Overview
Homelessness is the most pressing problem facing Los Angeles today: thousands of our fellow Angelenos are currently unsheltered, living on our streets, alleys, and parks. According to the 2022 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, more than 69,000 people are experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County, a 4.1% increase from the previous count in 2020. This is an urgent problem that requires dynamic, rapid solutions. We cannot keep utilizing the same old tactics — using hotels, taking years to build congregate shelters, cycling people from shelter to streets to shelter. It is time to treat our unsheltered neighbors with the dignity and humanity they deserve.
On her first day in office, Mayor Bass declared a state of emergency to respond to this problem. This gives her the power to lift rules and regulations that slow or prevent the building of permanent and temporary housing for the unhoused; to expedite contracts that prioritize bringing unhoused Angelenos inside; and to allow the City to acquire rooms, properties and land for housing Angelenos in need. She has pledged to find interim or permanent housing for 17,000 unhoused people in her first year in office.
