Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the first woman to lead the city, declared a state of emergency on homelessness after taking office in December 2022. She is now chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Task Force on Homelessness and led more than 50 mayors in presenting a three-pronged national policy agenda to address homelessness. The mayors called for increased funding for the Housing Choice Voucher program, lifting restrictions on project-based vouchers for public housing, and providing more robust housing assistance for military veterans. They aim to help at least 41,000 unsheltered veterans find permanent housing by 2024.
Bass has also launched an initiative in Los Angeles called Inside Safe, which aims to move individuals and families experiencing homelessness to designated interim housing. The initiative has already helped half of the estimated homeless population in the city. In addition to providing temporary housing, Bass’s administration is working to build more permanent housing for those in need. Housing veterans has been a focus as well, with efforts to facilitate housing for veterans at the West Los Angeles VA campus.
Beaverton, Oregon Mayor Lacey Beaty, a U.S. Army veteran, has been working to address homelessness in her city of 96,000 people. She helped establish a year-round shelter and health clinic for those experiencing homelessness. Across the country in Mount Vernon, New York, Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard, the first female mayor of the suburb of New York City, has also been working to address homelessness. She emphasizes the need for partnerships at the federal, state, and local levels to find sustainable solutions to the nationwide crisis.
The mayors, including Bass, met with Cabinet secretaries in the Biden administration and members of Congress to discuss homelessness and strategies for addressing it. Last May, the Biden administration launched ALL INside, an initiative to reduce homelessness by 25% by 2025. Tom Perez, a White House senior adviser, highlighted the importance of collaboration at all levels of government to address the challenges faced by people experiencing homelessness. Bass and other mayors have secured funding from HUD and worked with Congress to improve housing programs like Inside Safe.
Bass emphasized the high costs associated with addressing homelessness in her State of the City address, but stressed that leaving people on the streets is far more expensive for the city and the community as a whole. She thanked the Biden administration and members of Congress for their efforts to address homelessness and called for continued collaboration to save lives. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that every person in America has a safe and affordable home, through federal, state, and local partnerships and initiatives like Inside Safe and ALL INside.
