After extensive community and stakeholder engagement, the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative shared its $595.5 million draft funding recommendations for fiscal year 2023-24.
It is the first set of funding recommendations to reflect the County’s New Framework to End Homelessness, approved by the Board of Supervisors earlier this year. This approach focuses on:
- Increasing permanent housing placements
- Improving flow through the rehousing system, moving people from street to housing more effectively
- Serving people with complex challenges who face barriers exiting homelessness
- Expanding collaborative partnerships with cities and Councils of Government
The Draft FY 2023-24 Homeless Initiative Funding Recommendations do not encompass all of the County’s investments to address and prevent homelessness but represent a significant portion.
After presenting the initial draft of the funding recommendations during a public webinar on November 8, 2022, Homeless Initiative Executive Director Cheri Todoroff showed an updated version to the Board of Supervisors’ homeless policy deputies during a public meeting on December 8, 2022.
She provided a detailed briefing about the County’s proposed spending plan for homeless prevention, outreach, interim housing, permanent housing, and supportive services that receive funding through Measure H, a 1/4-cent sales tax approved by County voters in March 2017, as well as through the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) grant program, which requires approval from the State of California.
She also discussed feedback and recommendations the Homeless Initiative received through a series of 18 virtual Community Listening Sessions and nine Stakeholder Planning meetings it conducted in September and October, and explained what actions the County proposes to take to be responsive to those recommendations. During this extensive engagement process, the Homeless Initiative solicited input from County residents as well as County departments and agencies, service providers, Cities and Councils of Government (COGs), and people with lived expertise.
In the five years since voters passed Measure H, the County has housed 84,000 people and prevented 22,000 more people from becoming homeless in the first place. The County has also provided interim housing to 114,000 people, many of whom are now counted among those housed, and many other services critical to connecting people to the services they need to become and remain successfully housed.