Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to place a measure on the November ballot that would double the county’s homeless sales tax to half a cent to fund housing and homeless support services.
If approved by voters, it would replace Measure H, a 25-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2017 and scheduled to expire in 2027.
The replacement measure, officially titled “Affordable Housing, Homelessness Solutions and Prevention,” qualified for the ballot last week after supporters gathered more than 390,000 signatures. County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan predicted that about three-quarters of those were valid signatures, more than enough to get the measure on the November ballot.
On Tuesday, the committee voted 4-0 to put the bill to a vote without any changes. Supervisor Janice Hahn was not present.
“We’re far from providing enough housing for low- and moderate-income Angelenos,” Board Chair Lindsay Holbert said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We have no time to waste.”
The tax is estimated to generate about $1.2 billion a year in revenue to support homeless services, affordable housing, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and would require programs funded by the tax to undergo audits and set goals to ensure funds are spent on initiatives most likely to keep homeless people off the streets.
Supporters said at Tuesday’s meeting that they’ve learned from Measure H and believe this updated sales tax would put funds to better use. The tax would also be indefinite and could only be repealed by a future vote.
“The crisis we face today is not for a lack of trying,” California Community Foundation CEO Miguel Santana told the board. “This will bring about long-term, systemic and accountable change.”
To voters infuriated by the lack of progress on homelessness, county supervisors touted the success of Measure H, saying it had injecting money into the county, prevented more than 30,000 people from becoming homeless and helped more than 100,000 people find permanent housing.
“I have the receipts,” Superintendent Holly Mitchell said.
The bill is supported by a coalition of housing providers and labor groups, including SEIU 721 and the Los Angeles County Labor Federation, whose president, Yvonne Wheeler, told supervisors she believes the tax would make housing less affordable for workers and protect them from eviction.
No one spoke out in opposition Tuesday, but some experts predict anti-tax groups may oppose the measure.
“I want to remind everyone that we still have a lot of work to do before we can pass this bill in November,” Dexter O’Connell, director of the homeless advocacy group Safe Places for Youth, told the committee.