Cover Story: Legislative Policy Expresses Unanimous Support of Measure A

Just one day after the Legislative Policy Committee voted to recommend the City support a half-cent sales tax to continue homeless services, new data shows that without voter-approved funding to address homelessness that’s set to expire, an estimated 4,190 more people could experience homelessness in the San Gabriel Valley.

Locally, the expiration of Measure H, not to be confused with the rent control initiative, could have devastating impacts.

The initiative was passed by 69.34% of Los Angeles County voters in March 2017 and has been a vital resource in building up the region’s housing and services system to more effectively respond to the homelessness crisis and the extreme shortage of affordable housing in Los Angeles County.

However, that legislation is set to sunset in 2027.

The result would be a 28% rise in unsheltered homelessness across Los Angeles County.

Currently, there are 3,838 homeless people in the San Gabriel Valley, according to the most recent homeless count.

If Measure H sunsets without a replacement, an additional 1,082 people could become homeless, driving the number to 4,920.

“The residents in the over 200 units of permanent supportive housing in Pasadena would not receive services at the current level if Measure H is allowed to expire without a replacement funding source,” said Pasadena Housing Director Bill Huang.

“Residents who have experienced chronic homelessness need supportive services in order to remain housed. In Pasadena, Measure H pays for those services. Prior to Measure H, the provision of intensive case management services was greatly constrained by the lack of steady funding, at best a much lighter levels of services was provided which is not sufficient to enable those who need intensive services to remain housed.”

The Data

According to the latest data, the impacts of Measure H have led to 20,529 individuals receiving intensive case management services. Also, 3,152 individuals were newly housed in permanent supportive housing and received intensive case management services.

In total, 92% of permanent supportive housing participants retained their housing for one year, and 85% of permanent supportive housing participants retained their housing for two years. Also, 32 Homekey properties were purchased, bringing 2,055 interim and permanent housing units online.

“People aren’t broken, systems are broken—and we must do all we can to prevent more of our neighbors from being forced to sleep outside,” says Shawn Morrissey, Vice President of Advocacy & Community Engagement for Pasadena’s Union Station Homeless Services, the largest provider of services that end homelessness in the San Gabriel Valley.

Local Action

On Tuesday, the Legislative Policy Committee voted to recommend the City support Measure A, a half-cent sales tax that would replace the quarter-cent sales tax in Measure H. Measure A has no sunset date.

“We’ve had a lot of difficult negotiations with the County to make sure the money could be used in the best way, but it’s been important,” Huang said. “Particularly the dollars that don’t even come directly to us, but go to the affordable housing projects that pay for the services. That’s been really, really critical and we would like to see that a funding source be able to support that and continue that into the future.”

Others said Measure A does not just continue Measure H.

“I think what’s most exciting about this, it’s not just continuing measure H, it’s building on it and especially addressing that housing piece of it which Measure H didn’t and which is so vital to addressing homelessness and housing insecurity, et cetera,” said Councilmember Jess Rivas. “So I think it’s important for our city to continue to funding and to continue to build upon the great work we’re doing here on affordable housing and to draw more funding towards that.”

Vice Mayor Steve Madison and Councilmember Jason Lyon expressed mixed feelings but expressed support for Measure A.

“We dump a lot of money into this problem and treat it like a top down problem and it’s not clear that the investment we make is showing returns and yet there’s no way to do this work without money,” Lyon said. “So I think in the city we’re doing extraordinary on the groundwork, working with people who are experiencing homelessness and getting them to services.

“We’re doing an extraordinary job of housing people and it takes money to do that and more money than we have right now. And we have an ambitious goal of trying to get to functional zero homelessness in 10 years. I know we’re trying to cut it in half in five, so I also support it. I hope we continue to advocate for our fair share from the County and for transparency from the County about where the other funds are going. But I know for our part we have done an extraordinary job with what we’ve gotten from Measure H.”

Madison said the City should have a clear dashboard to explain how the funds are spent across the region.

“We do have a light rail which brings unhoused to us,” Madison said. “We have the best housing and homeless director in the country. I mean there are a lot of reasons why we should at least be holding our own, but I don’t have visibility as my colleagues indicated into where the rest of the money’s going.

“So you go to the voters and say, we want to double this tax, we’ve been charging you, but we don’t have a clear accounting of how we’ve been doing with the funds so far.”

Madison said nothing is more top of mind for the City Council than homelessness, the unhoused, the lack of affordable housing, and the need to remedy those issues.

The Committee will seek guidance from City staff regarding a special meeting or other action to confirm the City’s endorsement.

The election will be held in just about a month, on November 5.