Posted on 06/25/2024 3:30:33 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to let voters decide on a potential sales tax hike to fund affordable housing and homeless services.
According to the Affordable Housing, Homelessness Solutions & Prevention Now initiative put forward by the Our Future Los Angeles Coalition, the proposed tax increase would fund a “comprehensive homelessness response program” and invest in new strategies to address encampments and create affordable housing.
Supporters of the initiative, who submitted more than 400,000 signatures to the county Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk last month, held a rally Tuesday before the Board’s vote.
“We can no longer turn a blind eye to what we see on the streets,” one demonstrator told KTLA 5’s Kimberly Cheng. “[The initiative] will…make housing more affordable and it will create a pathway out of poverty for those who are unhoused.”
Officials who brought the plan forward cited low housing production as the main reason the homeless problem has gotten so bad across the county, so it is one of the program’s main target areas, according to the plan outlined by the Our Future L.A. County Coalition.
“We do not have a dedicated countywide revenue stream for affordable housing production and preservation or technical assistance to small cities to update their land use and housing policies,” the coalition’s presentation stated. “Less housing is being built now than at any point in the last 80 years…and we are losing the affordable housing we have [as] between 2009 and 2019, Los Angeles lost nearly 200,000 units that rent for less than $1,000 a month in the L.A. metro area.”
Opponents of the measure say that there is “no real accountability and data” to show that spending billions on homeless prevention has worked.
THE NEW high rise with 278 units for HOMELESS costs almost $600,000 a unit.
I bought 3 properties in past 58 years:
1. $25,250-—in Los Angeles—3/2 city lot
2. $105,000-—N Calif log house on 5 acres
3. $140,000-——Over 5 acres & NEW house
TOTAL== $270,250
PS-—I NEVER TRASHED ANY OF SUCH PROPERTIES
WE WERE ALWAYS TAUGHT:
DO NOT FEED FERAL CATS-—
ALL YOU GET IS MORE FERAL CATS.
Is anyone going to vote for this? Seems like it will be defeated like 4-1.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.