In 2016 and 2017, the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles sought voter support for two long-term, dedicated funding measures to increase resources for reducing and preventing homelessness throughout the region. Public visibility, attention from the media, increased political will from public officials and the coordination of community efforts in effective campaigns once the measures were on the ballot all were instrumental in gaining the voter support needed to pass the measures.
The Foundation engaged Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning partner Abt Associates to examine the evolution of the political will and community support needed to develop and pass the ballot initiatives by interviewing key community stakeholders and campaign staff along with reviewing public materials from the City and County of Los Angeles. This report, part of a larger Abt evaluation of the Foundation’s Chronic Homelessness Initiative, describes the steps taken by elected officials and public and private stakeholders to build on the political will and community support that had already been created for addressing homelessness in the Los Angeles region to develop these measures and get them enacted. Lessons learned from these efforts may provide other communities to look toward similar efforts to address homelessness.