LA’s Mayor Is Trying To House 17,000 Angelenos. She Says She’ll Deliver Progress Report In 2 Weeks

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program, which moves unhoused Angelenos out of encampments and into motels to await permanent housing, is nearing its six-month mark.

But so far, information has not been made available to the public about how many people remain in motels — a key metric needed to measure whether the program has been effective at reducing homelessness.

That will soon change, the mayor says.

In a conversation Wednesday with LAist’s public affairs show AirTalk, Bass told host Larry Mantle that her office was doing a “deep dive with the numbers” and is aiming to release them to reporters next week, but no later than two weeks from now.

“We’re working and compiling it right now,” Bass said.

Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness on Dec. 12, her first full day in office, and launched Inside Safe later that month. She’s said addressing homelessness is her number one priority. Recent data from the Bass administration shows that the program has moved more than 1,200 people into motels as of April 28, but her office still hasn't released details on how long people have stayed in the rooms, how many have moved into permanent housing, or how many have gone back to encampments.

Here are other highlights from Mantle’s interview with the mayor, which touched on the Inside Safe program, LAist’s new survey of issues Angelenos want her administration to address and her support of the city council’s approval of a $280,000 robot dog for the L.A. Police Department.

Inside Safe and the need for ‘permanent interim housing’

Yolanda Orellana outside her apartment under Mayor Bass’ Inside Safe program in Vermont Square.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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Oshirious Martin, who grew up in San Bernardino, outside of the Hotel Silver Lake.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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The city needs to come up with a “system of permanent interim housing” to end street homelessness, Bass said Wednesday. Programs like Inside Safe involve leasing hotels and motels, but it’s an expensive move long term. Bass said the city is working on ways to purchase them so that unhoused people would always have an option to be indoors.

So far, she said she and her team “do not believe we’ve had a huge problem with people leaving the motels and going back to the streets,” or with encampments being repopulated, although her team was still working to compile exact numbers.

Bass acknowledged that the city has encountered challenges with data collection that they were working to resolve “in the next few months.” LAist previously reported that the city council had not been provided with biweekly reports on Inside Safe’s progress and spending as originally required.

Bass also said she agreed with criticisms about lack of services to unhoused participants in Inside Safe. The community-based organizations in charge of providing social services in the motels “have been stretched to the maximum” because of the large numbers of people they have to serve, she said. One way the city has been trying to address that is by recruiting students across the city in fields like social work, medicine and dentistry to fill in some of those gaps in services.

Bass described Inside Safe as a “plane that is being built while we are flying,” and that while problems have cropped up, “we are addressing them every time a problem or a weakness is discovered.”

Difficulties getting unhoused people into permanent supportive housing

One setback the city government has faced is getting people into permanent supportive housing, even when there are vacancies, Bass said. That’s because there are federal regulations that require people prove they’re eligible for that housing before they move in, like submitting an ID or proof of income — paperwork that many unhoused people don’t have.

Bass said she was working with the Biden administration to push for the federal government to adjust its requirements so people could be housed first. “Why can’t we put people into housing, presume they’re eligible, and then do their paperwork?” she said.

She also noted the Biden administration selected L.A. as one of six sites where the federal government would commit to reducing homelessness by 25%, and that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with L.A. two weeks ago.

LAist’s survey results ‘absolutely mirror’ what Bass heard

In LAist’s survey asking L.A. residents what issues most urgently need Bass’ attention, 63% of respondents picked homelessness as their top answer — more than twice the amount of people who picked the next top answer, housing affordability. When it came to what issues caused people the most personal stress, the top answers cited were homelessness, housing affordability and public safety. In all, 4,339 people responded to the survey.

These results “absolutely mirror” what Angelenos brought up during Bass’ mayoral campaign, she said, calling the results “exactly what I would expect Angelenos to say.”

LAPD’s robot dog can be ‘very useful’ — but should never be armed, mayor says

This photograph shows Boston Dynamics' SPOT robot dog on the opening day of the MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona on Feb. 28, 2022. The LPAD has a proposal in front of City Hall to acquire one of the maker's models.

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Pau Barrena

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AFP via Getty Images

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The city council last week approved a donation to the L.A. Police Department of a $280,000 robot dog — a four-legged unmanned device meant to assist SWAT officers in life-threatening situations. The controversial donation, which has sparked concerns about surveillance and violating privacy boundaries, was made by the L.A. Police Foundation. Bass said the city council’s move doesn’t require the mayor’s signature and she had no veto power because it was a donation that doesn’t require any allocation of new money.

“I do think that that device can be very, very useful,” she said, when asked if she supported the approval. “What I do not support in any way, shape or form is if that device is armed, if it would be used in a way that could kill people or harm people.”

The LAPD released a statement shortly after the council vote that said the robot dog would not be equipped with any weapons systems.

Listen to Bass on AirTalk