LA County voters weighing Measure A ask: Where has the homeless services money gone so far?

Measure A on the November ballot asks Los Angeles County voters to increase a local sales tax that funds homelessness efforts. The proposal has left many wondering: What happened to the billions of dollars L.A. taxpayers have already put toward addressing homelessness?

L.A. County officials and policy experts say the existing sales tax approved by voters in 2017 has succeeded at providing housing and services to tens of thousands of people. They also admit it hasn’t been enough to thin the ranks of the more than 75,000 Angelenos living in cars, shelters and tent encampments.

Now, voters will have to make a choice: Double the sales tax and put more resources into homelessness prevention and affordable housing development — or side with Measure A opponents who argue the county can’t be trusted to spend the money effectively.

Where homelessness tax funding goes now

In a squeaky clean industrial kitchen in the San Fernando Valley headquarters of Hope the Mission, Chef Mike Austin drops huge chunks of butter into a massive pot.

“I'm going to be making garlic butter,” he said. “We're going to do garlic bread for the weekend.”

Every day, this homeless services provider feeds thousands of people staying in shelters across the county.

“Many of our guests are struggling with addiction,” said Rowan Vansleve, Hope the Mission’s president. “I don't know the science behind it, but when you're deep in withdrawal, going through that process of breaking free of addiction, sweet treats help. So every week, we bake an obscene number of cookies.”

Vansleve said a lot of the organization’s funding comes from Measure H, which L.A. County voters approved in 2017 to fund homeless services by levying a quarter cent sales tax on every $1 spent.

“If it wasn't for Measure H, you wouldn't see 2,000-plus people spending the night with us tonight,” Vansleve said. “It was a game changer.”

Measure H sunsets soon

But Measure H is set to expire in 2027. That’s where this year’s Measure A comes in. It asks voters to continue funding homelessness response efforts through a new half-cent sales tax. Measure A would raise an estimated $1.1 billion every year. Unlike Measure H, the tax would have no sunset date.

Vansleve knows that for many voters, doubling this tax could be a tough sell at a time when inflation is straining budgets and homeless numbers remain stubbornly high.

“But the one thing that is true is that there are less people languishing on the streets this year than last year,” he said. “We are seeing that tide start to turn. And if at any point you don't want to pull the funding, it's right when it's starting to get better.”

Rowan Vansleve says Measure H provides much of Hope the Mission’s funding to shelter and house people.

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What it's done so far

County officials say Measure H has put 42,299 people into permanent housing, and 80,508 into interim housing. They say another 9,941 were prevented from becoming unhoused thanks to Measure H funding.

Still, those placements and prevention efforts haven’t been enough to bring homelessness down. In fact, the sheer number of people experiencing homelessness across L.A. County has risen 37% since voters passed Measure H.

Janey Rountree, executive director of the California Policy Lab at UCLA, said that’s mainly because for every person getting housed, others are ending up on the streets.

“We're seeing people fall into homelessness constantly because of economic factors,” Rountree said. “They can't pay rent. We don't have enough affordable housing. Incomes are not keeping pace with housing costs.”

Measure A has prevention provisions

Rountree has studied L.A. County’s initial efforts at homelessness prevention, which currently make up a small slice of spending. Last year, about 3% of Measure H tax revenue went to prevention efforts, which ran the gamut from tenant-landlord mediation services to direct financial assistance.

Rountree and her colleagues have found evidence that financial help makes the biggest difference. Clients who don’t get financial assistance are nearly four times more likely to end up unhoused compared with those who receive monetary help.

Rountree says Measure A would significantly boost funding for preventative approaches, including eviction defense and rental assistance. When they’re done right, she said, these efforts can save local governments lots of money in the long-run by removing the need to pay for costlier street outreach and re-housing services.

“Hopefully ballot Measure A can fund more of these types of programs, and we can test what's working for whom,” Rountree said.

Surveys show a tight race

In 2017, voters passed Measure H with nearly 70% support. Polls show they’re less enthusiastic about boosting homelessness funding this time around.

UCLA urban planning and public policy professor Michael Lens said, “A lot of people look around and say, ‘What has this money necessarily done for us?’”

An audit of tens of billions of dollars in California homelessness spending earlier this year found the state has failed to track outcomes. Locally, homeless service providers have been sued by the state for failing to convert motels into homeless housing, and others have come under investigation over charging for nutritious meals that were never provided to shelter residents.

Amid all the headlines focused on fraud, other homeless service providers say they’ve been diligently working at sheltering and finding permanent housing for thousands of Angelenos.

Lens said it’s important for voters to consider what L.A. County’s homelessness crisis might look like today without Measure H.

“It's quite likely that we would be in a much worse situation right now,” Lens said. “But that’s, for one, difficult to prove. And two, kind of dissatisfying to the voter who's like, ‘Well the situation is still really not acceptable to me.’”

Some Measure H supporters are Measure A opponents

Rising homelessness — despite hundreds of millions of dollars in annual spending — has some people disillusioned. Stuart Waldman is the president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a business group that supported Measure H but now opposes Measure A.

“There needs to be a lot more oversight,” Waldman said. “We have to determine if something's not working, let's make changes.”

Waldman said if Measure A fails, there’s still time to put forward a different plan during the 2026 election, before Measure H funding expires in 2027.

Another organization opposing Measure A is the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, which sued the city and county and struck a settlement that requires thousands of new shelter and mental health treatment beds. That court case has also led to an ongoing audit of local homelessness spending.

Paul Webster, L.A. Alliance’s executive director, said the audit won’t be finished until after the election. So far, auditors have repeatedly said in court proceedings that they’re struggling to get L.A. homelessness officials to provide spending and outcome data.

“They have an inability to account for existing budgets and performance,” Webster said. “So in our view, L.A. County hasn't earned the trust of Angelenos with more money.”

Proponents say Measure A would be different. It requires regular audits and detailed tracking of outcomes. They also note the measure includes funding for the newly established L.A. County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, a body made up of elected leaders across the region who will be tasked with funding the development of new affordable housing units.

Nycole Zamora Castellanos said this Measure H-funded shelter has given her family the stability they need to recover from a spell of homelessness.

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What would happen if the money vanishes?

If voters reject Measure A, supporters say about 57,000 people currently housed and sheltered would lose their subsidies and services. Many could end up right back on the streets.

After living in her car for six months, Nycole Zamora Castellanos came to a shelter for families run by Hope the Mission in Woodland Hills. State funding through Project Homekey turned this former motel into a 100-unit shelter. Now, it’s operating with Measure H funding.

“We feel stable just being here, and safe — me and my children,” Castellanos said. “We're grateful. Everybody I talk to, that's all they're looking for. Getting their housing, getting back on their feet. That's all they need.”

Castellanos said she recently started a new job as a home health aide. She hoped it would be the next step to finding a permanent home for her and her family.