Sales tax in Los Angeles County increased a quarter-cent Tuesday as Measure A, which voters approved in November to address homelessness, went into effect.
Measure A’s half-cent sales tax is to maintain existing programs and add revenue for additional efforts to ease the homelessness crisis. It replaced a quarter-cent sales tax that county voters OK’d in 2017 under Measure H, which had a 10-year limit.
Measure A, called Affordable Housing, Homelessness Solutions and Prevention Now, will remain in perpetuity unless voters repeal it via another ballot initiative.
According to the measure, about 60% of the sales tax’s revenue will pay for homelessness services — 15% of that will be distributed to cities based on data from annual point-in-time counts that gauge the number of a community’s residents experiencing homelessness. Another 35.75% will fund the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency that the state Legislature established in 2023 to oversee efforts to reduce homelessness.
The measure also mandates that 3% of the sales tax revenue go to the LA County Development Authority for “local housing production.”
Measure A requires regular oversight and reporting on work to achieve these goals:
- increase the number of people transitioning from encampments on the streets into permanent housing;
- reduce the number of people with mental illness or substance use disorders who are experiencing homelessness;
- increase the number of people permanently leaving homelessness;
- prevent people falling into homelessness; and
- increase the county’s number of affordable housing units.
These are the metrics Measure A prescribes for achieving those goals:
- “creating a standardization of basic services to bring people inside and ensure that people have access to social services, medical care, and behavioral/mental health care;
- “establishing a homeless-service-delivery system more accessible to all communities;
- “meeting regional housing needs for Lower Income Households;
- “using an equity lens, reducing racial disparities and the disproportionate impact of homelessness and housing insecurity for critical populations …; and
- “increasing accountability and transparency as to the use of public funds.”
To track progress, the measure requires county supervisors and related agencies to reevaluate and establish goals every five years.
Last week, the Board of Supervisors approved a $908 million homeless funding plan, which distributed $656 million from Measure A, $209 million in unspent Measure H funding and $42.6 million from state grants.
The board was expected to vote Tuesday on a proposal to give the county direct control over money it sends to the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority, a city-county joint agency.
The LA City Council similarly commissioned a study on bypassing LAHSA to manage contracts directly with homeless service providers.
The Board of Supervisors and City Council both have acted to reduce LAHSA’s control over funding after critical reports alleged LAHSA personnel misused or mismanaged funds, in addition to other concerns.
LAHSA was created in 1993 to address homelessness in the county and is the lead entity that coordinates and manages federal, state, county and city funding that covers shelter, housing and supportive services within the LA Continuum of Care, which encompasses all cities in the region except for Long Beach, Pasadena and Glendale.
LAHSA officials have disputed some of the audits’ findings and urged city and county officials to maintain the partnership. Efforts to bolster transparency have started at LAHSA with the creation of accessible databases that more effectively track available shelter beds and service outcomes.
Preliminary data from LAHSA’s 2025 point-in-time count showed a 5% to 10% drop in the region’s unsheltered homelessness, marking the second consecutive year of a decline.
Last year showed a 5.1% and 10.7% decrease in unsheltered homelessness in Los Angeles County and city, respectively. The final results of this year’s count are expected in late spring or early summer.
“When I first came to LAHSA, I publicly stated that we wanted to reduce unsheltered homelessness within three years,” LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum said in a March statement. “We’ve done it in two.”
The full text of Measure A is available on the county’s website.
