Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city is on track to get about 4,000 people off the streets and into housing in her first 100 days in office, making a small dent in a homelessness crisis that billions in spending has failed to quell.
Of those placements, about 3,000 can be attributed to a previous initiative that is just now coming online, she said.
By the time her administration hits 100 days next week, her team would have been responsible for securing shelter for about 1,000 people, mostly into interim housing at hotels.
Photo: REUTERS
Bass said she has teamed up with local government agencies and service providers to cut through the bureaucracy that has hobbled progress in the past, adding that the “game changer is the coordination across city and county departments.”
The city has a long way to go to stem a crisis that has spiraled even as voters have backed raising billions of dollars to fund homelessness programs, including a US$1.2 billion bond measure in 2016 and a 0.25 percent sales tax in 2017.
On April 1, the city is to increase the sales transfer tax on property deals valued at US$5 million or more, which was in November last year passed in a ballot initiative to raise money for affordable housing.
Photo: AFP
Most people in Bass’s “Safe Inside” program were moved to temporary accommodation, while only about 60 have transitioned to permanent homes, highlighting the lack of affordable housing stock in a region that has the highest rent-to-income ratio of any county in California.
The city’s homeless population has been surging for years, rising to about 42,000 unsheltered people in a city of 4 million last year, making it the second-biggest population in a US metro after New York City.
Facing growing frustration by residents, the Los Angeles City Council last year approved a law banning encampments within about 150m of schools and daycare facilities.
Homeless advocates said the move effectively criminalizes homelessness.
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