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LA County Board Of Supervisors Approves $600 Million Budget For Homeless Initiative
Tents along the streets in Skid Row, Downtown Los Angeles.
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Mario Tama
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Getty Images
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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved $609.7 million dollars — the largest ever budget allocation for the county’s Homeless Initiative — on Tuesday.
The Breakdown
The money will go to programs to boost mental health and substance abuse services, move unsheltered people living in encampments into housing and increase interim and permanent housing placements.
That means an extra 5,029 beds for temporary housing and 4,630 permanent supportive housing units will be added to help people move out of encampments.
Also, nearly $77 million will fund a series of other programs, including:
- Local Solutions Fund that cities can tap into support moving people in encampments into housing.
- A Skid Row Action Plan to focus on the needs of Skid Row residents
- Every Woman Unhoused program designed to end homelessness for women and families living in Skid Row
- RV Encampment program to help 300 people living in recreational vehicles to move into housing and take down broken RVs
Screenshot of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors budget allocation plans for the $607.9 million in funding for the Homeless initiative.
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Courtesy of The Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative
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The Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative
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“As the epicenter of homelessness in the entire nation, we know that more resources are needed in Skid Row to help overcome the consequences of structural and systemic inequalities,” said Supervisor Hilda L. Solis in a statement.
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The Backstory
This comes four weeks after the board declared a local emergency on homelessness, where the county's Homeless Initiative was assigned to take the lead in emergency response efforts.
Most of the funding comes from Measure H, a quarter-cent sales tax to fund homeless services approved in 2017. The rest of the money comes from the state’s Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program.
This makes an 11% increase from last year’s budget allocation.
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