Urgent strategies deployed by Mayor Bass
Mayor Karen Bass has announced that more than 21,000 Angelenos have come inside since December 2022, thousands more than last year, as she deployed a new and urgent strategy to reduce homelessness. Bass also announced that more than 9,000 units of affordable housing are now being accelerated as a result of her executive directive to streamline their development.
“Since the first day when I declared a state of emergency, we have confronted the homelessness crisis with absolute urgency,” Bass said. “We have brought thousands inside and will continue to improve our operations to reduce the amount of people who have fallen back into homelessness and better protect those who are housed but potentially on the verge. As we’ve worked to house Angelenos, we’ve uncovered barriers and then we address them. We will continue our new work, as a unified city, locking arms with our partners to bring as many Angelenos inside as possible and connect them to services and support. Though we are proud of our progress there is still more work to be done. It’s a new day in Los Angeles and our momentum will not stop.”
“Housing plays a central role in addressing homelessness, which is why housing authorities, local officials, and community partners across the country are leading on this issue together,” said Richard J. Monocchio, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. “There are few places this is as evident than Los Angeles, where Mayor Bass has been passionate about getting more people housed and convening a wide array of partners to make that happen. We value our partnership with the city to identify solutions to address complex challenges.”
Bass believes that thousands of Angelenos living and dying on our streets is a humanitarian crisis that impacts everyone. To address this crisis, Bass immediately declared a state of emergency, which uncovered an inadequate data collection and analysis system and relied on old bureaucratic processes that didn’t bring people inside immediately.
Under Bass’ leadership, the myth that the vast majority of unhoused Angelenos are sleeping in encampments because they don’t want to come inside has been methodically chipped away with a whole of government approach and collaborative leadership strategy while implementing new urgent strategies. Bass has begun to build a new coordinated and comprehensive strategy that addresses the crisis citywide and delivers results.
“We are urgently bringing people inside from the streets, building a housing and services continuum that includes expanding interim housing infrastructure,” Bass added. “We are accelerating construction of permanent affordable housing, cutting through red tape to move people from the streets to permanent housing faster and locking arms at all levels of government and in partnership with local nonprofits and the private sector to ensure people stay housed.”
