Prop 2 Reveals the Importance of Housing

Ofer Elitzur

“It is interesting that a whole host of issues in California boil down to housing problems,” says Ofer Elitzur of Cox, Castle Nicholson. Last week, Los Angeles voters agreed to extend mental health services to include supportive housing through Proposition 2. The measure will allow the funds generated by the millionaire tax the funds mental health services to be used to develop supportive housing projects. Los Angeles has a increasing homeless population due to the affordability crisis, and many suffer from mental illness. This shift underscores the demand for housing throughout the state.

“There was a shifting acknowledgement that we need housing as part of the mental health policy of the state,” Elitzur, a partner at Cox, Castle Nicholson, tells GlobeSt.com. :This bond was passed because there was a lawsuit between mental health advocates, who thought that the previous authority given by the voters was really for direct services and that there wasn’t authority to expand the use of that money to housing. It was basically a skirmish between two groups of people who have differing views of how to help people with mental health problems.”