Garcetti Unveils $8.75 Billion Budget, Sets Aside $138 Million To Address Homelessness
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Mayor Eric Garcetti Wednesday unveiled an $8.75 billion spending plan for the 2016-2017 fiscal year, setting aside about $138 million to address homelessness.
The plan is 2 percent, or $175 million, bigger than the current year's budget, with about $5.6 billion coming from the general fund. The budget also sets aside $322 million for the reserve fund.
The budget contains more funding for homeless programs than in previous years and responds to a call by city leaders last year to dedicate more city funds to address the tens of thousands of people living on the streets of Los Angeles.
Nearly half of the money being proposed for homelessness -- about $64.7 million -- would come from the general fund, plus $6.4 million from special accounts, under Garcetti's plan.
Much of this funding would go directly to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the primary provider of housing and services for the homeless in the county.
Some funds would pay for "smart teams" in the Los Angeles Police Department that are trained in dealing with people with mental illness, and for "hope teams" that will be deployed to remove encampments and refer homeless individuals to services.
City officials said this chunk of the homeless funding comes from "one-time" money, and an ongoing source would be necessary. Garcetti proposed in his state of the city last week asking voters for more funding.
Garcetti is proposing to come up with the rest of the $138 million for homelessness by charging development fees on projects -- which would generate $20 million -- and by selling off or converting into affordable housing about $47 million worth of city-owned property.
The remaining funding would go into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which could then be used to build housing for the homeless, though not necessarily by the upcoming year.
Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission in downtown L.A., said he was encouraged to see the mayor's prioritizing the city's homelessness epidemic in the budget.
"We're thrilled about the prioritization the mayor is making on the issue of homelessness," he said. "It is absolutely an epidemic right now."
Bales said the time is past due to allocate a large sum of money to the problem.
"I know it makes us feel great that we're talking about a plan, or proposing a budget," he said. "But that doesn't help the people dying on the street tonight."
The spending plan also includes $8.2 million for street cleaning, $14.8 million to maintain the police force at 10,000 officers and $17.3 million to hire and train an additional 230 officers.
The proposal also calls for expanding the civilian city workforce by 500 people, part of a larger agreement with city employee unions to hire 5,000 new people over the next three years.
The new positions would be created in the Bureau of Sanitation, Los Angeles Police Department, Building and Safety and General Services departments.
The release of Garcetti's spending plan starts a budget hearing process, with the City Council expected to review its details and make recommendations over the next few weeks.
A vote is expected by June 1.
KCAL9's Rachel Kim reported from downtown Los Angeles Wednesday -- an area of the city reaping the benefits of a major economic revitalization.
real estate website Realtor.com confirms that Downtown is on fire! They released a report this week of "America's Top Boom Towns." And the downtown LA area ranked 2nd in the country. They looked at projected job growth, household income and new home construction.
"What's happening in LA defies the growth curve, it's amazing," said resident Nick Greenko.
He and other residents Kim spoke to love how the area is growing and being revitalized but they are also glad the mayor isn't leaving the homeless out of the equation.
"I feel like everyone just ignores it, everyone is just like this is downtown there's homeless people everywhere. But I think it's something that does need to be addressed and they do need to be helped," said resident Lindsey Hughes.
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