Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wants $1.3 billion for homeless crisis as crime rises
Eden Villalovas
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Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Karen Bass introduced her first budget at the State of the City address Monday evening. She recommended spending $1.3 billion next year to get unhoused people into shelter and treatment programs.
The spending would be part of Bass’s goal to get the city to the point of being a “new L.A.” She is set to unveil the budget at City Hall on Tuesday.
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“This is a truly historic city budget commitment because much of the state and federal pandemic-related money from the past couple of years is no longer available,” Bass said in her address.
“As we scale our homelessness strategy, renting motel rooms, however, is just not a sustainable model. This is why my budget breaks new ground to fund the purchase of motels and hotels by the city.”
The first woman to lead Los Angeles was elected on her promise to control the city’s homelessness crisis. L.A. surpassed New York City last year for the highest homeless population in the nation.
One of Bass’s funding priorities is to bolster the LAPD, citing staff decreases that could amount to a record-breaking low not seen since 2002.
“We will support a program to bring recently retired officers back on the job, and of course, as committed, we will hire civilians at LAPD, so officers can move back onto the street.”
According to data from the Los Angeles Police Department, the city has seen a 60% increase in homicides among the unhoused since 2020. There were 92 murdered in 2022.
Besides rebuilding the police force, Bass highlighted a number of other community improvements she plans to target with the new budget. These include resources for social workers, community intervention workers, clinical psychologists, youth programs, and more.
“The Office of Community Safety will launch a citywide effort to engage with Angelinos at community meetings, through surveys, and with scientific polling to create a citywide strategy to make Los Angeles safer,” Bass said.
Bass plans to expand Inside Safe, a proactive housing program launched in December aimed at moving people off the street and into housing. Bass requested a $250 million increase in funding for the initiative, which aided and cleared six encampments in two months.
Bass noted that Inside Safe moves to dismantle the barriers to prevent people from moving off the streets, adding that they can stay with their parents and bring their pets with them.
“Inside Safe starts with outreach from trained workers, many of whom are formally unhoused themselves,” Bass said. “They offer motel rooms and other temporary housing and a pass to permanent housing with services.”
Part of the mayor’s plan includes addressing substance abuse and mental illness among the unhoused. Treatment for these problems would be paid for by money received from opioid and tobacco settlements to the state.
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Bass concluded by urging the community to work together to solve the homelessness crisis, asking apartment owners to accept vouchers for the unhoused.
“I want all of them to experience a new L.A., but more important, I want Angelinos to experience a new L.A., one that is stronger, healthier, happier, and safer, one that is affordable,” Bass closed. “This is the new Los Angeles that we will build together. This is the new L.A.”