What Is Measure H? LA County’s Quarter-Cent Sales Tax

Measure H was a quarter-cent sales tax that Los Angeles County voters approved on March 7, 2017, with 69.34 percent of the vote, dedicating every dollar to homelessness prevention and services.¹ It collected revenue from late 2017 through early 2025 and was then repealed and replaced by Measure A, a larger half-cent tax that took effect on April 1, 2025.² So if you are looking at a current receipt, you are no longer paying Measure H. You are paying its successor.

How the Tax Worked

Measure H added 0.25 percent to the sales tax on tangible personal property sold anywhere in Los Angeles County, both inside incorporated cities and in unincorporated areas. Retailers collected it at checkout along with the state and other local sales taxes, remitted it to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, and the county’s share went into a special account that could only be spent on the homelessness strategies written into the ordinance.³

The usual sales tax exemptions applied. Groceries bought for home consumption and prescription medications were not taxed. Because it rode on consumer spending, revenue rose and fell with the local economy.

Clearing the two-thirds supermajority at the ballot box mattered legally. California requires that threshold for any special tax earmarked for a specific purpose, and Measure H was earmarked in the ordinance itself. That restriction is what kept the money from being redirected to other county priorities.

What the Money Paid For

Chapter 4.73 of the Los Angeles County Code split authorized spending into five categories:³

Preventing homelessness through financial help and stabilization for households at immediate risk of losing housing.
Subsidizing housing, including rapid rehousing, bridge housing for people leaving institutions, family reunification subsidies, and rental assistance for disabled people pursuing federal benefits.
Case management and services, including mental health treatment, substance use counseling, jail in-reach, criminal record clearing, and ongoing support for supportive housing tenants.
Increasing income through subsidized employment, social enterprise jobs, and advocacy to secure SSI or veterans benefits.
Building a coordinated system through countywide street outreach, a stronger coordinated entry system, and expanded emergency shelter.

Within those categories, the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative set an annual expenditure plan that decided how much went where each fiscal year. One structural rule in the ordinance required Measure H money to add to existing county spending on homelessness rather than replace it, so the Board of Supervisors could not quietly pull general fund dollars back out as new revenue came in.

What It Produced

In its first full year of operation, July 2017 through June 2018, Measure H helped place 7,448 homeless families and individuals into permanent housing.⁴

Housing for Health, run by the Department of Health Services, became one of the largest Measure H-funded efforts. In 2023 it provided case management to 20,529 people and newly housed 3,152 in permanent supportive housing. Of those placed, 92 percent were still housed after one year and 85 percent after two.⁵

Countywide homeless counts kept rising during the same period. Critics said the revenue was too small for the scale of the crisis; supporters said the infrastructure Measure H built is what made a successor tax politically possible.

Oversight and Audits

The ordinance created the Citizen’s Homelessness Initiative Oversight Advisory Board, a five-member body with one nominee from each county supervisor. At least one member must be a finance or accounting professional with ten or more years of experience, and at least one must have ten or more years in homelessness services or research. Members cannot work for or hold a financial interest in any organization receiving Measure H funding.³

The board reviews spending twice a year and publishes an annual accounting. The County Auditor-Controller runs a separate independent financial audit each year. The most recent audit, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, found no compliance issues and concluded the fund’s financial statements were fairly presented under generally accepted accounting principles, with one prior-year finding still awaiting corrective action.⁶

Why Measure H Ended and What Replaced It

Measure H was written with a ten-year sunset, scheduled to expire in 2027. The expiration was meant to force the county to show results before asking voters to continue funding. An extension would have needed another two-thirds vote.

The county went a different route. In November 2024, voters approved Measure A, which repealed Measure H and replaced it with a half-cent sales tax. Measure A was structured as a general tax rather than a special tax, so it needed only a simple majority and passed with 57.78 percent. It took effect April 1, 2025, and is projected to raise roughly $1.07 billion a year.²

Two other changes matter if you are comparing the two. Measure A has no sunset and will keep collecting until voters affirmatively repeal it. And its authorized uses are broader, covering affordable housing construction and homeownership support in addition to services for people who are currently homeless. Opponents of Measure A argued that removing the sunset removed the accountability mechanism that Measure H’s ten-year clock was built to provide.¹

1
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. Election Results Text Version
2
LA County Homeless Services. Measure A – LA County Homeless Services and Housing
3
Municode. Los Angeles County Code of Ordinances – Chapter 4.73 Transactions and Use Tax to Prevent and Combat Homelessness
4
LA County Homeless Services and Housing. Measure H Year-One Report Card
5
Los Angeles County. Measuring Measure H’s Impact
6
County of Los Angeles Department of Auditor-Controller. Audit of the Homeless and Housing Measure H Special Revenue Fund for the Year Ended June 30, 2024