LA County homeless services could be gutted, after Measure A revenue less than expected
Homeless services providers with the Greater LA Coalition on Homelessness are expected to urge the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at its meeting today, Nov. 25, 2025, to find ways to cushion the blow for homeless services that are on the chopping block next year.
LA County officials said last week they needed more than $800 million to keep homeless services going at the current level, but they’re short on the funds by more than $200 million.
County officials say this is because the voter-approved Measure A – which funds housing and homeless services – has generated less sales tax revenue than expected, as Angelenos spend less on consumer goods. There is also less state funding coming in, and the cost of maintaining a “bed” at a shelter has gone up as well.
The budget proposal county officials rolled out last week aims to shrink homelessness spending out of Measure A funds to around $600 million next year. They called for slashing funding for dozens of programs, many of them aimed at preventing homelessness and providing wraparound services and support that help people stay in the housing and shelters they’re placed into. While the budget calls for more funding for interim housing, fewer shelter beds will also be available under this spending plan due to the increased costs of the beds.
Jerry Jones, executive director of the Greater LA Coalition on Homelessness, estimates that a quarter of services would be cut in “one fell swoop,” under the spending plan.
“A year ago, voters overwhelmingly thought they were increasing funding for homelessness” when they approved Measure A,” Jones said. “And now LA County is considering doing the exact opposite.”
The providers who plan to speak at today’s board meeting are on the “front-lines” of efforts to tackle homelessness, and the proposed cuts will make their efforts much less effective, Jones said. They’re hoping that instead of choosing to concentrate all of the cuts around homelessness services, the Board of Supervisors opts to spread the cuts – which could be around $216 million – across the county’s 26 departments.
Further details can be found in this LA County report showing the plan to eliminate 33 programs, including those aimed at coordinating services, preventing homelessness, connecting people to services through outreach, housing people and helping them advocate for social and mental health benefits, and getting people connected to services once they are in shelter or housing. The elimination of these programs would reduce county spending by $70 million, while another $46.1 million in cuts would result from reducing the budgets of 10 programs.
County officials have been warning of big cuts for several months now. The latest projection and spending plan comes after county officials found a way to shrink the shortfall from $303 million. Last month, the coalition had sent a letter to the Board of Supervisors when the amount county officials anticipated cutting by that bigger amount.
LA County supervisors assure LAHSA workers they’re being prioritized for county jobs
Last week, the Board of Supervisors approved a motion that calls for the County CEO’s office to look into using a charter provision that would ensure that hundreds of Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority workers have a clearer path for getting transferred to a job at the county. While county officials said they were not yet sure how many jobs would be available at the new Los Angeles County Department of Homeless Services and Housing, they were looking to try to match workers to comparable positions in other departments at the county.
LAHSA workers last week told The LA Reporter there was widespread alarm among their ranks about the lack of details about how they would be hired at the county. LA County officials went into more detail about what their plans were at last Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. LA County officials said this meeting that they needed to first set up the department through an ordinance approved by the Board of Supervisors, before they could determine how many people they could hire from LAHSA. If approved, the department would officially begin operating on Jan 1, 2026.
One worker, Liz Palomino, published an op-ed in Golden State, titled “I work in L.A. homeless services. Is the county about to put me on the street?”
LA city budget proposals due last Friday; panel tackling LA’s budget woes kicked off on Monday.
LA city departments were supposed to have gotten their budget proposals to the mayor’s office by last Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. This year, department heads were asked to do a 5% budget reduction exercise as part of their proposals. The mayor is expected to use the proposals to come up with her own spending proposal, which she needs to unveil next April.
LA city has been facing a fiscal crisis — with leaders needing to find ways earlier this year to close a $1 billion budget deficit. So in advance of deliberation on next year’s budget, the LA city council has invited a panel of financial experts to help assist them with coming up with ideas for fixing the city’s budget woes. That five-person panel, called the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee (BFAC for short), was formed through a motion by budget committee chair Katy Yaroslavsky. The panel is made up of Ron Galperin, the former LA city controller; Jessica Lall, managing director at real estate company CBRE; Gilda Haas, who co-founded LA Co-Op, which helps people set up worker co-ops; Derric J. Johnson, a vice president at United Way of Greater Los Angeles; an Joseph Lumarda, a private wealth adviser and senior vice president at Capital Group Private Client Services. They met for the first time on Nov. 24, 2025. Their next meeting is on Jan. 12, 2026. Subscribing to their agendas here. The motion states that they will meet at least every quarter, and for no longer than 18 months.
According to the motion, the panel is tasked with recommending ways for “residents” to participate in the budgeting process — such as through a community or citizen assembly — and to prepare recommendations for the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee ”on topics including but not limited to maximizing the city's property and assets, novel revenue generation, efficient and transparent delivery of public services, liability reduction, debt utilization, public-private partnerships, reforms to the City Charter and codes required to effectuate the recommendations, and engaging the community in setting long-term budget priorities.”
LA Controller holding a budget town-hall tonight: Controller Kenneth Mejia is bringing back his popular town-hall on the city budget tonight, in which he gives people a deep dive into how the budget works, answers questions, and provides a tour of tools on the controller’s website for people to explore LA city budgeting and spending. Sign up for it here.
SAJE report proposes rent hike exemptions: A new report from Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) recommends that LA city and county adopt programs that exempt elderly and disabled tenants on fixed incomes from rent hikes. Funding from ULA, Measure A, and state funds would be used to make up for landlords losing earnings from not increasing the rent on those tenants. The report cites similar policies adopted in New York.
“Overpaid CEO” ballot measure: A couple of very similar ballot initiatives got filed in the last month and a half that call for taxing companies that have CEOs with salaries that are many times higher than those of their employees. The proposals give a range of taxes depending on how many times greater the CEOs salaries are. The tax itself is based on multiples of the business tax amounts they typically owe. The tax revenue would then be placed into accounts used for sidewalk repair, housing, after-school programs, and fresh food access programs. Read the latest one, filed last week, here. Read the earlier proposal, from Oct. 14, here.
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