Strides made in housing homeless, mayor says
•Bass marks her first two years in office
MAYOR KAREN BASS speaks at The Ebell following her election in 2022.
Photo by Gary Leonard
On her first day as mayor, Karen Bass declared the city’s homeless crisis a state of emergency, and she and her team got to work.
As part of her two-year anniversary report to the city last month, she talked about the results of those efforts.
To date, in the mayor’s first two years in office, she reports that more than 23,000 Angelenos have moved into temporary housing, while the number of people moving into permanent housing has nearly doubled compared to when she was sworn into office in Dec. 2022.
“Last year we had our first decline in homelessness in six years and a 10 percent reduction in street homelessness,” she added.
And, while there is still a lot more work to be done, “the days of managing the problem are behind us. We are focused on putting an end to the humanitarian crisis on our streets,” she said.
The mayor’s efforts include historic changes to policies and laws, cutting red tape, building housing cheaper and faster and bringing people off the streets quicker, according to materials distributed by her office.
“You can see the results with more people inside, more clear sidewalks, and new, innovative housing. We are breaking through past regulations that allowed people to languish on the streets and refusing to tolerate inaction. This progress is fuel for the future — we will not slow down.”
Bass made her announcement at The Eaves, on nearby South Gramercy Place. The Eaves is the first project of LA4LA, which operates under the nonprofit umbrella of the California Community Foundation. This is LA4LA’s first affordable housing project undertaken in collaboration with Mayor Bass. The Eaves houses nearly 60 formerly homeless people through Bass’ Inside Safe program. The housing project was on the brink of being sold as market-rate housing before LA4LA, acting as a public-private partnership, worked with developers and secured grant funding and a low-interest loan from philanthropic partners.
Running up to her anniversary date of Dec. 12, Bass crisscrossed the city to highlight key issues, from reducing homelessness and homicides — the latter by 25 percent — to attracting a record number of LAPD applicants.
Category: News