Quarter-cent sales tax to fight homelessness will appear on March ballot

Proposition HHH, meet your cousin.

Los Angeles County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of a quarter-cent sales tax proposal that would raise about $355 million a year over a decade to fund thousands of units of housing, supportive services and rent subsidies for the chronically homeless, the L.A. Times reported. The proposal will now appear on the March ballot.

If it is enacted, the sales tax would apply to purchases on items such as clothing, household supplies and electronics as well as prepared food and drinks.

Hundreds of advocates for the homeless filled the hearing room and three additional overflow rooms in preparation for the vote. Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas had to ask the audience to refrain from too much applauding.

Many proponents of the initiative were also supporters of HHH, a ballot proposal which passed by a wide margin last month. It will allow the city to issue a $1.2 billion bond to fund housing and supportive services for the homeless. [LAT] — Cathaleen Chen