Hundreds of millions in L.A. County homelessness tax dollars are now under new management.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the county\u2019s new homeless services department took over oversight of the money.<\/p>\n
The change marks a major shift. For decades, county homeless services spending was overseen by the L.A. Homeless Services Authority, a joint city-county agency known as LAHSA.<\/p>\n
The move was set in motion in April of last year, when every county supervisor but one voted to strip county funding from the L.A. Homeless Services Authority<\/a> and have the county directly oversee it. The new county department, known as Homeless Services and Housing, or HSH, is led by Sarah Mahin. She previously oversaw the county\u2019s well-received Housing for Health homelessness program.<\/p>\n Learn the ins and outs behind L.A.’s housing crisis.<\/p>\n Sign up for Building Your Block, a seven-issue newsletter course from LAist that explains the obstacles around housing development in L.A. and what you can do to make things better.<\/p>\n The transition of funds follows a series<\/a> of harsh audits<\/a> and a judge\u2019s rebuke<\/a> of the job LAHSA officials had been doing for years at managing and tracking spending \u2014 including an inability to properly account for billions in taxpayer dollars<\/a>. LAHSA was created by the city and county in 1993 and is overseen by a commission half appointed by the L.A. city mayor and half appointed by each of the five county supervisors.<\/p>\n How to reach me<\/p>\n If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is ngerda.47.<\/p>\n In total, HSH now has a budget<\/a> of $843 million in public funds this fiscal year.<\/p>\n Here are some takeaways from a public update shared at the L.A. County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, the eve of the switchover.<\/p>\n 1) The new approach is faster and more accountable, says department\u2019s leader<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s update on the transition lasted about two hours. The back and forth was mostly positive, while getting heated on occasion.<\/p>\n \u201cThe old fragmented way of doing things wasn’t working,\u201d Mahin said on Tuesday. \u201cHSH exists to make the county’s response to homelessness clearer, faster, and more accountable to the people and the communities that we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n She said the county\u2019s response times to clear encampments with shelter and service offers to people have been shortened to an average of 45 days in the first quarter of this year.<\/p>\n That\u2019s down a lot from what it used to be, said Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who was the lone vote last year against transferring management from LAHSA.<\/p>\n That\u2019s \u201ca \u200asignificant improvement compared to the six to nine month wait times my constituents experienced back when I first took office,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cThat is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n Supervisor Janice Hahn said she\u2019d like to see response times get even faster. Mahin said they\u2019re working on it, including by clustering responses so that teams reach multiple smaller encampments in a similar area at the same time.<\/p>\n And in a contrast with LAHSA \u2014 which for years<\/a> has been long<\/a> overdue<\/a> in paying service providers \u2014 Mahin said the new county department has been paying 97% of its bills on time. As of earlier this year<\/a>, about 40% of unpaid LAHSA invoices were more than two months old.<\/p>\n \u200a”While I understand that that makes us an \u2018A\u2019 student, we aim for a hundred percent,\u201d Mahin said, adding that her team is working on process improvements to pay even more of the bills on time.<\/p>\n 2) People are staying in permanent housing at high rates, per the county<\/p>\n Of people placed in permanent housing a year ago, 91% were still housed \u2014 and of those placed two years ago, 83% remain housed, according to data Mahin presented.<\/p>\n Public dashboards are expected to be posted in October with more detailed data on how various programs are performing under HSH, she said.<\/p>\n 3) Many workers slated to be laid off by LAHSA are being hired by the county<\/p>\n Of the 210 county-funded staff at LAHSA, 184 have been hired at the county, 25 declined an offer or did not participate and one is considering a county job offer, according to a county presentation.<\/p>\n The rehires include experienced outreach workers who have established relationships working with unhoused people in the region, county officials said.<\/p>\n The outreach workers have been \u201cworking so hard, doing the kind of work that a lot of people won’t do,\u201d said Supervisor Janice Hahn. \u201cI have seen them on the weekends, I’ve seen them [in] the evenings, I’ve seen them doing incredible work as we all lean in to trying to solve this\u2026humanitarian crisis of homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n Of the 25 who weren\u2019t on track to be hired and are being laid off at LAHSA, county supervisors pressed county staff to help them find other roles within the county.<\/p>\n 4) Officials are concerned about federal funding halt<\/p>\n Mahin said she\u2019s concerned that thousands of people could lose their housing if federal authorities follow through on their suspension of homelessness dollars<\/a> to the region. More than 11,000 people are currently housed with those dollars, Mahin said.<\/p>\n “I am worried about how we’re gonna be able to keep everyone in housing who’s in housing today, as well as continue to make progress with bringing more people inside,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n 5) Supervisor says she wants the new county approach to succeed<\/p>\n Supervisor Lindsey Horvath praised Mahin for assembling a \u201cvery strong, very dedicated team\u201d and a successful transition to the funding shift.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now, you’re doing the work to change how the county operates an impactful, efficient, accountable homeless service response system,\u201d she added, saying efforts are underway to move toward \u201can outcome-focused\u201d system.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of us are behind you to make sure that we get this right and continue moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n L.A. City Council members have been considering whether to pull out city homelessness funds from LAHSA and instead have the city itself, or the county, manage those dollars.<\/p>\n