The Los Angeles Continuum of Care voted October 13 to select the County’s Department of Homeless Services and Housing to handle the annual homeless count and the region’s federal homelessness funding application. The selection represents a significant proposed transfer of responsibilities from LAHSA. Court approval and the timing of the transition remain important next steps. Separate decisions about the region’s homelessness database and housing-referral system were still unresolved in the cited reporting.

The Board of Supervisors appointed former Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo on September 29 to the County’s first independent Ethics Commission, giving the seven-member panel enough appointees to begin nominating its remaining members. Woo joins Wilma A. Franco and Amanda Susskind, who were appointed earlier in the month, after the County’s Governance Reform Task Force selected him as its nominee following public interviews. The commission will oversee County laws governing campaign finance, lobbying, conflicts of interest, and governmental ethics. Woo represented the 13th District from 1985 to 1993 as the first Asian American elected to the City Council, where he chaired a committee on governmental ethics and helped steer the 1990 voter-approved ordinance creating the LA City Ethics Commission. Voters approved the commission as part of Measure G in 2024.

The half-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in June takes effect Thursday, October 1, raising the countywide base rate from 9.75% to 10.25% through October 2031. Cities with their own local taxes will go higher, with West Hollywood moving from 10.5% to 11%. The measure is expected to generate about $1 billion annually for the County general fund, with spending priorities focused on healthcare services, public hospitals and clinics, and public health programs, backed by annual independent audits. Groceries and prescription medications remain exempt. Businesses selling into the County will need to update point-of-sale systems before October 1, and Measure ER allocations are expected to be programmed into the County’s supplemental budget on September 29.

Los Angeles County opened the fifth round of its Care First Community Investment program, making more than $73 million available for community services. The funding covers 30 service areas, including reentry, housing stability, behavioral health, employment, youth development, and other community-based programs. The Board of Supervisors approved the Year 5 funding in December 2025, and applications have been open from July 24 through the extended deadline of September 8. The program reflects the County’s continued focus on funding prevention and community support services and represents a major opportunity for nonprofits and other organizations that provide public services.

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, a Bass ally, plans to split the Housing and Homelessness Committee in two, stripping mayoral challenger Nithya Raman of the leadership role she’s held since 2023. Raman called it political punishment for her campaign against Bass, while a Bass spokesperson defended the move by criticizing Raman’s committee performance and her time-limited subsidy program’s slow rollout. The shakeup comes as citywide unsheltered homelessness rose this year after two years of declines, even as it dropped 49% in Raman’s own district.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to place a measure on the Nov. 3 ballot that would restore funding for jail diversion and incarceration alternatives after a clerical error in 2024 accidentally eliminated the voter-approved funding mechanism. If approved by voters, the charter amendment would once again require a portion of the county budget to support programs such as mental health services, housing assistance, and other initiatives designed to keep people out of jail. Supporters say the measure corrects an administrative mistake and preserves the county’s commitment to investing in community-based alternatives to incarceration, while opponents have raised concerns about limiting budget flexibility. The proposal is intended to restore the policy that voters originally approved rather than create a new program, leaving the final decision to Los Angeles County voters in the November election.

Local ballot measures for the November general election are being finalized, with local jurisdictions facing an Aug. 7 deadline to complete them, according to the LA County Registrar’s office. At the county level, at least two countywide measures are expected. One would enshrine LA County’s new independent ethics commission into the county charter; the seven-member commission will enforce ethics laws, conduct investigations and levy penalties, with three members appointed by elected officials and the rest selected through a public application process. The Board of Supervisors is also using that measure to correct an administrative error discovered after Measure G passed, which inadvertently put Measure J and its mandated funding for community investment and alternatives to incarceration on the chopping block. A second county measure would require binding arbitration in certain labor disputes between the county and public safety organizations, covering unions representing firefighters, deputy sheriffs, sworn law enforcement supervisors and lifeguards; because these employees cannot strike under California law, the measure aims to equalize a power imbalance. At the city level, Angelenos will decide a half-cent sales tax to fund the Los Angeles Fire Department, plus six charter reform measures covering ethics and campaign finance rules, doubling the Recreation and Parks Department’s budget percentage over time, moving the city to a two-year budget cycle, removing a restriction on commercial activities, changing lowest-bidder contracting rules, and requiring a capital infrastructure plan. The City Council controversially opted to forgo a slate of major changes, including measures on LAPD oversight and expanding the City Council.

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously postponed a Nov. 3 ballot measure that would have allowed noncitizens, including lawful permanent residents (green card holders) and DACA recipients, to vote in city and school board elections after Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez withdrew his proposal, citing concerns raised by African American community leaders and fellow council members about voter protections and the potential misuse of voter data by ICE. The council also voted 8-6 to delay a separate measure that would have granted council members direct policymaking authority over the LAPD following a threatened lawsuit from the police union, which argued the city failed to fulfill its legal obligation to meet and confer. Both measures, along with previously shelved proposals to expand the City Council from 15 to 25 members and implement ranked-choice voting, will be sent to committee for possible consideration in a future election, bringing the year-long Charter Reform Commission process to an anticlimactic close.

The Trump administration has suspended federal funding to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) while the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development investigates allegations of financial mismanagement and inadequate conflict-of-interest controls. In a letter, HUD officials said there is reason to believe LAHSA may have violated federal law and warned the agency could ultimately be permanently barred from receiving federal funds. Federal dollars account for about 7% of LAHSA’s budget and largely support permanent housing subsidies for formerly homeless individuals. LAHSA disputed the allegations, stating it has already corrected most of the issues identified by HUD and warning that the funding suspension could jeopardize housing for thousands of people. The decision drew mixed reactions from local leaders: Kathryn Barger called the move concerning but consistent with longstanding management problems, while Marqueece Harris-Dawson criticized the administration and pledged to fight the funding cutoff. Meanwhile, the advocacy group LA Alliance for Human Rights said the suspension highlights the need for greater accountability in the region’s homelessness response, even as it acknowledged the potential impact on vulnerable residents.

A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies/Los Angeles Times poll conducted May 19-24 among 1,351 likely voters found Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Nithya Raman, and Spencer Pratt locked in a statistical tie, with Raman and Pratt each gaining roughly eight points since March while Bass’s support remained largely unchanged. Berkeley polling director Mark DiCamillo called it a three-way race with three very different candidates drawing from different voter coalitions, saying it would boil down to turnout. The survey, the largest public poll released before the June 2 primary with a margin of error of approximately 3 percentage points, underscores how dramatically the race has shifted in the final weeks. Prediction markets diverged from the tighter Berkeley numbers, with Kalshi showing Bass at 62%, Pratt at 22%, and Raman at 17% for winning the election outright – a broad consensus that Bass is likely to reach the runoff, while Pratt and Raman compete for the second spot. Spencer Pratt’s sister Stephanie, who had previously slammed her brother’s candidacy, reversed her position in a Vanity Fair interview published May 27, saying she was wrong and praising his investigative focus on the wildfire response.