When people went to the city center women’s center Skid Row in search of help, the organization often turned to the rescue line.
The center included people in a temporary housing subsidy to help the homeless pay rent for a limited time before they return to their feet.
This is not an option lately.
April The Los Angeles Homeless Services Service, referring to the budget reduction, indicated the center and other service providers throughout the county to stop recruiting new participants to so -called limited term subsidies or TLS, an essential program, little known outside the world of stray services.
“We constantly ask” when does it open again? “Said Amy Turk, CEO of the City Center Women’s Center.” And we are like: “We don’t know.”
According to service providers and LAHSA, the change is likely to enter into the LA County Homeless Services system. With one road to a home, people are likely to stay in shelters longer. With fewer places in shelters, people will probably stay longer on the street.
“This will be an obstacle,” said Sasha Morozov, the director of the homeless service provider known as the Path. She called the likelihood of “heart pain”, taking into account the time and the investment that the region did to accommodation for people. “We worked so hard.”
Service providers and LAHSA said they consider limited subsidies as essential and noted their use in helping to reduce the number of unauthorized people over two consecutive years. One service provider even called them “a super -route from homelessness”.
“It really was the key to how we were able to move so many people through our system and to permanent housing,” said Nathaniel Vergow, Deputy Chief Program Officer of Lahsa.
Reduction of subsidies occurs after November. Voters have confirmed the measure A, an increase in sales tax, which, according to supporters, can earn as much as a billion dollars a year to resolve the homeless crisis. However, most of that new money is spreading to create a new affordable home, not homeless services – and, given the slowdown in the economy, it is actually expected that the county will collect less sales for homeless services in this fiscal year.
Some service providers are already seeing the effects of decreasing time limited subsidies.
Katie Hill, Director General of Union Station Homeless Services, said that the lack of subsidies had retreated a few months before the April report, and so far more than 700 homeless families looking for a sleeping place were full.
Kimberly Roberts, a senior program officer at La Family’s home, said that a non -profit organization transported about 50 households to permanent housing earlier a month, using TLS and loosening 50 intermediate beds.
“We can’t do it right now,” she said. “The decision not to invest more resources or add more dollars means there will be more people on the streets. This means there will be more campsites.”
The Time Limit Subsidies program works as follows: LAHSA receives money from federal, state and county governments, then concludes contracts with non -profit organizations and a private company that accepts homeless and pays owners. Subsidies are expected to make the most of two years, during which non -profit organizations help individuals work to afford housing without limited subsidy, helping them find a job or enter a program that provides continuous support.
LAHSA said the providers had ordered to stop registering new participants for the reduction of the government’s budget, which affected its various programs, not just the limited time subsidies.
These reductions are not caused by the fact that Trump’s administration has declined with social programs or from the county’s plans to finally move tens of millions of dollars from LAHSA to a new county agency, but to finance a state of budget restrictions as well as the shelf life for one -time grants. The county did not reduce its funds for subsidies, but cut other homeless services programs.
Due to limited subsidies, LAHSA reported that it has $ 46 million. USD less to spend this fiscal year compared to the last. In the next fiscal year, starting from 2026. In July, more reductions are expected.
Currently, people who are currently involved in limited time subsidies are not affected, and LAHSA said she is using a “conveying” strategy to cope with lower funding.
Since people’s limited subsidies that are limited are not necessarily valid, service providers are unlikely to be able to involve new participants.
Because LAHSA tries to reduce the total limited period from 7,700 last fiscal year to 2500 to the end of this fiscal year, June. The report agency said “it will be rare if it is not even possible” that new people will be involved at any time.
In recent years, taxpayers have spent billions to overcome homelessness in La County, and some of the elected officials have been increasingly frustrated with how the money spent and whether it goes to the right place to make sense to reduce the number of people and people in shelters.
2024. LAHSA reported that the total number of homeless people in the county decreased by 4%this year, but still lives in shelters or streets more than 72,000.
Nithya Raman, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, said that limited time subsidies are partly important because they can be economical and reduce the joint public investment needed to reduce homelessness.
“Not everyone needs a permanent home that the government finances throughout its life,” she said in an interview.
In recent years, a council member has pushed to increase the efficiency of the TLS program, which she described as underdeveloped.
She said she has since improved and expects more money to be found, but “very worried” about rising TLS reductions, especially since other funding reductions are.
Another specialized subsidy of homeless housing – this federal level – is expected to end in 2026. The Trump administration also wants to further reduce the country’s main lease subsidy program, known as Chapter 8.
“What we see next year under two years is a dramatic contraction of housing opportunities that can be found on the street or in shelters,” Raman said. “There is no need to underestimate that effect.”
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This story initially appeared at the Los Angeles Times.