Strategic Plan Overview
2016-2020 Countywide Strategic Plan for Economic Development
Check out our video overview of the
Strategic Plan.
According to the US Census, Los Angeles was the fourth most unequal city in the US in 2014. The Public Policy Institute of California noted that Los Angeles had the highest rate of poverty, at 24.9% (2013-2015 average). Because of the high cost of housing, low income county residents barely meet their basic living expenses, have little discretionary income to spend on goods and services that contribute to regional economic vitality, and are unable to contribute to savings accounts. Thus, one financial setback due to unexpected medical bills, the sudden departure of a household breadwinner, or other factors can cause these residents to miss rent payments, face eviction, and potentially, fall into homelessness.
Two keys to addressing income inequality are:
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Strengthening our educational system to help move children and adults– particularly those who are low income — toward self-sustaining careers. Several of the Plan’s goals are designed to grow industries, entrepreneurship, and global trade, all of which provide more well-paying jobs.
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Increasing the supply of more and affordable housing so that residents don’t have to commit such a large proportion of their disposable income towards rent.
As of 2017, nearly 58,000 men, women and children were homeless on any given night in our region. To address this, voters overwhelmingly approved Measure H to deliver services to combat homelessness and Proposition HHH in the City of Los Angeles providing $1.2 billion in funding toward affordable housing. In 2016, the LA County Board of Supervisors approved the Homeless Initiative, which includes 51 strategies to address this challenge, which are currently being implemented.
Within Goal 7, Objective 2, Strategy A directly addresses homelessness as an issue of physical and mental wellness for LA County residents.
In 2016, Propel L.A. Lead Partner, Los Angeles County, launched its Homeless Initiative. with funding allocated and distributed in 2017.
The California State Legislature passed a package of housing bills in late-2017 that not only provided funding and incentives for housing development, but also eased some restrictions on such development, and mandated California cities to streamline their permitting processes and otherwise meet local housing goals.

Goal 7, Build More Livable Communities, identifies strategies to address housing in LA County.
Goal 7 addresses housing in Objective 1, Strategies A and E; and Objective 3, Strategy A.
California’s education pipeline is not keeping pace with the higher skills and education required by employers. By 2025, it is estimated that almost one-third (30%) of all job openings in the State of California will require some form of post-secondary education short of a four-year degree. Yet, more than 22% of the county’s residents have not even earned a high school diploma (or equivalent), and another 47% of the county’s residents have only a high school education. (A Portrait of LA County 2017-2018).
Without targeted and directed intervention on our part, an increasing percentage of our residents will be limited to minimum wage jobs that only widen the gap between the poor and the rich, one poverty-inducing job to the next, as our economy continues to be disaggregated between the highly skilled jobs that will become increasingly more skilled, and thus more highly rewarded, and the lower skilled jobs that will be increasingly automated or, at best, pay only a minimum wage. But this intervention will require true systems change across all of our education and talent development systems, including early-childhood, and this systems change is outlined in Goal 1 of our Strategic Plan. We want to ensure that all children have the highest possible potential for success in school, over their careers and throughout life.
Read about Propel L.A. Lead Partner, First 5 LA: First 5 LA Strategic Plan: Focusing for the Future
Read the Center for a Competitive Workforce Powering Economic Opportunity Report.
Los Angeles has a reputation for having some of the worst traffic in the United States – and commute times got longer by 4% from 2016 to 2017, according to Business Insider. But with the passage of Measure M, our region has the opportunity to not only expand our bus and rail systems and improve our roads, but also to add in transit-oriented housing and mixed-use development, and to improve our goods movement and related infrastructure systems.
Learn more about the work of Measure M through Propel L.A. Lead Partner, Metro: Metro’s Transportation Plan
Learn about the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Regional Transportation Plan.