The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will vote to withdraw funds from local agencies tasked with fighting the homeless crisis and will instead establish a new county-wide division to take on the effort.
The committee voted 4-0 on Tuesday to cancel hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars each year for the Los Angeles Department of Homeless Services after an audit, and the judge found that the agency could not properly explain much of its funds.
The county is now shifting previously allocated funds to establish new county-wide departments to manage the crisis. This, supervisor Lindsay Holvas, said it would be modelled on the Department of Health Services’ Housing Health Program.
“Los Angeles County has left the status quo and embraced a model of homeless services that is centered around accountability and outcomes,” Horvath said in the release. “This isn’t making the system bigger. It makes it better. Our community has been demanding it for years.”
Taxpayer funds originally aimed at Lahasa will be stripped from agents by next year.
Horvath was joined by fellow supervisors Kathryn Barger, Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis. Director Holly Mitchell withdrew.
While unanimity has been reached essentially at the county level, Los Angeles leaders are urging county leaders not to put money from Lahasa and instead are working on solutions to improve spending to increase transparency in agencies.
“Lahasa desperately needs transparency and accountability, but the speed at which the county is moving raises serious concerns about disruption in services,” reads a statement from LA City Councilman Isabel Jurado.
File – On Wednesday, October 25th, 2023, you will pass the homeless camp in downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass agreed that Lahasa and the local approach to combating homelessness have lasting and systematic issues, but claimed that since she took office, Kaku has already become a horn in two years, making the crisis a major priority for her.
“We are moving forward. We must continue to face the challenges together based on this,” reads a letter from Bass and Councillor Nisia Raman.
The two highlighted the decline in homelessness in LA at the previous point as evidence that participation efforts between the city and the county were at work.
“While homelessness has risen across the country, we’ve pushed it down, dispelling the myth that people want to live on the streets,” reads the letter. “We locked our arms inside, each of us declared a state of emergency, and we moved with an unprecedented emergency. We are moving forward.”
However, the supervisor ultimately determined that Rasa had failed taxpayers and that his progress would require more surveillance and transparency.
“This crisis requires a dedicated county sector, which relentlessly focuses on addressing the root causes of homelessness with a comprehensive, accountable approach,” Berger said. “Our board is fully responsible for the taxes we collect and distribute, ensuring transparency, efficiency and actual outcomes for the people we serve.
According to the Los Angeles Times, when a new county office is established, it has a budget of over $1 billion, which removes sales tax funds from Lahasa and redirects them to the new division.
Hundreds of county workers will be transferred to the new agency by January 1, 2026, with hundreds more added in the months that follow.
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