In her first State of the City address, Los AngelesMayor Karen Bass on Monday announced major expansions of homelessness housing programs — the mayor’s top priority — and called on landlords to work with the city by accepting housing vouchers.
“I am 127 days into my administration, and I cannot declare that the state of our city is where it needs to be,” Bass said at the beginning of her remarks.
But the mayor, who campaigned on a promise to tackle the city’s vexing homelessness crisis and declared a state of emergency over the issue on her first day in office, went on to cite her administration’s progress, including some 1,000 residents the administration has already helped find housing, while also unveiling sizeable new commitments.
Her city budget plan will include $1.3 billion for housing and homelessness programs, she announced, an amount that represents “a truly historic city budget commitment, because much of the state and federal pandemic-related money from the past couple years is no longer available.”
A large chunk of the funding — $250 million — will go toward growing the administration’s existing Inside Safe program, a “housing first” model that the administration launched in December and credits with already moving hundreds of residents out of tents and into shelters.
Bass also announced a new program in which the city will purchase, rather than rent, motels and hotels for additional homeless housing. She also championed a new directive that’s streamlining affordable housing construction and said her staff is already combing through thousands of city-owned properties for more potential housing sites.
She also addressed landlords.
“I call on apartment owners, please accept vouchers!” the mayor said. “Start with just one unit and let us earn your trust. You will see that this administration is doing things differently.”
It could be a tough ask. Bass’ administration faces the aftermath of years of enmity between the city and many apartment owners over L.A.’s strict pandemic-era eviction moratorium and tenant protections. After the speech, one leading landlord representative signaled his constituents were not in a conciliatory mood on housing vouchers or anything else.
“The city needs to improve its abhorrent administration of its voucher program before owners will participate,” said Dan Yukelson, executive director of the Greater L.A. Apartment Association. “They need to stop trying to sweep the [unhoused] problem under a rug by blaming housing providers. … This is another mayoral administration that is on the wrong track and going to pour money down the drain on ineffective programs.”
In the speech Bass also announced a plan to hire hundreds of police officers to address the city’s recent crime problems, another issue often cited by the real estate industry.
— Andrew Asch contributed reporting
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