Advocate for Youth-Specific Funding
The Need
Young people experiencing homelessness need youth-focused interventions to help them break the cycle of poverty and housing insecurity. General adult homeless policy doesn’t cut it for our youth. As of today, there is no dedicated youth-specific funding set aside with LACAHSA (Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency), one of the newest and largest providers of homelessness services funding. LACAHSA is responsible for administering between 40 and 55 percent of the hundreds of millions of Measure A dollars recently approved by voters.
50% of adults experiencing homelessness first experienced it as a youth. By intervening early with youth -prevention measures, we hope to significantly reduce those who would fall into chronic adult homelessness.
We need our supporters to join City Council meetings and provide public comment that emphasizes the importance of these measures. Members of City Councils from across LA make up the The LACAHSA Board, and we can reach them best in their cities! Your voice has the power to enact the most change. Don’t believe us? We showed up to the Board of Supervisors meeting after youth-specific funding was cut from the Measure A budget and through collective action and public comment, we restored over 5 and a half million dollars. We’ve done it before, and we will do it again!
Where Do I Need To Go?
We have meetings in these cities on a rotating basis:
Need Help Creating Public Comment? View Our Toolkit
Our toolkit (view here) is equipped with talking posts and what we're looking for.
A public comment of one minute is usually a 5 sentence paragraph, and using our talking points will help make the most effective action.
If you have friends who don’t want to speak, but can come stand in solidarity while you speak, that’s great too!
Want to talk with us?
Every month we will host a virtual Happy Half-Hour over Zoom! Join us to talk with SPY staff about how you can help and ask us any questions about public comment.
Can't make the Happy Half-Hour? Feel free to email any questions to dextero@safeplaceforyouth.org