Measure HHH: Angelenos OK $1.2 billion bond to tackle homelessness

Los Angeles voters overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday a $1.2 billion bond measure to pay for sorely needed housing for the city’s thousands of homeless residents. Measure HHH passed with more than 76 percent of the vote—well above the two-thirds required margin.

Local officials, nonprofits, and even business leaders have all been quick to praise the passage of the measure amid the city’s growing homelessness crisis.

“Today we can look at the most urgent moral crisis facing our city and say that help is on the way,” said United Way of Greater Los Angeles President and CEO Elise Bulk in a press release.

The bond, which will be paid for by property taxes at an average cost of about $33 per year, will help finance the construction of 10,000 units of affordable permanent-supportive housing over the next ten years. City leaders are also hopeful that the bond will serve as leverage to help bring in even more financial assistance through state and federal grants—though many may today be wondering how the results of the national election might affect the amount of federal dollars that can be expected.

The bond is an important first step in addressing homelessness in a city where more than 25,000 residents lack housing. But Mayor Eric Garcetti noted it won’t be enough on its own to eradicate the problem entirely.

“We understand that homelessness in L.A. will not be solved overnight,” he said. “But by passing Proposition HHH, the people of this city put us on a real path to getting thousands of our most vulnerable residents off the streets and into housing for good.”

One immediate obstacle for the effectiveness of the bond is time. With the slow speed of development in Los Angeles, it will likely be years before the bulk of housing projects that it funds are complete.

Fortunately, the bond could also be used to finance temporary shelters, portable showers, and storage facilities in the short term. But Nicki Carlsen, a land use attorney with Alston & Bird, tells Curbed she hopes the city pursues all options to help accelerate new affordable housing projects.

“They need to establish the citizens oversight committee immediately,” she says. “They need to try and streamline environmental review, if that’s possible. They need to figure out a streamlined process to address community concerns—because, as you may know, one of the most significant obstacles to many of these projects is that communities are concerned about having any sort of facilities in their neighborhoods.”

Indeed, two proposed storage facilities for homeless residents—one in Venice and one in San Pedro—have recently come under heavy fire from local residents. Carlsen suggests the city must find a way to ensure that sites are fairly allocated among all districts to alleviate resident concerns that their areas are being disproportionately affected.

Still, with such an overwhelming victory for the ballot measure, it seems many Angelenos are at the very least willing to help pay for new housing. Now it only remains to be seen how residents will respond when it’s built in their part of town.

• Ballot Measure HHH [Curbed LA]
• Victories for public transit and parks, and other election results for LA ballot measures [Curbed LA]
• Homelessness in LA Seems More Common Because It Is [Curbed LA]