Good research on GR. Among the reasons for the cuts specifically I believe were a $1B County deficit around the time of the riots (& I believe could have been started by misspending for LA84)
Also welfare lawsuits in the 80s (I believe the City wanted more accessibility for unhoused people to receive GR from the County and was even willing to contribute) ended up with settlements in the early 90s which included the creation of LAHSA. The City and County at first each contributed $2.5M and now it’s 100x that. That’s why LAHSA and the City is undergoing auditing by Alvarez & Marsal: when everything possible is tried in order to avoid directly assisting people in need, the money ends up everywhere EXCEPT with the intended recipients, and forensic auditing years later is the only way to figure out what happened.
Federal minimum wage was <$4/hour in 1990. General relief was equivalent to 20-25hrs/week (like unemployment for part-time workers). If GR kept up with inflation, even though federal minimum wage is stuck at $7.25/hour, it would be roughly $700/month (like SF). If it kept up with State or local minimum wage it would be $1600/month or $400/week. Instead it is seemingly stuck at <$2k/year.
I’ve always thought DPSS should control HMIS/CES and it should be fully public rather than LAHSA’s opaque public-private model. But that would cut off the nonprofits, the principal beneficiaries who likely would fight such a proposition tooth & nail, betraying their clients. I’d love to see a leader with the guts to advance such a motion. If the UBI conversation was simply a re-branding of welfare, I’m still for it, as long as it’s public and increases + expands access to benefits. It would only be 30+ years late, but “something is better than nothing”.
Direct assistance is not that far-out of a solution. Long Beach has a UBI program for people who have Section 8 vouchers but have not yet secured a home. It helps them provide for themselves through their search for a landlord that will accept their voucher. Kate Cagle covered it on Spectrum. I’m unsure if it’s totally public or overseen by a nonprofit. LA could do pilot programs like this if it wanted to.
This was great — as is the whole newsletter, thanks for starting it
The “Little Relief” source you included from DPSS is 🔥 I am trying to restack it but can’t figure it out 😕
Good research on GR. Among the reasons for the cuts specifically I believe were a $1B County deficit around the time of the riots (& I believe could have been started by misspending for LA84)
Also welfare lawsuits in the 80s (I believe the City wanted more accessibility for unhoused people to receive GR from the County and was even willing to contribute) ended up with settlements in the early 90s which included the creation of LAHSA. The City and County at first each contributed $2.5M and now it’s 100x that. That’s why LAHSA and the City is undergoing auditing by Alvarez & Marsal: when everything possible is tried in order to avoid directly assisting people in need, the money ends up everywhere EXCEPT with the intended recipients, and forensic auditing years later is the only way to figure out what happened.
Federal minimum wage was <$4/hour in 1990. General relief was equivalent to 20-25hrs/week (like unemployment for part-time workers). If GR kept up with inflation, even though federal minimum wage is stuck at $7.25/hour, it would be roughly $700/month (like SF). If it kept up with State or local minimum wage it would be $1600/month or $400/week. Instead it is seemingly stuck at <$2k/year.
I’ve always thought DPSS should control HMIS/CES and it should be fully public rather than LAHSA’s opaque public-private model. But that would cut off the nonprofits, the principal beneficiaries who likely would fight such a proposition tooth & nail, betraying their clients. I’d love to see a leader with the guts to advance such a motion. If the UBI conversation was simply a re-branding of welfare, I’m still for it, as long as it’s public and increases + expands access to benefits. It would only be 30+ years late, but “something is better than nothing”.
Direct assistance is not that far-out of a solution. Long Beach has a UBI program for people who have Section 8 vouchers but have not yet secured a home. It helps them provide for themselves through their search for a landlord that will accept their voucher. Kate Cagle covered it on Spectrum. I’m unsure if it’s totally public or overseen by a nonprofit. LA could do pilot programs like this if it wanted to.