2023-2024
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President
Beatriz (Bea) Dieringer
Rolling Hills
Vice President
Ariel Pe
Lakewood
Secretary/Treasurer
Michael Cao
Arcadia
State League Director
James R. Bozajian
Calabasas
Immediate Past President
Andrew Chou
Diamond Bar
1400 K Street, Suite 400, Sacramento, CA 95814 • 916.658.8200 • calcities.org October 27, 2023
Tommy Newman
Vice President, Public Affairs
United Way of Greater Los Angeles
1150 S. Olive Street, Suite T500
Los Angeles, CA 90015
RE: Proposed Revenue Measure - Local Solution Fund Allocations Dear Mr. Newman:
The Los Angeles County Division of the League of California Cities (Division), representing 86 cities in the county, appreciates the efforts of United Way of Greater Los Angeles to create new ongoing local funding to address the homelessness and affordable housing crises within Los Angeles County.
The Division supports ongoing city funding for effective solutions to reduce homelessness within our cities, which continues to grow annually, despite the current Measure H funding measure.
Our local residents exceedingly generate more income for Measure H than they receive in homelessness funds from this Measure. For example, Culver City has generated over $18 million in Measure H dollars since 2017.
However, from 2017 through 2022, Culver City only received approximately $596,000 in return from Measure H. This deficiency required the city to spend millions of its own General Fund dollars for needed homelessness programs and services. Similarly, the City of Whittier only received $50,000 in Measure H Funds in 2018 to create its homeless action plan but had to spend over $9 million in the city’s General Funds for its temporary and permanent comprehensive homeless navigation center and outreach.
Given these massive city investments, our Division Board is deeply concerned about a recent draft proposal for a revised Measure H that fails to provide fair, adequate and sustainable homelessness funding for all cities throughout the county. Cities have already suffered from the inequitable local return provided by the current measure H; the exorbitant costs of cities’ supplemental homelessness funding are not financially sustainable for our cities.
We recognize the urgency to secure a long-term funding source for this shared crisis, however, we encourage United Way and all other stakeholders to reach out to our cities as partners to help create effective, long-term solutions to this crisis. Through our collective, collaborative efforts, we can navigate around potential obstacles that would otherwise threaten the success of our shared goal in addressing homelessness within all of our communities within Los Angeles County.
Sincerely,
Beatriz (Bea) Dieringer
President, Los Angeles County Division, League of California Cities cc: Lindsey Horvath, Supervisor, Third District