To drum up support for a ballot measure that would fund affordable housing and homelessness prevention in Los Angeles County, community leaders and housing service providers came together in North Hollywood for the launch of a new campaign.
The “Yes on Measure A” campaign kicked off at the LA Family Housing (LAFH) Service and Housing Campus on Thursday, Sept. 5. Nonprofits and other organizations in support of the measure include Hope the Mission, North Valley Caring Services, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Abundant Housing LA.
The new initiative – also known as the Affordable Housing, Homeless Solutions and Prevention Now Measure – would expand programs that move people from tents into treatment and housing, expand access to affordable housing, invest in services that help keep people in their homes and enhance mental health and addiction treatment services, as well as include more accountability and oversight.
The measure will be on the ballot in the November election only for LA County voters.
Measure A would repeal Measure H, a quarter-cent sales tax approved in 2017 to fund homeless services; it is due to sunset in 2027. The new measure would increase the sales tax to a half-cent tax that would fund homeless services indefinitely but could be adjusted every five years by LA County based on results.
According to the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office, the increased sales tax would generate approximately more than $1 billion annually.
Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, president and CEO of LAFH, expressed excitement over the new measure, saying that there are a lot of lessons learned from local funding initiatives that will be applied to how Measure A will be implemented.
“There’s a lot more structure around the oversight and outcomes,” Klasky-Gamer said. “The primary thing with Measure A is a commitment that we cannot go back, that we have to keep moving forward, and Measure A allows us to do that with more funding.”
Klasky-Gamer said the campaign kickoff being held at their North Hollywood campus was meant to represent the system that Measure A would fund and support, from the primary health care clinic for people experiencing homelessness to permanent supportive housing.
“Showing success and people and inspiring people to vote to continue that success, that’s our strategy,” Klasky-Gamer said. “The campaign will promote all the ways that Measure A funds can be used, … whether it’s people moving [into] homes or it’s our outreach team successfully connecting with people still outdoors.”
She added that the key to Measure A is that the funding will not only allow for more affordable housing, but services to prevent more people from falling into homelessness. During the campaign launch, Klasky-Gamer said homelessness could increase by 28% and nearly 50,000 formerly homeless Angelenos could end up back on the streets without the measure.
While there is currently no organized opposition to the measure, as some families are struggling to pay their bills, they could be reluctant to vote for the measure feeling that they already pay 9.5% in sales tax, a significant amount, and it raises the question of whether more funding will make a significant dent.
Although the number of homeless people has increased over the years, data from the 2024 Greater LA Homeless Count showed that the number of unhoused individuals in the county slightly decreased and the number of sheltered unhoused people increased.
Carlos Amador, a Granada Hills resident, has seen firsthand the need for services and resources to address homelessness through his job as a social worker. He said the number one reason why people become homeless is the increase in rent.
“We know that rent continues to get higher, and the more rent increases, the more difficult it is for people to stay housed [until] eventually, they move onto the street,” Amador said.
He acknowledged that Measure H did have an impact, but said more needs to be done, which is why Measure A is so important because it will “increase resources needed to move more folks into housing and to connect them with critical services, to both save their lives and put them back onto a pathway of being housed.”
For more information on Measure A, go to https://yesona.la/.