Tents line sidewalk near the City Hall in Los Angeles in December. With about 42,000 residents who are experiencing homelessness, the city has long struggled with the issue.
Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
LA’s City Hall Leads a New Fight Against an Old Foe: Homelessness
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has staked her administration on the Inside Safe initiative, part of a pledge to get 17,000 people off the streets without relying on police sweeps.
By the time Karen Bass finished her first few hours as mayor of Los Angeles on Dec. 12, she’d already had a busy day. She’d gathered all city department heads to ask them to list the barriers to preventing homelessness, then met with the region’s homeless service providers.
The schedule speaks to the energy the new mayor would be expending on homelessness, a vexing challenge to local officials that became a centerpiece of her race to lead the city. Within a week of taking office, she’d declare a state of emergency on homelessness, sign a flurry of executive orders and directives aimed at speeding housing production, and launch Inside Safe, an initiative to transition unsheltered people from encampments via coordinated outreach, interim housing and a suite of social services.