Mayor Bass is proposing a state of emergency on homelessness. But ‘tragedy remains’

On her first day in office, Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness.

The announcement allowed the city to cut through the red tape, including bid contracts, and start within the safe program, the bass program ‘focused on moving homeless people off the streets and into temporary housing.

On Tuesday, almost three years after taking the helm, and with homelessness trending for two years in a row for the first time in recent years, the mayor announced that he would lift the state of emergency on November 18.

“We’ve begun a real decades-long transformation of our city — a long period of homelessness,” Bass said at the City Council Memorial.

Still, the mayor said, there is more work to be done.

“This problem remains, and so does our urgency,” he said.

The Mayor’s announcement follows the City Council months back during a long-standing weather emergency, which the Council initially approved.

Some members of the Council said that the state of emergency allows the Mayor’s office to work in public view and that contracts and leases should be presented before them with government evidence and voting.

Councilor Tim TIM Mcosker has been arguing for months it was time to get back to business as usual.

“Emergency powers are designed to allow the government to stop the government from imposing laws and responding quickly when the situation calls for it, but in some way those powers must be final,” the statement said on Tuesday.

Cosker said the move would allow the Council to “legally implement” some of the programs started during the emergency, while including more transparency.

Members of the Council were concerned that the state of emergency would end without appointing a new executive director, who indicated approval of homeless shelters and 100% development shortly after taking office.

On Oct. 28, the council voted for the city attorney to write an Ordinance that would enter the executive index into law.

The Mayor’s announcement follows positive reports on the city’s homelessness situation.

As of September, the Mayor’s in-house program had moved more than 5,000 people into temporary housing since it was established in late 2022. Of those people, and those people, and another 1,636 live in temporary housing.

This year, the number of homeless people living in shelters or on the streets of the city dropped 3.4%, according to the annual statistics of the Los Angeles Homes Services Authority. The city’s homeless population decreased by a solid margin of 7.9%.

Counting, however, has a handicap. A study by Dollars found that the annual survey missed a third of the homeless population in Hollywood, Venice and the Skid Line – primarily those sleeping outside of tents or cars.

In June, a federal judge ruled against Angeles’ countless deportation plans, saying the city failed to meet other terms of the settlement agreement.

Councilwoman Nina Raman, who chairs the City Council’s Housing and Home Affairs Committee, said the end of the emergency does not mean the problem is over.

“It only means that we have to build systems that are used for money that can respond effectively,” he said. “By transforming from emergency approaches to long-term, institutional frameworks, we ensure consistent, sustainable support for people facing homelessness.”

Times Staff Writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.