LA Mayor Karen Bass Celebrates One Year In Office Despite Homeless Program Failures

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass celebrated one year in office on Tuesday, with many Angelinos reflecting negatively because of her failure to improve the growing homeless problem in the city.

In November 2022, Bass narrowly defeated developer Rick Caruso and announced she would be going after homelessness on day one. Sworn in the next month, Bass’ first act as Mayor was declaring a state of emergency in the city over the homeless crisis. She quickly created Inside Safe, a program to house more of the cities homeless temporarily in hotels and motels, a move that led to extreme backlash from hotel and motel owners across the city. Nearby cities also declared an emergency, barring Bass from implementing a plan to move many of LA’s homeless to an area in the Antelope Valley.

While also finagling with problems with the LAPD and, in a petty move, cancelling former Mayor Garcetti’s order to light the Hollywood sign, Bass’ homeless projects failed to gain traction. In March, many in Los Angeles, from lawmakers to the homeless themselves, were calling the program a failure. The next month, Bass touted that the program had 1,000 of the city’s roughly 45,000 homeless in temporary shelter, and used this to justify her incoming budget, including $1.3 billion for homeless funding. As the crisis grew worse during the spring and summer, the state of emergency was extended. Homeless figures released in June found that Bass’ programs were not working, with LA seeing a 10% bump in homeless people since she was elected.

At the same time, Bass failed to corral several strikes within the city and even underwent a mini-crime wave in August. While Bass did see a win that month with HUD giving the city exemptions over homeless permanent housing requirements, the next month saw a huge lawsuit come against the city over Bass’ homeless crisis emergency powers.

While many encampments were removed under her watch, as well as many direct homeless removals from dangerous areas, these came from policies made by either the City Council or Eric Garcetti, her Mayoral predecessor.

More than 21,000 unhoused Angelenos have come inside — THOUSANDS more than last year.

Businesses like Banc of California are coming to LA.

We’re making our city safer, protecting our environment and improving city services.

TOGETHER, we will continue this momentum in 2024. pic.twitter.com/Vcc4v2MprW

— Mayor Karen Bass (@MayorOfLA) December 11, 2023

With Bass now celebrating one year in office, figures can be tallied, and they aren’t good. Under Bass’ watch, homelessness has gone up exponentially, with Inside Safe, her signature program to combat homelessness, only moving 255 people to permanent housing so far out of the 46,000 in LA, despite $67 million already going into the program. While 21,000 did get housing of some type in her first year, few stayed for long because of the highly restrictive conditions and Bass’ focus on housing and not on other areas regarding homelessness, such as job placement.

Despite her failed programs, Bass touted success in a speech on Tuesday marking her first year in office.

“Angelenos, the last year has been the honor of my life to be of service to my neighbors, and to my hometown as your mayor. A lot has happened and I remain guided by the promises I made to you just a short year ago. I said I would lead a city where we locked arms across government and with each other. I said we would act with urgency. I said we would create change and do things differently. And we have. Which is why in our first year, we have brought inside more than 21,000 people who were suffering and dying on the street.

“This year, we made record investments to combat homelessness and public safety and in other areas. But our success is not just about resources, it’s about reform. It’s about doing things differently so that we can achieve a better result.

“That’s why I started on Day One, by declaring a state of emergency and making it clear that I will not accept people living and dying on our streets. The truth is living inside is cleaner, safer, healthier, and more stable for the unhoused and the neighborhoods. So we are doing things differently. We’re using motels, hotels, tiny homes, whatever it takes to bring people inside immediately. This is an emergency response.

“I’ve talked to people in those tents. Bringing someone inside is life changing and life saving and I’m so grateful that our city and county’s joint efforts have brought more than 21,000 people inside this year, thousands more than last year. Our Inside Safe initiative has seen dozens and dozens of L.A.’s most entrenched encampments disappear and not come back, just like the one that used to line the streets outside.

“I recently spoke with a minister about Thanksgiving day. He had been collecting food and was going to deliver it to the encampment on Venice Boulevard under the 405. But a few weeks prior, Inside Safe had housed almost 100 people. 100 People in an encampment, living there. When he went, there was no one living there anymore because the encampment was gone and the people were housed.

“There are similar stories in Hollywood, Koreatown, the Valley and the East Side. Sidewalks once again for kids walking to school, and people walking their dogs. And Angelenos who were suffering are now living inside, out of danger, with access to health care and food, and a path to permanent housing.

“And we have taken bold action to get housing built. Now, I admit I cannot make cement set faster or wood cost less, but I can get City Hall moving faster. And my Executive Directive has cut city approval times for affordable and homeless housing by 75 to 85%. So far, that means that more than 9000 units of housing are coming online faster by months because we took action that sparked reform.”

One year ago today, we declared a state of emergency on homelessness.

Since then, we’ve used unprecedented urgency to bring more than 21,000 Angelenos inside and build more housing, faster.

Nothing will stop Los Angeles.
pic.twitter.com/cvYm2QMpMD

— Mayor Karen Bass (@MayorOfLA) December 12, 2023

However, residents, lawmakers, and homeless experts alike have said that Bass’ homeless projects have been anything but a success, and that he speech on Tuesday only focused on the rare positives of her plan or on statistics that failed to tell the whole story.

“Bass should not be celebrating anything like this,” said Mark Wagner, a Philadelphia-based researcher on homelessness, to the Globe on Tuesday. “Nationally, her programs are seen as a joke. Now, it is true that it takes time to solve homeless issues. You cannot expect quick change. It’s a complex issue, and turning this around is like turning around an oil tanker. But we should have seen something on permanent housing by this point. 255 people, man, you can have gotten double that by focusing on basic needs rather than a housing focus.

“LA continues to try and solve homelessness all wrong. Housing is just one part of it. A big part, granted, but just a part. A job is needed, health assistance, mental health assistance, drug rehabilitation. figuring out transportation, and then following up that they have kept up with basic needs through both their income and government programs. A lot of places have a tiered system. You start off at temporary housing and have basic needs met, but over a time of 6 to 12 months, they transition to be off the government dole, or at least to a large extent.

“LA has that infrastructure in place, but they keep focused on housing. Housing, housing, housing. And the way they’ve been doing it is making everyone mad too. This isn’t a win for Bass. She obviously spent way too much time in Washington and forgot what solving a problem was like at a city level. We should wait and see if she corrects, but if she keeps going with this strategy, LA could have even more unhoused homeless people thanks to her in another years time.”

More on the one year anniversary of Bass’ homeless programs is likely to come out in the next few weeks.