County officials have stepped up their interest in closing a major gap in L.A.'s homeless services: an estimated shortfall of over 2,000 shelter beds. (scpr.org)

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors is already considering converting a 170-bed winter shelter in the Sylmar Armory into a year-round homeless shelter. On Tuesday, they'll take up a proposal to study rapidly expanding shelters countywide.

"We need to provide a comprehensive direction on how to move forward for each of our County-funded emergency shelters immediately," said Supervisors Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis in their joint motion. They went on to call for lower barriers for accessing shelters, like accepting pets and expanding hours of operation. 

The board's request, should it pass, calls for a plan to rapidly increase shelter beds and potential ways to pay for the new beds. On March 7, the county's voters will take up Measure H, a 1/4-cent sales tax to fund homeless services, one potential source of revenue. 

To read more of Rina Palta's article, please click here.