Facing a budget deficit, LA County slashes funds for program that gets unhoused people jobs

The Los Angeles County homelessness budget approved last week included tens of millions in cuts to established services, including a 78% reduction in funding for the region’s main homeless workforce development program.

LA:RISE provides services for people experiencing homelessness, county authorities said, but they do not specifically align with the county’s priorities for the next fiscal year, according to Cheri Todoroff, director of the Homeless Initiative, which manages the county’s spending.

More than 90% of the county homelessness funding will go to programs that focus on providing shelter and permanent housing, Todoroff said.

LA:RISE partners with 40 organizations, including Homeboy Industries, Goodwill and Downtown Women’s Center, to provide thousands of unhoused Angelenos and those at risk for homelessness with temporary paid work, job training and other support.

Organizations that work with LA:RISE called the county’s move short-sighted, because jobs are crucial for helping people transition out of homelessness.

"Reducing the role of workforce development and employment in this budget eliminates the possibility of solving homelessness at its root and reduces the odds of long-term stability after housing,” said Greg Ericksen with REDF (formerly the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund), a philanthropy organization that manages the program.

Amy Turk, chief executive of the Downtown Women’s Center in Skid Row, said her organization has successfully worked with LA:RISE to help keep clients housed by connecting them with steady incomes and job skills.

“In the grand sense of the county's budget, it’s not that much, but the outcomes that we get are significant,” said Turk. “To hobble that is really disappointing.”

LA:RISE was among the programs that saw the largest drop in county funding in the fiscal year that starts in July. The Board of Supervisors also approved cuts to some legal services, a program providing case management to people exiting jail, a mobile showers program for the homeless and more.

Last year, LA:RISE received $8.4 million in county funding, and the program served 1,200 clients. The new budget will provide LA:RISE with less than $1.8 million in county funds.

Those cuts will shrink the program, but not end it. But it means 600 fewer people will get access to temporary paid work, job training and other support, according to the county.

Homeboy Industries in L.A. works with the LA:RISE program to provide job training to at-risk Angelenos, including those formerly involved with gangs

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Why cuts?

The new spending plan was the first to allocate funding from voter-approved Measure A. The sales tax kicks in April 1 and is expected to generate $1 billion annually for homeless services and affordable housing efforts — essentially doubling the county’s homelessness dollars.

But a large portion of that money will go to a new affordable housing agency for L.A. County and to local governments within the county’s 88 cities for homelessness services.

Even with the influx of new sales tax revenue, the county’s general homeless services budget is facing a projected deficit, and more than $60 million had to be curtailed from existing programs.

Supervisors reversed planned budget cuts to some programs, including targeted homelessness prevention efforts and those serving unhoused young adults, but the workforce program wasn’t spared.

The Homeless Initiative is expected to propose at least $17 million in additional reductions to homeless services at the Board of Supervisors meeting this week.

“As budget amendments move forward, we urge against further cuts to the Homeless Initiative so providers can continue meeting people where they are with the care, support and proven solutions needed to create real impact,” Turk said.

How workforce development works

The LA:RISE initiative exists to help people locked out of the labor market because of homelessness, incarceration or disability become self-sufficient and less dependent on public assistance, program administrators said.

It began in 2014 with grant funding from the U.S. Department of Labor, but has since been funded by L.A. County and the city of L.A.’s workforce development departments, which partner with local service organizations.

“This program is like the bridge from coming out of homelessness, getting ready to go to work, but they're not quite ready right yet,” said Alexandria Piñeda, a former LA:RISE participant who now works full time for Downtown Women’s Center.

Piñeda said she moved from Texas to L.A. about five years ago to find work as a bartender. Then COVID-19 hit, and bars closed.

“I wasn't able to generate any more money because the whole city was shut down. So I ended up homeless, like really fast — within months,” Piñeda said.

She got into a hotel room through the Project RoomKey program and connected with the women’s center, where she learned about the job training program.

“ I didn't know how to do anything else, so that's why I got in LA: RISE to learn a new trade," said Piñeda. “They put me with candle making, and it's very similar to bartending, like I'm mixing and pouring and creating scents, being creative with it.”

The Downtown Women’s Center runs a company called Made By DWC that hires and trains unhoused women. It includes a cafe, clothing boutique and consumer goods line that sells candles, soaps and bath salts.

Piñeda completed 300 hours of paid job training. After she graduated, Made By DWC hired her full-time.

“ I did one job training program and I was on my feet and I’m stable now,” said Piñeda, who currently rents an apartment in Compton. “I'm saving to buy a home. I was able to get a car.”

Today, she trains and mentors other women at the women’s center.

“ It is hard when you're in the program and you're trying to navigate housing or trying to navigate what you're going to eat tonight,” said Piñeda. “I understand that pressure because I went through it.  So I'm always reassuring them, like, ‘You're doing fine. If you're not, we'll talk about it, but you know, like, keep up the good work.’”

Nearly half of the program’s participants have moved on into competitive, unsubsidized jobs, according to LA:RISE.

Stories like Piñeda’s show that programs like this can be extremely helpful to individuals, but it’s harder to quantify how effective they are as a solution to the homelessness crisis.

A 2019 study of the LA:RISE program found participants had higher rates of employment and higher earnings than their peers in the short-term, but no measurable advantage years later.

Other research on workforce programs showed they had little effect on participants’ long-term housing stability.

LA:RISE reacts

The organizations that work with LA:RISE say its success is evident.

Long before she became executive director at the Center For Living and Learning, Maria Alexander had been held in county jail and then lived on the side of a L.A. freeway. Then she started a paid job training experience through a workforce development program.

“The strongest evidence that this program works is that we hire directly and operate our entire organization with over 90% of our staff hired from the LA:RISE program, including management and our finance team,” Alexander said.

She said county leaders should not ignore the role job training and a steady job play in ending homelessness.

“To invest in drug treatment and shelters and then drop the ball upon transitioning into the workforce will cause irreparable harm,” Alexander said. “Having a work location with peers who have overcome the same obstacles and can provide motivation, inspiration and much needed hand holding is immeasurable.”

Downtown L.A. nonprofit Chrysalis, which works with LA:RISE, has been doing this kind of work for four decades, connecting unhoused Angelenos with job training and paid gigs answering phones, cleaning streets or serving food.

The nonprofit says the budget cuts will mean a 50% decrease in its participants, or 100 fewer people next year.

“Last year, 2 million voters told our elected officials that they wanted Measure A and the supportive services it would fund,” said President and CEO Mark Loranger. “LA:RISE is a part of that promise and should not be cut from the budget.”

Representatives from the Center for Employment Opportunities, which works with LA:RISE, said it will also have to drastically reduce enrollments.

“Taking away funding from people who are ready and able to work, those who are ready for full engagement and participation in the workforce and housing would put more Angelenos at risk of long-term homelessness,” said Tiffany Elder, a spokesperson for the organization.

Next steps

The new county budget goes into effect July 1.

In addition to the remaining $1.8 million in funding from L.A. County, the program also receives about $3 million in annual funding from the city of L.A.’s Economic and Workforce Development Department.

That department recently requested an increase in LA:RISE funding from the city, but that appears unlikely given the city’s budget deficit.

Kelly LoBianco, director of the county’s Department of Economic Opportunity, said she hopes the cuts are only temporary.

“ We think it's an important program and an important model at a time like this,” she said. “We do feel like in addition to maintaining these levels, there’s also a need to scale them to meet the moment.”