Global Courant 2023-04-18 06:14:45
In her first State of the City speech, Mayor Karen Bass announced a dramatic expansion of her signature program to move the homeless indoors, while also pledging to create “a new LA.”
Bass said she plans to propose $250 million for Inside Safe, which has moved unhoused residents from sidewalks to hotel and motel rooms, as part of a $1.3 billion investment in housing and homelessness programs – an amount she called “unprecedented.”
The mayor’s full spending plan, which covers the fiscal year beginning July 1 and still requires city council approval, will be unveiled Tuesday morning.
In the four months since she took office, Bass has sometimes seemed like a single-issue mayor, focusing almost exclusively on homelessness. Monday’s speech brought those efforts to the forefront while focusing attention on public safety and other issues.
Bass pledged to rebuild the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department while investing in a new Office of Community Safety, which will focus on unarmed emergency response. The mayor’s speech touched on a laundry list of other topics, including climate change, paramedic response times, pothole repairs, city staff job openings, and graffiti on highways and underpasses.
Depending on the details of her spending plan, the budget proposed by the mayor is likely to allocate more money to address the homelessness crisis than in previous years.
Two years ago, then-mayor Eric Garcetti used his own State of the City address to announce nearly $1 billion to reduce homelessness, which has been steadily rising over the past decade.
Speaking in the council chambers of City Hall in front of a packed room of civic and community leaders, Bass began by saying she couldn’t explain the state of the city “is where it should be.” She presented a vision of a metropolis defined by neighborhood-level issues that her administration is just beginning to address.
The state of the city largely depends on the conditions in each neighborhood and household, Bass said.
“Shouldn’t you (should) look over your shoulder when walking in the dark? Are you proud of your local park? Do you have peace of mind because you can actually pay the rent? If the answer is yes, then we can say that the state of our city is strong,” she said.
Unlike Garcetti, who favored sweeping language and delivered his last State of the City address beneath the billowing concrete ribbons of the Sixth Street Bridge, Bass’s style was straightforward and largely devoid of rhetorical feats.
Bass’ chosen background also served as another kind of panoramic metaphor.
With the city council, city attorney, and city controller nearby, Bass presented a tableau of orderly government cooperation. The image was a stark contrast to the disorder that dominated council meetings last year following a leaked racist audio recording.
Since taking office in December, Bass has emphasized the need to work closely with other government agencies to solve homelessness and other problems across the region, relying on the phrase “lock arms”. As part of that theme, Bass allowed city council and county board of supervisors leaders to speak at Monday’s event, when the mayor is typically the only speaker.
Board Chair Paul Krekorian and Board Chair Janice Hahn’s introductions were symbolic not only of Bass’ broader approach, but of the realities of governance in Los Angeles, said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs in Cal State LA.
“Every mayor is the most recognized political leader,” Sonenshein said. “But on some issues it’s really hard to get things done without the city council, which elects the president of the council and, to some extent, the county supervisors when social services are involved, as would be the case with homelessness.”
It’s a concept Bass—a former speaker of the Assembly and six-time member of Congress—is very familiar with, and one that echoed in nods to her city and county colleagues during her speech.
Bass used her speech to highlight her work to date in the fight against homelessness: declaring a state of emergency, encouraging other city and county officials to do the same, searching for city-owned land to house people and seeking new funding from state and federal agencies.
“We’ve finally dispelled the myth that people don’t want to go in,” Bass said of her plans to expand Inside Safe.
Since launching four months ago, the program has arrived in about a dozen locations, including Venice, Hollywood, Echo Park, and South Los Angeles. In the coming year, Bass said, it will focus not only on renting hotel and motel rooms, but also on buying buildings.
Still, some homeless advocates have expressed alarm that the mayor is pursuing such a massive expansion—a fivefold increase over the amount given to the program at the start of her administration. In recent days they have one website highlight what they believe are the failures of the program.
Mutual aid groups, which provide tents, blankets and other supplies to LA’s displaced people, have criticized the mayor’s team for moving some Inside Safe participants from hotel to hotel, or placing them in rooms far from the neighborhoods where they have lived.
In some cases, those advocates said, Inside Safe facilities lacked adequate social services, such as mental health professionals and substance use counselors.
“This program seems to be so much more about clearing the sidewalk than it is about the quality of life of people who enter Inside Safe,” said Carla Orendorff, who advocates for displaced residents in the San Fernando Valley.
Bass’s homelessness team has said they are learning lessons as they carry out more and more camp cleanups. They said some Inside Safe participants were transferred after the team learned from the mayor that conditions at their motel were substandard.
Bass also explained her plans to rebuild the precinct, saying she feared the department’s ranks would fall below 9,000 officers — a low not seen since 2002, she says. She promised an urgent new recruiting campaign aimed at hiring police officers, and said financial incentives would be given to city employees who help find recruits.
She also spoke about her plans for the new Mayor’s Office of Community Safety, saying that “community intervention workers, social workers, clinical psychologists and other experts can respond when law enforcement is not required.” She said that approach will save lives and save money.
Councilman Tim McOsker, who represents neighborhoods near the harbor, as well as Watts, said after the speech that he supports Bass’ emphasis on rebuilding LAPD personnel.
“We share the same goal of recruiting and retaining officers even as we work to expand our unarmed crisis response programs,” he said. “These efforts should not be mutually exclusive.”
Others expressed displeasure with the plan for more LAPD officers.
“I am disappointed by her emphasis on hiring more police and more police on the streets,” said Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter LA.
Bass acknowledged the ongoing problems at the city’s animal shelters by bluntly stating that the city’s care for the animals “isn’t working right.” She said her budget would include money for additional staff at the agency.
The mayor also announced a plan to employ hundreds of firefighters from the City of Los Angeles. She plans to put qualified paramedics on duty immediately and complete their firefighting instruction later — a move that is intended to address the vast majority of calls for medical emergencies.
