L.A. County to consider putting parcel tax for homeless initiatives on November ballot

A Los Angeles County supervisor Friday proposed a parcel tax to pay for efforts to reduce homelessness, two days after Los Angeles city officials voted to place a bond measure on the November ballot to build more housing for the homeless.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas proposed placing a 3-cent-per-square foot parcel tax for homeless services on the November ballot. If approved, the tax hike would raise about $185 million a year for programs including mental health services, rental subsidies and short-term housing for the homeless.

The city initiative, a $1.2-billion bond measure, would also hike property taxes. The average yearly increase was estimated to be $44.31 per year for a home assessed at $327,900. But the bond money could only be used to build housing, not to provide supportive services.

Likewise, a statewide bond initiative that would leverage existing mental health services funding to issue a $2 billion bond to build housing for mentally ill homeless people statewide could pay for construction, but not to provide services.

Ridley-Thomas said he sees a potential county measure as complementary to those initiatives.

“Housing without services ultimately doesn’t get the job done,” he said. “We do not want to feign interest in working on homelessness and advance an anemic solution.”

The number of people sleeping on the streets and in shelters in Los Angeles County has risen over the past few years and now stands at nearly 47,000. County officials approved an ambitious plan to reduce homelessness in February and put $100 million in this year’s budget to pay for it. But county analysts say $450 million a year would be needed to make a significant dent in the problem.

The supervisors are also set to consider placing another parcel tax on the ballot Tuesday, this one for parks projects.

Both initiatives, if placed on the ballot, would require a two-thirds majority in order to pass.

Multiple polls commissioned by the city, county and other agencies in recent months have found that voters consider homelessness one of the most serious issues facing the region.

But a pair of recent polls measuring support for the potential parks and homelessness parcel tax measures gave conflicting results. One showed the parks measure gaining just enough support to pass after voters were given positive and negative talking points, while the homeless proposal got 61% support. The second showed the homeless measure garnering easily enough support to pass, while the parks measure fell short.

The supervisors will decide Tuesday whether to have the homeless measure drafted, but would have to vote again to put it on the ballot. The parks measure has already been drafted, and supervisors could vote Tuesday to place it on the ballot.

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