Hahn Issues Statement on Vote for County Homeless Department

Los Angeles, CA – Today Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn issued the following statement regarding her decision to vote to pull county funding from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and establish a new county department in charge of homeless services:

“We need to treat homelessness like the crisis it is—but problems with LAHSA (like contract delays & unaccounted funds) have been roadblocks.  It’s time to make a change. That is why I am voting to redirect County funding from LAHSA and create a County Homeless Services Department.

We owe the people suffering on our streets and taxpayers alike a guarantee that tax dollars are spent as effectively as possible to bring people inside – and we can’t say that right now. Multiple audits have found problems at LAHSA that have undermined confidence in the agency.

By centralizing homeless services, the County can take responsibility and ownership of the response to this crisis.  That doesn’t mean abandoning the City of LA. They are ground zero in this emergency, and we need to be their partners in this work.

I proposed creating the Office of Unincorporated Services as a stand-alone division of the new County Homeless Department.  This new office will coordinate homeless services, outreach, and operations for the 1 million residents of Unincorporated LA County.

This will not be an easy process. But as we move forward with this new department, I know we are going to continue to work together to make sure this is a success.  Because at the end of the day what really matters is making sure that we are helping those in need.”