LA County Is Now On The Hook For Adding 3,000 Mental Health Beds for Unhoused People After Judge Approves Major Settlement

By Nick Gerda

Mental health and addiction treatment often are in short supply for unhoused people in L.A. But a major new lawsuit settlement is expected to change that in the coming years.

With a federal judge’s final sign-off on Thursday, L.A. County is now on the hook for adding 3,000 mental health treatment beds by the end of 2026 — 10 times as much as the county offered a year ago to try to end one of L.A.’s biggest homelessness lawsuits filed by a group of downtown business owners known as the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights.

The county bumped up their offer after Judge David O. Carter twice rejected earlier settlement proposals as not being enough.

The new beds won’t end homelessness, but people on all sides say it’s a major step to make crucial treatment more accessible.

The first 600 beds must be up and running by the end of this year, with hundreds more added in each of the following three years until 3,000 are reached by the end of 2026.

“Is 3,000 beds enough? Of course it’s not. But I believe that this is a solid proposal,” said Janice Hahn, chair of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors who pressed her colleagues to approve the deal.

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