Measure A – on LA County ballots this November – asks voters whether or not to approve a sales tax hike to fund homeless services and affordable housing.
Proponents say it builds on what’s working and fixes what isn’t, but taxpayer advocates and some voters are skeptical.
What would it cost me and how much revenue would Measure A generate?
The tax is expected to bring in more than $1 billion each year for homeless services and affordable housing development.
For consumers within LA County, this means a half-penny on every dollar spent would go towards fighting homelessness. The sales tax doesn’t apply to essentials like gas, groceries or medication.
So, if you buy something for $100, that would be 50 cents in sales tax for homelessness. Proponents say this will cost the average LA County resident about $120 each year.
Is this a new sales tax or extension of an old one?
It’s both. Voters overwhelmingly approved Measure H in 2017 – a quarter-penny sales tax that currently generates about half a billion dollars each year for homeless services.
That tax is scheduled to sunset in 2027. So, Measure A would replace the old homelessness sales tax and double it.
The revenue generated would keep funding many of the same things the old tax was paying for but also some new things, described below.
What has the existing sales tax – Measure H – been funding?
Measure H is strictly used to fund homeless services throughout LA County. That includes shelters, rental assistance, mental health and substance use programs, street outreach, operations to clear encampments, and much more.
It accounts for about 40% of the county’s overall homelessness spending in recent years.. The new Measure A tax would allow that current spending on homeless services to continue and to be expanded.
What are the new things Measure A would do that aren’t happening now?
The main things are more focus on homelessness prevention; new investment in affordable housing development; and increased accountability for how the money is spent.
Proponents say they’ve learned lessons from the shortcomings of Measure H, and that’s why there’s a new focus on homelessness prevention.
“In 2023, for every 120 people who left homelessness, 123 people fell in,” says Tommy Newman of United Way of Greater LA, a main backer of the new measure. “So we figured out how to get people back into housing, but we haven't done a good job of keeping people from falling in. That's why the numbers have continued to go up.”
New prevention measures include more temporary rental assistance to keep people in their homes as well as legal aid for those facing eviction.
On the affordable housing front, about one-third of the more than $1 billion Measure A is expected to generate each year will go to financing and building. Those efforts will be coordinated on a countywide basis through the recently-established LA County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency.
Backers of Measure A say this is going to empower LA County to approach the affordability crisis regionally, together with its 88 cities, using new tools, strategies and financing mechanisms to build affordable housing. They say they got the idea from other cities with affordability concerns like Vienna, Singapore and Hong Kong.
To try to ensure the money is spent efficiently, Measure A establishes two new oversight bodies to audit these efforts. Accountability and transparency have been major concerns with existing homelessness spending, as recent audits have found. It also sets up mandatory goals, which means nonprofits who aren’t making progress will have some of their funding redirected to nonprofits who are.
Campaign ads make Measure A seem like it is crucial.
What happens if Measure A doesn’t pass?
The funding we’ve had for the past seven years would go away in 2027, and overall spending on homeless services would be cut significantly.
Proponents predict a 28% increase in homelessness each year if this doesn’t pass and the existing tax expires.
It’s worth noting that the authors and backers of this measure are largely the nonprofit homeless service providers who depend on this funding as well as advocacy organizations and labor unions.
Who is opposing Measure A?
The main opposition is from taxpayer advocacy groups who argue that sales taxes are not the right way to handle this crisis, because they are regressive – which means they hit poorer people harder.
"Measure A raises the sales tax by more than $1 billion per year, permanently, to pay for the same failed homelessness programs that have wasted over $3 billion since 2017,” says Susan Shelley of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. “Prices are already too high, and so is the sales tax, currently above 10% in many places.”
It’s true that homelessness in LA County has increased by about 37% since Measure H went into effect. It’s also true that unlike Measure H, Measure A would be permanent and would have to be repealed by voters.
What do LA County voters make of all this?
The latest poll, from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and Los Angeles Times, found that 49% of likely voters say they would vote “yes” on Measure A and 33% say they would vote “no.”
The same poll shows many likely voters are skeptical of this spending on homelessness actually being effective. Only 33% said they thought Measure A would greatly reduce homelessness, compared with 38% who thought it wouldn’t. Meanwhile, 57% of respondents were dissatisfied with how Measure H money has been spent.
Support for Measure A has been trending slightly upwards in polls, perhaps due to campaign advertising. Six million dollars has been spent so far in support of Measure A, with United Way LA as the largest funder. There’s been no campaign spending by opponents.
