Funding cuts threaten family housing

Families could be on streets five days before Christmas

LANCASTER — Dozens of families staying in local motels in Lancaster and Palmdale could be on the streets five days before Christmas, due to funding shortfalls from Measure H, as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The families are staying at the motels with vouchers obtained from Valley Oasis, funded through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA. The homeless services agency has seen a dramatic drop in funding from Measure H.

Measure H is the voter-approved quarter-cent sales tax initiative, which generates funds for the specific purposes of funding homeless services and short-term housing.

Valley Oasis is assisting 89 families with motel vouchers.

“This is barbaric,” parent Tiffany Blount said. “I have been trying to, just for the past couple weeks, try to pull together some type of Christmas for my little baby and my son. And now, screw Christmas. I gotta figure out where they’re going to lay their head come Christmas.”

Blount has a nine-monthold baby born premature with underlying health conditions and a 16-year-old son.

Ramona Hudson, who came to Valley Oasis through its Domestic Violence program, has an 11-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter.

“We’re now being told that five days before Christmas, we have to be put out,” she said. “I feel that this is just one more traumatic thing that my kids have to go through that could affect them in the long run.”

Blount, Hudson and other families are staying at Americas Best Value Inn in Lancaster, where they said some families are being locked out of their rooms.

An employee at the motel declined to address the accusations and hung up.

“COVID-19’s impact on sales tax revenue has led to a complicated funding picture for Valley Oasis and other homeless services providers. The significant reduction in Measure H revenue has led to a temporary funding gap for the Valley Oasis families’ program. LAHSA is working on a plan that resolves this problem and should hopefully prevent any family from being discharged to the

COURTESY OF TIFFANY BLOUNT Tiffany Blount holds her daughter Le’Airy-Moon Blount Tuesday afternoon. The family, including Blount’s 16-year-old son, are in danger of being put on the street after funding for their hotel voucher dried up due to the COVID-19 pandemic