Cuts for homeless services

L.A. County will slash $200 million from programs

- ANDREW KHOURI

DAVID BUTOW For The Times CUTS will affect homeless outreach. In North Hollywood, task force members assist George Ortega, left.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved sweeping cuts to an array of homeless services, a move some advocates said will push more people onto the streets.

Though county voters in 2024 approved a sales tax increase to combat the homelessness crisis, county officials said they faced a more than $270-million budget shortfall in trying to maintain current homeless service operations.

That’s because the cost to run the entire system is rising, while some state and federal funds that previously paid for certain programs are going away, according to the newly created Los Angeles County Department of Homeless Services and Housing.

“We are having to make extremely difficult decisions ... given our fiscal realities,” Sarah Mahin, the department’s director, told supervisors before the vote Tuesday.

Mahin described the new spending plan as one that tries to preserve as much interim and permanent housing as possible.

Instead, $27 million will be cut from outreach and navigation programs that help homeless individuals get into housing.

Other cuts are coming to some forms of rental assistance, as well as a program that funds the acquisition of apartment buildings to house homeless people.

Pathway Home, the county program that cleans up encampments and moves people into motels and shelters, will see a $92-million cut in funding, according to the county homeless department.

Rachel Kassenbrock, a spokeswoman for the department, said the number of new encampment cleanups in which people are moved into motels will drop from 30 to 10 next fiscal year. Any additional cleanups are “to be determined” and must rely on other forms of interim housing, such as congregate shelters.