LOS ANGELES MAYOR KAREN BASS RETURNS TO CURIOSITY INVITED FOR A DEEP DIVE ON “HOUSING THE UNHOUSED”
LA Mayor Karen Bass on the Curiosity Invited Podcast
Mayor Karen Bass takes a deeper dive into the challenges of moving unhoused citizens from the streets to appropriate housing within their communities.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA , US, July 9, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Even before arriving at her new office, then freshly elected LA Mayor Karen Bass arrived at the City Emergency Operation Center officially declaring LA’s homelessness situation an emergency. Thus began the process of moving the unhoused off the streets and into transitional housing. A little over 1½ years later, the Mayor returned to Curiosity Invited to speak with long time friend and podcast host David Bryan for a deeper dive.
Is the crisis over? Far from it. But the progress - dubbed Inside Safe - are obvious. Encampments remain, although noticeably (38%) fewer than there were a year ago. Unhoused people still remain on the streets, but again, significantly fewer. According to the LA Times, "numbers of people living on streets, in parks, riverbeds, cars or elsewhere outside dropped by 5.1% while … people living in temporary housing rose by 12.7%. It was even more dramatic … where unsheltered homelessness dropped by 10.4% while the sheltered population rose by 17.7%.”
Bryan asks, “ At the rate things are going will your $1 billion commitment be enough?”
“No!” Bass said. “The problem was enormous when we started. Estimates say 46,000 were unhoused.” The scope of what Bass’s office is doing is huge … and expensive.
“But keep in mind, it is far more expensive for people to be homeless. The city spends far more when you consider the cost to send firefighters to put out inevitable fires, sanitation workers to clean the mess and debris, and police to suppress altercations. That does not count the losses suffered by merchants as clientele go elsewhere when faced with the unfamiliar and unpredictable.
And says Mayor Bass, estimates suggest that “for every 200 people moved into housing, 215 become homelessness.” Bass continues, “And there are currently no models anywhere in the US for how to keep people from falling into homelessness!”
Bass told Bryan that they’ve begun to try something by contacting people who have been served with eviction notices and trying to help with their news. “But this is brand new, and as yet we have no reliable data to report.”
We hope the Mayor and Bryan will speak again soon… Bryan and Curiosity Invited continue to deliver!
Zach Schnall
Bander Productions
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