The Greater LA Coalition on Homelessness is working to expand homeless services and immediate assistance for people in need, while also addressing the root causes of homelessness. Our advocacy agenda has three main goals:

1) Negotiate systemwide improvements for nonprofit contracting in homeless services, especially full-cost reimbursement and timely payments from LAHSA, LA County’s Homeless Initiative, and the City of Los Angeles. The nonprofit sector is under tremendous financial strain and administrative overload as contracts remain flat despite rising costs. Many employees are on the brink of homelessness themselves because contracts fail to cover adequate salaries and private fundraising hasn’t been enough to fill the gap.

2) Engage public officials in governmental decisions about homeless programs and strategies, with greater involvement by homeless providers in policy decisions before these policies are finalized. Homeless nonprofits have valuable insights and practical expertise about how programs operate. Engaging the organizations that are closest to the work and directly serving people who are homeless can help inform better policies.

3) Mobilize with allies to win new resources to expand the stock of affordable housing, subsidize rents for low-income households, and prevent evictions. The Greater LA Coalition supports the LA Housing Solutions Ballot Measure (likely to be called “Measure A” upon certification) as a major step forward to stabilize the region’s rental market and reduce the flow of people into homelessness. Our members are collecting signatures now and will be educating voters about this proposal throughout the year.