“People’s healthcare is at risk and people are going to die.”
L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath didn’t have much good news when she spoke at United Chamber’s annual “State of the County” on Wednesday.
She blamed federal funding cuts for most of the county’s woes, saying the atrocious slashing of monies was devastating to the social services safety net.
In February the county closed eight community centers, and emergency rooms, clinics and healthcare providers are all being affected by the lack of funds.
Horvath doesn’t like the “Essential Services Restoration Act” half-cent general sales tax measure on the June ballot, though the supervisors, including Horvath, voted four to one to approve it (Kathryn Barger dissented). She asked why the state couldn’t fund the gap and not the taxpayers, and said the only way to get rid of the tax was to pressure the federal government to refund the money.
“If the sales tax passes people will feel it. They are already hurting but we need to fund healthcare,” she told the audience of business owners and chamber members.
Horvath discussed the new Department of Homeless Service and Housing, which was created primarily by Supervisors Horvath and Barger and began operations this past January. Designed to bring 14 departments handling the homeless crisis under one umbrella and create a “dashboard” to report progress, it was one of Horvath’s pet projects.
However, though she said that results were “scaling up” she did not give any concrete numbers regarding the homeless population or how the new department was effecting change.” I believe we can and must do better. We can get out of the crisis,” she said, but gave no clear options on how to achieve that.
Part of the funding problem affects the monitoring of sidewalk vendors, especially relevant to local business community.
The same Department of Public Health employs the inspectors that enforce licensing of said vendors, and that department has had cuts as well. “I know businesses are hurting because someone sets up shop right outside your front door,” said Horvath. “I’ve asked existing inspectors to ‘look around’ while they’re on the street, because we are so short staffed there.”
She briefly touched on landlords’ price gouging after the fires and the extension of rent control, and said she wants to leave protections in place but wants to get residents out of their situations. “The goal is not to punish landlords but let them know the rules and help the residents.” She said that FEMA did not come in after the fires, believing that L.A. had enough affordable housing.
On the subject of the fires Horvath said the county “fell short” and talked about more investment in the Office of Emergency Management and the upcoming groundbreaking of a Waterworks 29 project, an emergency district for Malibu, Topanga and unincorporated areas of the county, but didn’t say where the money would actually come from.
Acting CEO of L.A. County Joseph Nicchitta, however, said they would take millions out of the county’s reserves to mitigate the health care funding crisis. “It doesn’t close the gap but we have to support public hospitals. Because of the fires, city revenue and property tax revenue are down, and the devastating cost is measured in both financial and social impact.”
