The crisis of homelessness in Los Angeles is chronic and vexing. Despite billions of tax dollars spent, the number of people on our streets continues to grow. Not surprisingly, last month, it was disclosed that the LA Housing Services Agency (LAHSA), Housing Authority of Los Angeles (HACLA), and the LA County Development Authority, returned nearly $150 million in federal grants that should have gone to help reduce L.A.-area homelessness. This revelation, coupled with concerns that the latest homeless count is inaccurate highlights an important truth: the status quo isn’t working.
The grim reality is what’s been done to address homelessness to date has failed and underscores serious credibility problems that proponents of Initiative Ordinance ULA, the proposed billion-dollar tax increase on the November ballot, have with voters this November.
Boiled down, proponents’ principal argument in support of ULA is: ‘give us more tax dollars to build permanent housing , and we will solve the homeless crisis.’ Sadly, recent history demonstrates this proposed ‘solution’ is equally doomed.
In 2016, LA. City Hall sold HHH, a $1.2 billion bond measure that promised 10,000 units, as a way to put a dent in LA’s hopelessness issue. Bold backers claimed while recovery agencies and “archaic” missions have managed the problem, Measure HHH would solve homelessness. City voters overwhelmingly approved Prop HHH. As detailed in a scathing series of reports by the City Controller, the city has failed to build anywhere near the number of units promised – under 20% have been completed so far.
What’s worse, since HHH’s passage, costs to build homeless housing have soared to an average of $630,000 per unit, with some units costing more than $800,000 – while the number of homeless on city streets has gotten worse. LA’s people devastated by homelessness don’t need a slow to develop, expensive unit with a granite countertop and a private bedroom. They need a safe, clean place to get them, immediately, even temporarily, off our streets.
Even more stunning, City Hall leaders and bureaucrats have yet to spend the full $1.2 billion from Prop HHH. Yet, many who benefitted from HHH funding now aspire to raise property taxes…again. ULA, if passed in conjunction with Measure SP, another multi-billion-dollar property tax the City Council added to the ballot at the last minute, would represent the largest tax increase in LA. City history.
ULA, like HHH, will not solve the homeless crisis. It will increase rent and the cost of living for LA residents, all while growing and funding an ineffective bureaucracy that has failed to carry out effective strategies that would address this issue time and time again.
ULA is misleadingly being promoted as a tax only on the wealthy, which is not the case. ULA will increase rents for residents and create additional barriers to homeownership, which would add to an already worsening housing crisis. LA consumers are already being forced to grapple with runaway inflation in a city that is already one of the nation’s 7th most expensive places to live.
Punishing everyone for the city’s inability to make a dent in homelessness by providing a permanent funding source without an effective tangible plan to end homelessness is unfair and illogical. Not only would renters suffer due to ULA and SP, but some of its most detrimental effects would also fall on the city’s most vulnerable: the young, seniors and minority small business owners.
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LA residents agree that addressing homelessness is the top issue facing our city, but Angelenos must not be swayed by a poorly constructed tax that funds the failed status quo, ignores the inevitable effect on small businesses and renters and prohibits funding for emergency, temporary shelter and innovative affordable immediate housing in recovery communities – needed now to get people off the streets.
We all want to solve the homeless crisis. Rather than ask Angelenos for another $1 billion property tax increase – especially at a time of high inflation and increased prices – City Hall needs to acknowledge that what’s been tried previously has not worked – and the reason why it’s failed isn’t a money problem. Before we raise taxes, voters deserve a real plan, greater accountability and a commitment to embrace fundamental change in how we deal with our growing homeless population. We must demand nothing less.
Rev. Andy Bales is the CEO of the Union Rescue Mission and a homeless advocate