Karen Bass admits she is falling short of the goal of ending homelessness in LA
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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was upbeat about her previous promise to end homelessness in the city, but admitted in an interview released Wednesday that she unfortunately fell far short of that goal.
Bass, who is running for re-election, did an interview with CNN in St. Louis. Vincent Behavioral Health Campus, a former hospital, is being converted into a mental health center, addiction treatment and housing for the homeless. Los Angeles is one of many cities in California known for homelessness.
Anchor Elex Michaelson asked, “So, when you talked to Jake Tapper in 2023, you said your goal was to end homelessness on the streets of LA by 2026. Now it’s 2026 and we’re not done yet. How about you?”
“We weren’t done yet,” Bass admitted. “Honestly when I said that, at the beginning of my term. I am very determined to achieve that goal. I did not expect some of the administrative obstacles that I would face, but I am willing to face them now.”
LA FIRES IS A BAD REMINDER THAT IGNORING THE PROBLEM OF HOMELESSNESS CANNOT CONTINUE
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was upbeat in her interview about her previous pledge to end homelessness in the city. (Getty Images)
He went on to say that Los Angeles made a decision decades ago not to fight homelessness and focus solely on construction, noting that it has fast-tracked more affordable housing.
“So, basically, the policy of the City of LA and LA County was to accept street homelessness as long as we were building. We didn’t expect a metastasizing problem,” he said. “In my three and a half years, for the first time, two years in a row, street homelessness has decreased in our city. It has never decreased before.”
Bass added that although this is a policy that affects people from all walks of life, there are actually officials who are committed to continuing it.
“So this is a problem that all Angelenos face, and we have to make a commitment that this has to end,” she said. “The city and the county have never made that commitment before, and I found something that surprised me. I found a lot of people working within the system who were very resistant to ending homelessness on the streets.”
LA TIMES OWNER SAYS CONFIRMING KAREN BASS ‘Was A ‘MISTAKE’ DUE TO ILLEGALITY.
In recent years, especially after the epidemic, California has been one of the states most associated with homelessness. (Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
“But he promised it would go 100%,” said Michaelson. “And it’s down about 17.6% so why should people trust you to get to 100%?”
Bass said that this is the first time that this issue has come down at all, and he said that what has been achieved so far is due to his leadership.
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LA Mayor Karen Bass pointed out that there has been a lot of opposition from officials to deal with the problem of homelessness. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
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“We need to end the failed policies of the past, which is, ‘What we’re going to do is focus on building, and we’re going to ignore street homelessness.’ That’s what the city and county have done for years,” he said.
