tax measures, it adopted moderate goals that were considered achievable. For example, it reduces the number of people who are not sheltered by 30%.
These goals were approved by the Regional Homeless Cooperation Executive Committee, a panel of county and city elected officials.
The chart below shows each goal and its associated metrics.
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