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You Can Weigh In Today On Measure H — The Special Tax Passed In 2017 To Reduce Homelessness
Then-L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas kicked off the campaign to raise L.A.'s sales tax to pay for homeless services.
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The Measure H Oversight Advisory Board is seeking public comment today about initiatives related to homelessness in the county.
Measure H is the quarter-cent sales tax for L.A. County approved in 2017 to fund services aimed at reducing homelessness.
About Measure H
Because it was a tax for a specific purpose, Measure H required 2/3 of voters to say yes when it was on the ballot in 2017. In the end, just over 69% of voters (more than 585,000 people) voted yes — a sign of intense desire to deal with what was already a growing crisis in the region.
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The promise by backers was that Measure H could raise about $350 million annually, money the county would have to spend exclusively on programs designed to reduce and prevent homelessness.
At the time, about 45,000 people in L.A. County were estimated to be unhoused. In the most recent available Point-In-Time count from early 2022 an estimated 69,000 people were unhoused in the county.
Note: We plan to have more later on what people had to say at this meeting.
How to participate
At 1 p.m. today (Thursday, June 1), the oversight board is holding a public meeting at two locations:
Hall of Justice (Media Room)
211 W. Temple St., Los Angeles
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Duarte City Hall
1600 Huntington Drive, Duarte
The deadline to submit comments by email was Wednesday at 5 p.m.
What to expect
In addition to public comment, the meeting is scheduled to go over the most financial audit for the last fiscal year (July 1, 2021 to June 31, 2022).
Read the audit
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