Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Apparently all of the other taxes to help the homeless didn't work so it's time for another.



...Called Measure H, the proposed quarter-cent sales tax will be on the March 7 ballot for Los Angeles County voters. The goal is to raise an estimated $355  million a year for 10 years to help homeless people transition into planned affordable housing, officials said.

...In November, Los Angeles city voters passed Proposition HHH, a property tax bond measure that is supposed to raise $1.2 billion to build 10,000 affordable-housing units for the homeless. But the money only funds the bricks and mortar. Garcetti and others said the affordable-housing complexes they plan to build also need “wrap-around services” to help formerly homeless people adapt to living off the streets and, if needed, to treat addictions. That’s where Measure H comes in, Garcetti said.

“From Pomona to Palisades, from Palmdale to (San) Pedro, we have too many unhoused Angelenos,” Garcetti said. “It is unacceptable in Los Angeles. It is unforgivable if we do nothing about it.”

An estimated 47,000 people are considered homeless in Los Angeles County on any given night...

“The voters seem to like taxes,” said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. “If there’s a downside we’ve already pushed the middle class out of the Los Angeles area and one of the reasons is high taxes. People should realize these taxes are long-term and taxes run up the costs of everything.”