2024-25 Spending Plan Centers on Investments in Mental Health Services, Solutions to Homelessness, and Continuing Commitment to Care First, Jails Last Vision

Los Angeles County’s 2024-25 Recommended Budget—which doubles down on an accelerated response to homelessness and underscores the role mental health services play in multiple County strategies—will be presented to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 23 by Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport.

Despite slowing revenue growth from property taxes, the Recommended Budget continues to fund the vast social safety net of health and social services that make up the core function of County government while also supporting new investments in innovative programs that help local residents. The budget includes jobs programs, expands food resources, supports foster families and continues to allocate 10% of locally generated unrestricted revenues to direct community investment and alternatives to incarceration through Care First Community Investment.

The $45.4 billion Recommended Budget represents the first step in the County’s multi-phase annual budget process. If approved by the Board, it will add 835 new positions—more than half of them in the Department of Mental Health—for a total of 116,159 budgeted positions in the County workforce.

“This Recommended Budget represents a balanced plan for the County’s future in the face of multiple uncertainties,” CEO Davenport said. “It invests our limited discretionary resources in the Board’s highest priority programs, emphasizes services that our communities need, and embraces innovations like the Breathe guaranteed income program—all while maintaining the strength of the County’s social safety net.”

Highlights of the budget include:

• $728.2 million to fund the County’s multi-layered approach to combating homelessness and facilitate the Homeless Emergency Declaration, including hiring more frontline staff such as outreach workers, housing navigators, mental health clinicians and substance use counselors. The Emergency Declaration has enabled the County to accelerate service delivery, cut red tape, and jumpstart changes in processes that are scaling and fast-tracking the work to prevent and end homelessness.
• 452 positions within the Department of Mental Health to support the state’s new CARE Court program; the Interim Housing Outreach Program providing services to help mentally ill homeless persons maintain housing stability; and staff an expansion of department-operated clinics and full-service partnership programs; as well as various Mental Health Services Act-funded programs.
• $300.6 million—equal to 10% of ongoing locally generated unrestricted revenues—to meet the Board’s commitment to Care First, Jails Last (Measure J) and support direct community investments and alternatives to incarceration. In addition to this ongoing funding, an additional $223.4 million in one-time dollars from funding still available from previous budget cycles is available for CFCI programs in the upcoming fiscal year—for a total of more than a half billion dollars.
• $95.6 million to assist foster families, prospective adoptive parents, and relatives who foster family members.
• $81.1 million to replace EBT benefits for victims of card theft by skimmers and scammers acting statewide.
• $17.4 million in additional support for CalFresh food benefits.
• $13 million for jobs programs for youth and people with high barriers to employment.
• A wide range of investments in capital projects to improve our parks, expand water conservation efforts, and maintain our County infrastructure; and
• Support for forward-looking efforts to maintain cybersecurity in the face of growing threats and build out electric vehicle infrastructure.

Additional funding is also provided to support the expansion of pretrial services aimed at reducing our jail population, and to provide more mental health care and programming in our County jails for those who must remain in custody.

Following the Board’s adoption of the Recommended Budget, public hearings are set to begin on May 15, providing an opportunity for County residents to make their priorities known.

More information about the County budget, including a library of short, animated explainer videos, can be found at https://ceo.lacounty.gov/budget/.

Other Key Resources on the 24-25 Recommended Budget:

PowerPoint

Fact Sheet

Budget Charts

Transmittal Letter