The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to move hundreds of millions of dollars from local homeless services agencies on Tuesday despite warnings from LA Mayor Karen Bass about causing “massive disruption” in the fight against local homelessness.
With a 4-0 vote, the supervisor signed the strategy to form the new county’s homeless sector with a budget of over $1 billion almost immediately. By July 2026, supervisors will move more than $300 million from a sixth of sales tax, from the Los Angeles Department of Homeless Services, or Lasa, to new county agencies.
More than 700 county workers will be transferred to the new agency by January 1st. Six months later, the new department will take on hundreds more employees from Lahsa, a joint city county agency that has been ridden for years by city council members, county supervisors and other officials.
County supervisors said the change would provide more direct surveillance and ultimately greater accountability than funds generated by the half-percent sales tax that came into effect Tuesday. The measure funded an array of housing and homeless services and served as an alternative to Measure H, a quarter-percent sales tax approved in 2017.
“This moment is about the county taking the dollars taxpayers have left us with and investing in what works them,” said manager Lindsey Horvas, who spearheaded the plan.
The supervisor said he was following the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Committee, which called for in 2022 to create a new county homeless organization and streamline Lahasa’s responsibility. They also expressed their dissatisfaction with the surveillance of Rahasa, or a pair of stinging audits that stimulatingly criticised the contract and program for its lack.
The vote was a serious defeat for Bass, who claimed that change would lead to yet another bureaucracy creation and distracted energy from efforts to move people indoors. With a huge portion of the budget set to disappear, Lahasa’s long-term future is now a problem.
Hours before the meeting, Bass and City Councillor Nisia Raman, who heads the council’s homeless committee, sent a letter to the supervisor warning that the changes would ultimately take away “essential resources.”
“This action will create monumental disruption to the progress we are making and implement serious risks that will exacerbate the homeless crisis without ending it,” they wrote.
Five councillors – Bob Blumenfield, Isabel Jurad, Tim Makosker, Katie Jaroslavsky and Raman – appeared in person to convey a similar message, saying they would undermine their efforts to fight the homeless, fearing that the county might be dealing a fatal blow to Rahasa. The city is already in a financial crisis and faces a budget shortage of just under $1 billion.
Raman said she and other councillors are campaigning for Measure A and encourage LA residents to increase sales tax.
“We strongly believe that these voters may not support it if they knew that the dollar would move to the county without opinions and partnerships from the city,” she said.
For Rasa, established in 1993 as part of an effort to ensure cities and counties work more collaboratively in the homeless, the decision creates a financial earthquake. According to the agency’s website, the county offers the largest share of Lahasa’s annual budget of $875 million. According to Lahasa officials, the majority of the county’s funds will go to the new agency.
Horvath said the county cannot afford to continue its status quo to measure and flush its revenues out immediately. Combining multiple county department homeless programs “will fundamentally change surveillance and accountability,” she said.
The new agency will model the county housing program for the county Department of Health Health Program. Horvath called it “the most successful program ever.” The initiative has a high success rate of moving people into permanent housing and continuing to house them, she said.
Housing for Health began with housing homeless patients who revolved around the county’s public hospital in 2012, program director Sarah Mahin told the supervisor on Tuesday. Since then, it has expanded to an annual budget of over 600 workers and $875 million.
The program includes funding for homeless outreach teams, financial support for tenants at risk of eviction, and approximately 3,200 interim housing beds.
“We can do big things — what works,” Horbus said. “Housing for Health, and the Board of Supervisors created it.”
Doniel Holly, the city of Pomona homeless program supervisor, welcomed the changes, saying it ensures that the homeless service system is “responsible for the needs of all stakeholders.”
“The county is more responsible for voters who pass Measure A,” she said.
But manager Holly Mitchell, whose Southla district spreads from Koreatown to Carson, warned that his colleagues were moving too quickly.
Mitchell tried to postpone the launch date for the new agency, but only voted. She declined to vote for the proposal itself.
Rahasa CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum has tried to spell out the agency’s achievements over the past two years, but her microphone was cut off by a comment halfway through. Director Katherine Berger gave her 90 seconds.
Nathaniel Vergo, Rahasa’s Deputy Chief Program Officer, told the board he spent his entire professional career ending homelessness.
“What I don’t understand, however, is the rush of proposed strategies to move all services without real planning,” he said. “The timeline is not a plan.”
Last summer, Rahasa reported that “the number of people living on the streets has fallen by about 5% across the county and Lalala city executives has fallen by more than 10%, making it promised to reveal more progress in the coming weeks.
Critics say progress has been too slow, in contrast to the billions of dollars allocated in particular. One audit commissioned by US District Judge David O. Carter found that Lahsa did not have sufficient financial oversight to provide the services offered by contractors.
Last week, Adams Kellum wrote to Carter that her agency was working to improve the business. Carter, who oversees cases involving homeless services, responded by calling those promises “meaningless.”
Burger said she and her colleagues were “not trying to get rid of Rahasa.” And she has promised that accountability for the new homeless department will be on leave with five county supervisors.
“I was in Judge Carter’s court last week so I can speak for myself, and that can’t get worse,” she said.
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