Long Beach gets first chunk of Measure A funds for homelessness prevention

Nearly one year after voters approved sales tax Measure A, Long Beach received its first chunk of funding towards homelessness prevention Tuesday night. 

Almost $24 million, distributed by Los Angeles County, will help Long Beach fund its right to counsel program, provide rental assistance, approve affordable housing production and continue to run its homeless shelters. 

The County previously relied on Measure H funds for its homelessness services: a voter-approved 25-cent sales tax approved in 2017 that was set to end in 2027. In November 2024, voters chose to double this sales tax in an attempt to further combat the regional homelessness crisis. 

Long Beach’s most recent Point in Time Count revealed a 6.5% increase in people experiencing homelessness in the city. More than half of the people interviewed said they became homeless due to eviction, financial hardship or unemployment. 

“We know that homelessness and the housing crisis are regional challenges. No city alone can solve the challenge,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “Regional challenges need regional solutions.”

Local organizations like LiBRE (Long Beach Residents Empowered) and the Community Land Trust have been waiting on these increased funds to purchase land for affordable housing and to provide right to counsel and settlement assistance in order to prevent evictions. 

Now that Long Beach has accepted the $24 million in grant funds, City departments will begin allocating it to organizations and programs, most of which has already been spoken for in the 2026 budget. 

Unlike Measure H, the sales tax imposed through Measure A has no end date, so Los Angeles County and cities like Long Beach will continue receiving these funds indefinitely. Since this is the first year of allocation, City staff said they expect changes over the next few years to regulations regarding the division of the county-wide revenue. 

The $24 million from Measure A went into three different pots: 

• $10.7 million for homelessness prevention and affordable housing production
• Roughly $8 million for Long Beach’s Continuum of Care services 
• Nearly $5 million for the City’s “Local Solutions Fund”

Homelessness Prevention and Affordable Housing – $10.7 Million 

This portion of Measure A funds is distributed by the recently-established Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA). LACAHSA was created in 2022 as a regional housing financing body with the goal to boost housing production across the county and provide technical assistance for renter protections and affordable housing preservation. 

LACAHSA receives roughly one third of all Measure A revenue, and has to send 70% of those funds out to eligible cities. Mayor Richardson is chair of the agency. 

In June, LACAHSA approved its annual budget, laying out allocations for three different uses: 

• Production, Preservation and Ownership (PPO) – This includes new construction and “flexible construction” of affordable housing
• Renter protections and homelessness prevention (RPHP)
• Technical assistance (TA)

This plan includes the $10.7 million going to Long Beach, as well as another $232,326 specifically towards renter protections and homelessness prevention. Money from LACAHSA can be used for affordable housing production, tenant right to counsel, rental assistance, youth financial support, shallow subsidies and the Long Beach Housing Promise. 

“This really is going to be one of the biggest moves we have into housing and helping to keep people housed,” said City Manager Tom Modica.  

Following the three uses LACAHSA laid out, Long Beach’s chunk of funding can be broken down as follows: 

• Production, Preservation and Ownership for new construction: $4 million 
• Production, Preservation and Ownership for flexible construction: $1.2 million 
• Renter protections and homelessness prevention: $4.6 million (plus the grant match of $232,236)
• Technical assistance: $774,420

Production, Preservation and Ownership Funds

With the $5.2 towards PPO, Long Beach will provide loans to affordable housing developers to create new affordable housing units. According to staff reports, the City anticipates 60 new units from these funds. 

Another part of the motion was to designate the Long Beach Community Investment Company (LBCIC) as the loan committee of the PPO funds. This agency falls under the Community Development Department and handles all of the City’s housing development loans with private contractors. 

Renter Protections and Homelessness Prevention Funds

Most of these funds will go towards eviction defense measures, mainly the right to counsel program and shallow subsidies. The right to counsel program helps renters who are facing eviction to either pay their owed rent to stay in their home or pay for legal defense fees if they’re forced to fight their eviction in court. Shallow rental subsidies is a regular payment given to a resident to help them afford their rent, preventing the eviction process altogether. 

With the right to counsel and shallow subsidies, the City estimates that over 700 households will be helped, according to staff reports. These funds were intentionally made to be “flexible,” so Long Beach could allocate funds where it sees the highest need. Right now that need is eviction defense, multiple councilmembers said during the meeting. 

“We can talk about the number of people we help get housed every year, but we need to talk more importantly about the number of people we need to help stay housed every year,” said Councilmember Megan Kerr. 

Long Beach is receiving $4.88 million towards renter protection funds, which will be broken down as follows: 

• $1.23 million for right to counsel 
• $1.38 million for shallow subsidies
• $840,000 for homelessness prevention 
• $526,000 for referrals
• $478,800 for rental assistance
• $420,000 for youth flexible financial support

Technical Assistance 

These funds are meant to support the coordination between City departments, County agencies, nonprofits and residents. Most of this money ($424,420) will go toward implementing the renter protection programs while the remainder ($350,000) will go towards helping implement PPO programs. 

Continuum of Care – $8.2 Million 

This portion of Measure A is being distributed by the Los Angeles Chief Executive Office, which receives 60% of the sales tax revenue. This money has to go towards “comprehensive homelessness services and local solutions.” In Long Beach, this falls under the City’s Continuum of Care services, or wrap-around services ranging from harm reduction and outreach to permanent housing placement and rental assistance. 

The $8.2 million for comprehensive homelessness services will be used for the following: 

• $406,445 – Continuum of Care planning 
• $879,686 – Homelessness prevention in the form of rental assistance 
• $597,156 – Services at the Multi-Service Center
• $975,939 – Outreach efforts to reach people experiencing homelessness
• $406,159 – City’s navigation team, which helps people move into housing
• $3.23 million – Towards running five of the city’s shelters, consisting of 442 beds, as well as the inclement weather shelter and motel vouchers
• $1.09 million – Providing 25 people with rapid, permanent rehousing services
• $380,335 – Housing acquisition through working with landlords and property owners to accept subleases and housing vouchers
• $232,211 – To run the system which tracks available services, outcomes of people assisted and program effectiveness

Local Solution Fund – $4.86 million 

Los Angeles County anticipates $96 million to be used towards “Local Solution Funds” across the region. This money comes out of the “comprehensive services” bucket from the previous section. Measure A states that 15% of the comprehensive services fund has to go specifically to “Local Solutions.” 

Local solutions can mean homelessness prevention efforts, homelessness services and affordable housing programs, so it essentially includes anything mentioned in the previous categories. Funds are given to cities based on the identified homeless population in the most recent Point in Time Count. Using these numbers, Long Beach received $4.86 million for local solutions for the period of one year. 

Local solution funds will be broken down as follows: 

• $918,755 – Outreach efforts to reach those experiencing homelessness
• $687,555 – Maintenance needs for five City-owned interim housing facilities, which consists of 442 beds. This includes utility costs, security, hygiene and sanitation services and property management expenses. 
• $532,955 – Housing navigation services to help people apply for permanent housing, then assist those people with rent, furniture and moving costs
• $1.5 million – Rental subsidies to help people move into permanent housing
• $323,704 – Helping youth to secure and maintain housing through rental subsidies and case management services
• $516,447 – Community Crisis Response team, which responds to non-emergency, non-violent calls of mental health crises where services are needed
• $385,995 – Behavioral health outreach through two employees focusing on harm reduction 

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