Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled a proposed $8.76 billion spending plan for the 2016-2017 fiscal year Wednesday, setting aside about $138 million to address homelessness.
The plan is 2 percent, or $175 million, bigger than the current year’s budget, with about $5.6 billion coming from the general fund. The budget also sets aside $322 million for the reserve fund, or 5.8 percent.
“My back to basics agenda … has been resting on the idea of a city that is well-run,” Garcetti said at a City Hall news conference. “This budget maintains our increased investments in those basic core services that Angelenos deserve and expect.”
“This ($8.76 billion) budget is ready to act in the interest of the people of Los Angeles,” he said. “This budget is both bold and prudent.”
This spending plan represents the “first time since the great recession” the city would be expanding the fire department, the mayor said. It calls for spending $17.3 million to hire and train 230 firefighters to replace retiring ones and to increase the overall staffing by 105 firefighters.
The budget also calls for $14.8 million to maintain the police force at 10,000 officers, and $10 million to allow officers to work more overtime hours. There are also plans to hire about 160 civilian employees to take over some Los Angeles Police Department duties so that sworn police officers could be freed up to spend more time in the field, he said.
The budget contains more funding for homeless programs than in previous years and responds to a call by city leaders last year to dedicate more funds to address the tens of thousands of people living on the streets of Los Angeles.
“This commitment represents a housing-first strategy that we know works … that came from L.A. but that has not been scaled up enough to deal with the ongoing onslaught of new homeless individuals we see on our streets (who) have been pushed out, whether it’s from jails, foster care, whether it’s veterans returning home from war or folks who are pushed onto the streets by rising rents,” Garcetti said.
Nearly half of the money being proposed for homelessness — about $64.7 million — would come from the general fund, plus $6.4 million from special accounts.
Much of the funding would go directly to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the primary provider of housing and services for the homeless in the county. Some funds would pay for “smart teams” in the LAPD that are trained in dealing with people with mental illness, and for “hope teams” that will be deployed to remove encampments and refer homeless individuals to services.
City officials said that chunk of the homeless funding comes from “one- time” money, and an ongoing source would be necessary. Garcetti proposed in his state of the city address last week that the city ask voters for more funding.
Garcetti is proposing to come up with the rest of the $138 million for homelessness by charging development fees on projects — which he estimates would generate $20 million — and by selling off or converting into affordable housing about $47 million worth of city-owned property.
This remaining funding would go into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which could then be used to build housing for the homeless, though not necessarily during the upcoming fiscal year.
The spending plan also includes $12 million for street cleaning, which Garcetti said would go toward buying 1,250 trash bins and pay for proactive enforcement against illegal dumping.
Garcetti also included funding to staff an office to operate the city’s seismic retrofitting program for soft-story buildings. He also proposed $2.6 million to fund an office to enforce the city’s new minimum wage, which is less than the $4.2 million that had been proposed by the city Bureau of Contract Administration.
The budget also puts money toward some of Garcetti’s sustainability goals. He is proposing to spend $1.2 million into leasing electric vehicles for the police fleet and setting up charging stations. He also wants to put $5.5 million toward installing solar panels at the Los Angeles Convention Center and the Police Department Motor Transport Division parking lot structure.
The proposal also calls for expanding the civilian city workforce by 500 people, part of a larger agreement with city employee unions to hire 5,000 new people over the next three years. The new positions would be created in the Bureau of Sanitation, Los Angeles Police Department, Building and Safety and the General Services departments.
The budget includes line items for previously announced initiatives, including $31 million for sidewalk repairs, which the city is required to spend under a lawsuit settlement agreement; funding to purchase 2,000 new body cameras for police officers; and staffing for planning department staffing needed to quickly update the city’s often decades old guidelines for development projects.
The release of Garcetti’s spending plan starts a budget hearing process, with the City Council expected to review its details and make recommendations over the next few weeks. The first hearing is set for April 27.
Councilman Paul Krekorian, who chairs the Budget and Finance Committee, called the mayor’s proposal “a solid start.”
“I’m happy to see the mayor supporting the council’s work by funding our newly created sidewalk repair program, improving the way the city serves the business community and rebuilding the ranks of our fire department,” he said.
He said he wants to “examine more closely” the homelessness funding proposal during the hearings.
“As we continue to chip away at the structural deficit, we have to make sure the city can pay for any new services we want to create,” he said. “We also have to make sure there is an adequate plan to implement them.”
—City News Service