A look at the 2024 LAHSA State and Federal Legislative Agenda

LAHSA’s Legislative Affairs and Policy Unit is responsible for researching and advocating on state and federal legislation that supports our homeless rehousing system, seeking opportunities to engage in policy development, and providing public resources for further advocacy.

In January, the team presented the agency’s 2024 State and Federal Legislative Agenda to the LAHSA Commission, which voted to adopt the agenda. The agenda was developed through feedback from LAHSA staff, LAHSA’s Lived Experience Advisory Board (LEAB), and the Homeless Youth Forum of Los Angeles (HYFLA). Here’s a rundown of what policy positions LAHSA will take in 2024.

In general, at both the state and federal level, LAHSA supports increasing flexible funding, lowering barriers to accessing housing, easing access to services and public benefits, increasing resources for vulnerable populations experiencing homelessness, advocating for best practice requirements in funding sources and current or future programs, increasing affordable and supportive housing, doing workforce development for the homeless services sector and people experiencing homelessness or transitioning out of homelessness, and increasing efforts to prevent people from falling into homelessness.

Many of these priorities are shared by the City and County of Los Angeles and many in the service provider community. LAHSA looks forward to working alongside these partners to achieve our common goals.

Key Legislative Priorities, state and federal:

· Increasing affordable and permanent supportive housing

· Increasing base pay and retention for homeless services staff

· Reducing barriers to obtaining identifying documentation

· Increasing resources for undocumented, refugee, and immigrant communities

Budget Advocacy:

State

· Supporting inclusion of the Mobile Homeless Connect Pilot Program in the 2024 budget ask

· Increasing funding for programs that increase the housing supply such as Homekey, the Multifamily Housing Program, No Place Like Home, Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program

· Continue advocating alongside State partners for a permanent ongoing and flexible State funding source such as the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program and encampment resolutions grants

Federal:

· Increasing funding for the National Housing Trust Fund, the Housing Choice Voucher program, the Housing and Urban Development — Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, and funding for public and affordable housing generally

· Increasing funding for special voucher programs such as Emergency Housing Vouchers and Stability Vouchers. Any additional voucher programs must come with funding for supportive services and landlord engagement attached

· Increasing CoC and Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) funds as well as changing the appropriations cycle for CoCs to multi-year

· Increasing funding for safety net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and rental assistance