By Los Angeles County Politics
The city and county of Los Angeles have reached a truce in their fight over who controls the region’s homelessness system. The county will run it, but the city gets to decide who moves into the housing it pays for.
The Board of Supervisors votes today on whether to let the county’s Department of Homeless Services (HSH) and Housing sign two agreements with the city, based on a term sheet the City Council approved Friday.
The vote comes a day after the Los Angeles Continuum of Care’s general membership awarded the county the last two administrative roles it was seeking, oversight of the region’s homeless data system and its coordinated entry system, which matches homeless people with housing, MyNewsLA reported.
That completes the county’s takeover of all four roles once held by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), pending review by a federal judge.
The four roles control how the region applies for and spends about $240 million a year in federal homelessness money, who gets tracked in the system and who gets placed in permanent supportive housing. The city, which builds and funds much of that housing, had pushed to run the data and matching systems itself, arguing the county was placing people from other cities in beds paid for by city taxpayers.
Under the term sheet attached to the county’s board letter, the county would contract with the city to match people to all permanent supportive housing units within city limits that receive city funding, including units funded through the city’s Housing Authority. The city would keep its current access to homeless data and gain a bigger voice in how the system reports on people within city limits. The county would pay for training, technical help and reasonable system changes the city requests.
The county keeps the upper hand by monitoring the city’s matching in real time and could cancel the contract if the city is slow or breaks the system’s rules. And it will take over the data and matching roles whether or not the agreements are ever signed.
One question could shape how the deal plays out. The board letter says the city agreed it cannot give people in its own programs priority over other homeless people. But the term sheet says that within 60 days of the county taking over, the two sides will jointly recommend new policies giving eligible homeless people in the city clear priority for resources within the city.
The deal also heads off a lawsuit. On Oct. 14, the City Council met in closed session on potential litigation over the selection process, asked the City Attorney to prepare legal options and revived reports on the city forming its own Continuum of Care, according to the board letter.
The county says the agreements are meant to resolve that potential litigation, and that if the city does sue, the county would no longer need to go through with them. The term sheet does not say who will pay for the city’s matching work.
“The agreement reached with the city of Los Angeles on data sharing and housing placement priorities reflects that commitment. Today’s vote is a positive step toward a more coordinated and accountable regional response to homelessness,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger (R-Palmdale, Lancaster, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge) in a statement after Monday’s vote.
The fight began in June, when the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development suspended LAHSA from federal transactions, setting off a court-ordered search for new administrators that LACP has followed for weeks.
The LA City Council directed city officials to draft binding agreements based on the term sheet and report back within 60 days.
