Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says that more than 4,000 homeless Angelenos will have been housed, including more than 1,000 through her Inside Safe initiative, by next week when she hits her 100-day mark in office. That figure, she believes, will keep her on track to house 17,000 homeless people by the end of her first year as mayor, as she had said she’d do while on the campaign trail.
Moreover, the Bass administration anticipates moving 100 people on the streets of skid row into the L.A. Grand Hotel by the end of next week, and another 150 the week after. The goal is to house 2,000 people from skid row over the next three years, according to Mercedes Márquez, the mayor’s chief of housing and homelessness solutions.
The numbers were shared by the mayor and representatives from her administration, who held a roundtable meeting with members of the press on Wednesday, March 15, to provide an update on the city’s efforts to combat homelessness.
“We have disproven that people do not want to leave the streets,” Bass said. “A lot of Angelenos believe that those people were there because they want to be there and they were never going to leave.”
Bass launched Inside Safe during her second week in office to quickly move unhoused Angelenos indoors. The vast majority are in temporary motel or hotel rooms, though the goal is to place them all in permanent housing while providing mental health services, substance abuse treatment or other support services.
While some people were resistant to participating in Inside Safe at first, as they saw other people board the bus to move to a motel, they, too, opted to go, Bass said.
No arrests have been made as a result of the Inside Safe operations, according to her administration.
As of Tuesday, Márquez said, 516 unhoused people had been moved indoors through Inside Safe, including 62 who have been placed in permanent supportive housing. City officials believe the number of people served by Inside Safe will about double by midweek next week as more program sites launch. Thirteen sites have launched throughout the city to date.
Although Bass’ administration has moved hundreds of unhoused people indoors through Inside Safe, the program has had its share of issues including news reports of cockroaches, mold, and other unsanitary or unsafe conditions at some of the motels.
Bass and members of her administration have also acknowledged that there aren’t enough people available to provide services whiile the city tries to build out its program.
The mayor further acknowledged that finding enough motel rooms near existing encampments has at times been a challenge.
For example, she said a couple of motels were identified in Venice to participate in the Inside Safe program, but when those facilities ran out of rooms, homeless individuals had to be relocated further away from Venice.
The mayor also said renting motel rooms is expensive and not sustainable. That’s why her administration is looking at purchasing motels and hotels, which her aides believe will be more cost effective in the long run.
Of the $50 million in emergency funding that the Los Angeles City Council agreed to give to Bass in January to combat homelessness, the mayor reported that $4.4 million had been spent and another $27 million had been committed – mainly for motel rooms and to pay for case management or other services from providers.
In addition to Inside Safe participants, the 4,000 Angelenos whom the Bass administration is projecting will be housed by the mayor’s 100th day in office next week include people who signed up for other interim housing, master-leasing or housing voucher programs. It also includes more than 600 people in Prop. HHH permanent housing units, which the mayor acknowledged is the result of efforts begun under former Mayor Eric Garcetti.
During the roundtable discussion, Bass underscored her frustration with bureaucracy. She noted that the Coordinated Entry System, used throughout L.A. County to connect homeless people to housing, is too rigid, and that local officials are working to change the system, including some requirements about who can qualify for permanent supportive housing.
“Nothing drives us crazy more than to know that there are vacancies and we have people ready, but because of the bureaucracy, we can’t get there,” Bass said.
She also mentioned that after taking office, she learned that the city’s housing authority has lots of housing vacancies, but the agency did not have enough people on staff to process tenant applications. Her administration has since pushed for and gotten the housing authority to hire 17 contracted workers to expedite the process, she said.
Bass also expressed concern Wednesday that, with the county’s COVID-19-era tenant eviction moratorium ending at the end of March, and many renters unaware of tenant protections available in the city of L.A., renters will find themselves homeless.
“(With) the eviction moratorium ending, I’m very, very worried that we’re going to see another spike in homelessness,” Bass said. “Now, you know the City Council passed tenant protections, but … I’m worried that a lot of people won’t know that the tenant protections actually are there, so we are setting out to do outreach to make sure that tenants know.”
